Company – gebrueder beetz filmproduktion

Gebrueder beetz filmproduction is a prime documentary powerhouse, which produces internationally acclaimed, award-winning documentary features and series for cinema, TV and streaming – for the national as well as for the international market. The company has working relations to all local broadcasters, like BBC, NHK, PBS, Alibaba, RTL, ARD & ZDF, arte, as well as to the streamers, like Netflix, Amazon, Disney, Sky, etc. It is one of the most renowned production houses in German-speaking Europe. According to the industry leader "Realscreen", gebrueder beetz filmproduction belongs to the 100 most important independent production companies worldwide. Our company operates under the umbrella of LEONINE Studios since October 2022.

We are passionate about committed films and thrilling storytelling – the spectrum of topics ranges from gripping crime documentaries to touching biographies, spectacular nature and adventure series to contemporary music and cultural productions.

In 2020 we produced the first Netflix original series on the German market, A PERFECT CRIME, the four-part documentary series tells the dark side of German reunification and analyzes the murder of politician Detlev Rohwedder in 1991 – an unsolved crime to this day. In 2021 our series VIRAL DREAMS won the US American IDA Award and Japan Prize among many others as best documentary series. Before the end of 2022, the first high-end docuseries REEPERBAHN – SPECIAL UNIT 65, financially supported by the German Motion Picture Fund and already awarded as best docuseries of the year 2022 at the Berlin Series Festival, will be launched in the ARD Mediathek.

Additionally we regularly act as co-producers for international productions, often also as European partners in US productions: among others we co-produced the 2013 Academy Award-nominated film OPEN HEART by Kief Davidson, THE YES MEN ARE REVOLTING, directed by Laura Nix and Matt Wolfe or TEENAGE based on the book by Jon Savage, supported by Cinereach Productions.

Our productions regularly compete in major international A-festivals and have received numerous prestigious awards, such as the Grimme Prize five times, the Cinema for Peace Award, the Prix Europa, the German Film Award, the HotDocs Filmmakers Award, the British Independent Award and the Special Jury IDFA Award.

In 2018 we presented our investigative docu-thriller THE CLEANERS – ON THE DARK SIDE OF SOCIAL MEDIA in competition at the Sundance International Film Festival. The film was also nominated for the International Emmy® Awards and the Prix Europa as best European documentary. It was produced in cooperation with more than 20 international partners.

Our documentary THE FORUM about the World Economic Forum received the German Economic Film Prize in 2020 after a successful pan-European broadcast, as well as in Brazil. In 2021, our production THE HUNT FOR GADDAFI’S BILLIONS received the Rockie Award at the US BANFF.

In addition, we regularly produce content for the German market. Our sex education format MAKE LOVE (16 episodes) achieved a rating increase of up to 400%. In addition, the format led the hit list of the ZDF media library in 2015 – ahead of the news and the “heute-show”.

The associated web special www.make-love.de was nominated for the Grimme Online Award and achieved a user record on the public broadcaster website with at times more than 2 million hits and around 60,000 unique visits per day.

In order to further develop the classic narrative structures in cinema and TV, we complete our productions with innovative cross-media formats consisting of web documentaries, apps, social media campaigns, educational games, exhibitions, media events and books. The award-winning project FAREWELL, COMRADES! INTERACTIVE, which has been licensed in seven countries has become as a European reference project for cross-media storytelling. The transmedia live TV event SUPERNERDS was considered trend-setting in the international industry and was accompanied by extraordinary media resonance. The production was nominated for the Interactive Innovation Award at the South by Southwest Festival 2016. We also develop and produce interactive VR installations – e.g. the VR series THE MASTER’S VISION with the installation “The Monk by the Sea” for the German National Gallery in Berlin or the VR Experience for the company anniversary of the band The Fantastic Four – FANTAVENTURA.

Since 2012, gebrueder beetz filmproduction has also been developing and producing cinema and television fiction for the national and international market, such as the multi-award-winning event film THE HEROES OF TITANIC or the TV series TRIO – THE KEPLER DIAMONDS, which was awarded the “Emil 2015” for excellent children’s television.