After ten years, Teamworx has more than 140 productions, is the European market leader in event productions, has amassed numerous successes at award presentations and international film festivals, and achieved remarkable international distribution rates. In a word, it is one of the leading producers in German television.
The successful company was founded on 21 October 1998 by Nico Hofmann, Ariane Krampe, and Wolf Bauer. “Teamworx was born after a long conversation with Wolf Bauer,” recalls Teamworx CEO Nico Hofmann. “We developed the concept of bringing young, creative talent together to make high-quality television.”
Since its founding, Teamworx has continually expanded its product portfolio, which today includes ‘event’ TV movies and fictional programming as well as series and miniseries. “We wanted to set up a young company in the truest sense of the word, and give a lot of talented people the opportunity of expressing their
cinematic ideas,” explains Hofmann. “Bernd Eichinger, for whom I was working at the time, had taken a similar approach for the big screen and has very successfully produced films with Sönke Wortmann and others.”
Teamworx has shaped important trends with its sophisticated event productions, and has had a formative influence on the German TV landscape. Not only were many of the productions huge audience favorites, they have also won prestigious German and international TV and film awards – some of them repeatedly, like Der Tunnel, Der Tanz mit dem Teufel – Die Entführung des Richard Oetker, Die Sturmflut, Die Luftbrücke – Nur der Himmel war frei, Stauffenberg, Toter Mann, Familienkreise, Die Flucht and Die Mauer – Berlin ‘61. “One milestone was Der Tunnel, which helped us to establish large-scale event movies for television,” says Hofmann. “Familienkreise by Stefan Krohmer also opened up an entirely new genre in television plays.”
One of the biggest successes in the fledgling company’s history is the anti-war drama Dresden, which won a German TV Award in 2006 for “Best TV Movie.” The two-part movie drew 12.68 million viewers, a new record for fictional TV productions, and thus became the most-watched TV movie on German television
since 1992. The historical two-part miniseries Die Flucht starring Maria Furtwängler was also enormously successful with television audiences and critics alike. Over 12.5 viewers watched the film when it aired in 2007, and it received a number of prizes, including the German TV Award, the Audience Bambi 2007, the Diva Award as “TV Movie of the Year” and “Best TV Movie” at the Shanghai Television Festival 2007.
Teamworx not only produces outstanding fictional programming, but has also made a name for itself in high-end image films. Bertelsmann, for instance, commissioned Teamworx to produce The Spirit about the Bertelsmann Essentials and the image films Catching the Stars – which was watched by over two million
people at the Hannover Expo in 2000 – and World of Passion. Teamworx also produced The Journey for RTL Group and the image film Just in Time for Deutsche Post AG, which took first prize for up-and-coming talent at the Business Film Awards in 2006. In January 2008, Teamworx further strengthened its image and commercial film operations by setting up the new division Teamworx Commercial.
Apart from developing and producing its own materials and formats, Teamworx is committed to next-generation talent in the arts and sponsors up-and-coming film- and TV makers. Hofmann has lectured at the Baden-Württemberg Academy of Film since 1995 as a professor in the “Scenic Film” department, and
in 2000 jointly called into being the First Steps award for young filmmakers with Bernd Eichinger. The prize aims to help young directors get started in their career and gave talented filmmakers like Stefan Krohmer (Grimme Awards in gold, 2002 and 2004), Sven Taddicken (nominated for the Students Oscar 2000), Christoph Stark and Sven Bohse an opportunity to get their ideas on the screen.
“One challenge for the next few years will be to find a new definition of event television. We must find more unpredictable and relevant material, the kind picked up on by Das Millionenspiel by Tom Toelle and Smog by Wolfgang Menge have taken on,” says Hofmann, looking to the future. “We have already set out down this path with our Afghanistan film Willkommen zuhause and our planned film about Scientology dropouts,” says Hofmann. “I want to really get into the family structure even more than before and find a personalised narrative perspective. And with projects like Die Grenze and Unsere Mütter, unsere Väter, we take a closer look at German history from an entirely new perspective.”
Projects currently in the preparation and production process include Der Vulkan, Helmut Kohl – Der Film, Unser Mütter, Unsere Väter, Grzimek, Rommel, Die Grenze, Hindenburg and many more.
Coming up on TV:
Die Patin (The Godmother)
14 December 2008, RTL Television, 20:15
15 December 2008, RTL Television, 20:15
17 December 2008, RTL Television, 20:15
Willkommen zuhause (Welcome Home)
21 January 2009, ARD, 20:15 |
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