Since last year, the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, together with the Heinz Sielmann Foundation, has been awarding a prize for particularly environmentally and climate-friendly film productions. Because yes, there is also a lot going on in the media industry to conserve resources and reduce CO2 emissions.
Yesterday, the new “Eisvogel – Prize for Sustainable Film Productions” was awarded to two productions: the documentary “July 22 – The Shots of Munich” and the fictional series “Something with Media”. Among the newcomers, the graduation film “Exit Pangea” prevailed and secured the young talent award. Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke and State Minister of Culture Claudia Roth.
Eisvogel Award 2023 – for sustainable film productions
For the production of “July 22 – The Shots of Munich”, the
Eisvogel Award 2023 to Constantin Entertainment. The production company, which worked on behalf of Sky Deutschland, had “realized a production concept that deliberately avoided transatlantic flights and got by with a significantly reduced number of filming locations and days,” says Steffi Lemke. “In total, this saved around 27 tons of CO2. That shows the enormous potential and hopefully spurs on many others.” According to Claudia Roth, the UFA film team deserves recognition for “Something with Media” for a production concept that consciously relies on innovative logistics and uses cargo bicycles for the majority of the necessary transport.” Overall, particularly resource-consuming scenes were dispensed with for the production. Transportation optimization and walking distances were taken into account when selecting the filming locations, thus minimizing the motor-driven vehicle fleet.
BMUV supports sustainable activities in the media industry
By awarding the “Eisvogel – Prize for Sustainable Film Productions,” the BMUV says it is specifically supporting parallel activities in the film industry that define binding ecological minimum standards in the production of audiovisual productions.
minimum standards in the production of audiovisual productions. The aim is to shine a spotlight on innovative productions for TV and cinema that have placed particular emphasis on environmentally friendly production practices in their planning and implementation. You may remember: Since last year, uniform ecological standards have applied to audiovisual production throughout Germany. Many production companies and broadcasters
production companies and broadcasters have committed themselves to these standards.
MFG Baden-Württemberg’s Green Shooting: Minimum Ecological Standards
Leading the development of the new guidelines for sustainable filming is MFG Baden-Württemberg with its “Green Shooting” working group. By July 2023, at the latest, compliance with the new
standards for all publicly funded cinema, TV and online/VoD productions in Germany.
productions in Germany. Productions can make their resource-saving production methods visible with the “green motion” label. And this is precisely the aim of the “Eisvogel” award. With the help of the sustainability award, resource-saving procedures that exist for many areas of film, TV and video production are to become even more
and video production should become even more widespread. The “Eisvogel” premiered last year with the award for the Dortmund-based
The production company unafilm produced the film in accordance with the standards for sustainable film production.
And why kingfisher?
“The kingfisher, which has become rare today, stands for an intact environment and clean waters,” said the chairman of the Heinz Sielmann Foundation, Dr.-Ing. E.h. Fritz Brickwedde, at the initiation of the prize, and went on to explain: “I am sure that nature film pioneer Heinz Sielmann, our foundation founder, would also have supported this prize with great vigor.
would have supported this award. The preservation of biodiversity and our natural livelihoods concerns us all. The Heinz Sielmann Foundation is committed to this goal with this newly established film award.
film award.”
