Changing Europe - Reflecting all voices! Berlin & Potsdam 13 - 19 October 2018 Festival Catalogue Changing Europe - Reflecting all voices! Berlin & Potsdam 13 - 19 October 2018 Changing Europe - Reflecting all voices! PRIX EUROPA 2018 Alliance Under the high patronage of the European Parliament 2 Changing Europe - Reflecting all voices! Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends and colleagues, Trust belongs to our basic human traits. We trust most easily when we can’t help it, when we have no choice, when we have to: the car mechanic in the garage or the bus driver in a strange city. In times when societies are drifting apart and global platforms and their algorithms decide which information reaches us, public broadcasting – more than ever - has to be a provider of orientation. Every single day it has to prove its democratic values, excellence and innovation to gain people’s trust. That, and that alone, is our mission and our legitimation. At PRIX EUROPA, we honour the most exceptional productions among hundreds of television, radio and online submissions. We also cherish our belief in peaceful open dialogue and the free media’s central role in it. It is a privilege for Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg to host what is not only Europe’s most influential pan European broadcasting festival but also a point of reference for young European talent. I am delighted to have you here, welcome to Berlin. Patricia Schlesinger Director General Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg 3 Changing Europe - Reflecting all voices! ‘We see a world that is getting more and more ‘In view of a changing Europe the voices of public polarized. It’s never been so easy to get your voice broadcasters as a uniting and connecting element heard – which I love being a strong advocate of are more important than ever before. freedom of expression – but is has also never been As the biggest European media competition PRIX so easy to only listen to and communicate with EUROPA reflects the diversity of the continent people that think exactly like you do. So a and – at the same time – the endeavours towards a crucial task for public service media is to bring common goal. It shows the strength of Europe in people together – to be an open arena for debate terms of mutual respect and practiced democracy. and discussion where thousand and thousand of We, as ORF, are especially delighted to be able to voices and opinions can be shared. Both within be part of the PRIX EUROPA community.’ our programmes but also as a provider of this Dr. Alexander Wrabetz arena outside our radio buildings.’ Österreichischer Rundfunk - ORF Cilla Benkö PRIX EUROPA Vice-President Sveriges Radio - SR PRIX EUROPA President ‘The role of public television is more important than ever: giving a voice to all inhabitants. Regardless of gender, religion, sexual orientation, origin or age every person has the right to speak up and to be taken seriously. Europe in ‘Large and small, loud and whispering, well change needs to be a proud and human Europe off or just barely making it: Europe is about in freedom of speech.’ reflecting diversity. In life, politics and media …’ Anna Birgersson-Dahlberg Dr. Frank-Dieter Freiling Sveriges Utbildningsradio AB - UR Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen - ZDF PRIX EUROPA Vice-President ‘Europe has always been a place of many cultures, many nations, many religions and many voices – ‘Europe has to be defended as a political so reflecting them all should simply be a matter of project of liberal and social democracy getting back to normal!’ empowering all its citizens.’ Jan Maxa Dr. Helga Trüpel Czech Television Member of the European Parliament PRIX EUROPA Vice-President 4 Changing Europe - Reflecting all voices! ‘How does the roar of the silent voices sound? ‘PRIX EUROPA is a beacon of high quality It is time to listen.’ journalism and personal commitment in the Anna Luuk Priske journalistic jungle of alternative facts, infotainment, Sveriges Television - SVT business models and mainstreaming information. To keep this up we have to hear all voices and reflect them in our stories, therefore it is a ‘It feels there is an urgency to make our Europe challenge for all of us to counterbalance stereo- change. But the Europe we need is for the types and to overcome our unconscious bias.’ Europeans to say. And only public service media Frans Jennekens can give European people in each country true Dutch Public Service Broadcaster - NTR opportunities to express opinions and dreams, to discuss and to choose.’ Jérôme Cathala France Télévisions ‘In times of political turmoil, public broadcasters ‘At best, news media is like a community, need to provide a platform for manifold voices where people meet, discuss, disagree and let to comment and analyze the developments. But other people know they are not alone. how do we deal with voices that proclaim radically We need to be confronted by other voices, different ideas of society and democracy, also in order to try our own.’ arguing against the European idea? We need to Hege Duckert have a debate about what the future of Europe should look like – including those who have quite Norsk rikskringkasting - NRK radical views – without becoming a platform for prejudice and hate. This is a huge challenge. But one we have to face.’ ‘In the German language the term for ‘voice’ / ‘Stimme’ has got two different meanings. ‘Stimme’ Susanne Hoffmann stands for the ‘human voice’ and it defines the PRIX EUROPA Festival Director ‘vote’, the political will of citizens in elections. When you go to the polls, you give your vote ‘away’, as we would say literally in German. This is devastating. In this sense I don’t think that we have to change Europe. We have to take it seriously – with all our voices (and votes).’ Dr. Peter Klein Österreichischer Rundfunk - ORF 5 Jury Group Coordinators 2018 TV FICTION Riet DE Prins ‘Like all fiction formats, a good story is the base of a comedy show. But all the story principles count for comedy. Even more, comedy gives the story an opportunity by a very important extension. The story always starts with strange situations, malicious pleasures or painful emotions, but the humour is the glue that makes difficult topics go down and speakable. Comedy can be a secret weapon for democracy and social criticism. It’s a method to easily engage in social interaction by taking away uncomfortable feelings. But I almost forget the most important thing: from a good feeling to a heavy belly laughter, comedy makes you laugh. And like McKee said: the audience is your jury! If they laugh, it works! If they don’t, it doesn’t!’ I started my career as an assistant director, in the eighties at VRT, the public broadcaster in the Flemish part of Belgium. Who would ever believe that I am still working there? Yes, I admit: I am so old fashioned. For several years I worked with formats such as entertainment, live shows, music documentary. It was an opportunity to get to know all corners and borders of making television. But I felt that the story was my thing. So in the early nineties I became the creative and line producer of two comedies for children. And so comedy became very much my thing. I got the opportunity to develop 4 comedies for youngsters, and supervised the writing process, the budget, the casting and the complete production process for 4 series, in total 334 shows. And now for five seasons already, I produce an adult comedy show. Thorsten Ritsch ‘Everybody talks about a new golden age of fiction producing. The growing streaming and on-demand market is challenging the old players. On one hand, it can be frightening. Audiences have more possibilities to choose than ever before. On the other hand, for us as fiction producers, it brings the chance to tell stories in ways we did not dare to tell them just a few years ago. And we have to do that, especially if we don’t want to lose younger audiences. They are growing up with Netflix and Co., getting used to new ways and varieties of storytelling. So we have to adapt, be innovative, creative and better than ever before in terms of finding the right stories and new modern ways to tell them. We have already shown that we do have the creative personnel in Europe to cope with the challenge of facing a worldwide market. If we work closer together, put our creative energy, money and talent for storytelling together the new changing television market is not frightening. It is a big chance for all of us – and our audiences.’ After studying journalism, I realized that I prefer pure fictional storytelling over writing journalistic texts. So I got myself several almost unpaid internships on different film sets and learned about filmmaking and storytelling hands-on. Later, I worked as a junior producer for several production companies and became commissioning editor for German Television ZDF in 2006. Since then I am responsible for developing and producing TV movies and series, e.g. the PRIX EUROPA 2013 winner of Best European TV Fiction Series: ‘Generation War’. 6 Jury Group Coordinators 2018 TV DOCUMENTARY Anna Birgerssohn-Dahlberg ‘To take part in the TV Documentary group of the PRIX EUROPA week is a great experience that makes you up to date on what’s going on in the documentary world at the moment. Watching the nominated documentaries for several days from morning to evening and discussing them together with the producers and jury members is an outstanding way to learn about current trends and new ideas when it comes to the important work of documentary making.