Studio.TV.Film GmbH was founded in Heidelberg 1969. Over decades, it has built up a reputation as a quality-oriented, versatile and creative production company and made its name over forty years particularly thanks to its documentaries and children’s programmes that could be named as true classics. In 2008 the primarily Berlin-based company extended the range of its business interests: now there is to be a strong new tendency towards producing fiction-based forms as well as documentaries. Manager Albert Schäfer (former managing director of the KI.KA - the German public children’s channel) is joined on the management team of Studio.TV.Film by Milena Maitz (fiction), Nobert Busè (documentaries) and Manuela Lumb, who is in charge of the children’s programmes department and is particularly responsible for assuring the development of new formats.
Milena Maitz, an experienced dramatic advisor, worked for MDR, a public broadcasting company, before joining Ufa and Eikon as developer and producer.
Norbert Busè is a well known German documentarist, who has been producing for 18 years many programmes for the public broadcasting.
Manuela Lumb was executive producer with several German public broadcasting companies and responsible for famous German children programs such as Die Sendung mit der Maus or Sandmännchen.

A brief history:

Since 1980, Löwenzahn [Dandelion] has been the company’s most important production. Löwenzahn is until today ZDF’s most successful children’s and family programme and has received a number of awards (see list at the end).

In 1988, it was joined by the lyricism and humour of the Siebenstein stories. The show with Rudi the Raven and the speaking suitcase also became a well-recognised feature of ZDF programming.

Other successful serials included Anja und Anton, Pengo! Steinzeit and Politibongo.

In 2004, Studio.TV.Film produced the fairy-tale/adventure made-for-TV movie Der verzauberte Otter [The enchanted otter] as commissioned by KI.KA and also the Löwenzahn-jubilee film. Both films enjoyed repeated broadcasting and significant public success.

In 2005 the twenty-four part TV Advent’s calendar Beutolomäus sucht den Weihnachtsmann was created for KI.KA. The series was a sensational success both with children and with adults. In winter 2005/2006, Studio.TV.Film produced a Beutolomäus Christmas movie, once again for KI.KA, which in turn increased the popularity of the "Beutolomäus" brand. In the following years, Studio.TV.Film has produced a number of series with Beutolomäus.

Studio.TV.Film also turned towards classical music and produced a pilot for arte, the ARTE Lounge. The format was well received and a series is being made.

In 2007, Studio.TV.Film launched a new format and Nächster Halt [Next stop] was produced for ZDF’s children’s programming and KI.KA. This show takes philosophy as its theme and stimulates young viewers to think about the essential issues of human life. There will be a new season of Nächster Halt in 2009.

The film Der Brief für den König [The letter for the king] represented Studio.TV.Film’s first international feature film coproduction. It was made in cooperation with Heimatfilm in Cologne and Eyeworks Egmond and Armada Productions in Amsterdam. The film is released in Germany and Netherlands, further countries are intended. The DVD is  distributed.

Studio.TV.Film produced the fairy-tale film Brüderchen und Schwesterchen for the Christmas programming of ARD (DEGETO/MDR), which was then broadcast as part of the Sechs auf einen Streich series in 2008. The rights of this program are licensed to Estonia, Belarus and Czech Republic. The DVD is distributed in Germany. In 2009 the subsequent project Die kluge Bauerntochter was shooted, as before for ARD (DEGETO/MDR).

The documentary department’s productions included Norbert Busè’s dance film I am not alone for the ZDF theatre channel, broadcasted in February 2009. The production of his film Karlheinz Stockhausen, Musik für eine bessere Welt [Music for a better world] (ZDF/Arte) is completed, and it will be broadcasted in August 2009. Die ideale Schule, Wie Integration gelingt [The ideal school, how to work integration], commissioned by ZDF/arte, will be broadcasted on June, 23rd, 2009. The twelve-part series Meisterwerke der Menschheit [Masterworks of humanity] has been completed, more episodes are planned. Ongoing productions include Man on a Mission also for ZDF/ARTE, whilst John Cage, Musik in Zeitlupe [Music in slow-mo] and Der Klang der Götter [The sound of the gods] (3 x 45 minutes) are being planned for ZDF, ZDF/ARTE, ZDF Enterprises.

The fiction department is not only planning several TV-movies and movies for 2010, but is also working on the German-Spanish co-production Im Schatten der Steineichen which emphasizes the new focusing of Studio.TV.Film on international cinema co-productions.

The children’s department is working on a brand new pre-school project - KiKANiNCHEN, started in October 2009, besides its ongoing series, and preparing new formats and series.

Studio.TV.Film has 13 permanent employees and employs occasionally up to 80 freelancers during production.

Awards (short selection):

1982 Adolf Grimme Award in silver for Löwenzahn

2007 Goldener Spatz – Award for Löwenzahn
2008 Robert Geißendörfer Award for Beutolomäus as the best children’s TV-program

2008 EMIL-Award for Siebenstein as the best children’s TV-program