Who offered the best television and streaming formats in Germany? The Grimme Prize juries answer this question every year, distributing a total of 16 awards in four categories as well as special prizes. The surprise winner this year is: Tim Mälzer.
When the trophies – donated by the German Adult Education Association (DVV) – are distributed in the Marler Theater on April 21, the TV chef and his production team can take two of them home, because Mälzer’s Vox format to the Black Forest deer, which is about an inclusive restaurant team, not only scored well with the expert jury in the entertainment category, but also received the “Audience Award of the Marler Group”.
In addition to maltsters, Jan Böhmermanns were convincing in the entertainment category ZDF Magazine Royale and the German Netflix offshoot of Queer Eye. Its team – the so-called “Fab Five” – receive a special award for the ensemble performance.
Netflix is also successful in the fiction category, where the series receives Cleo is the only streaming offer with a price. ZDF in particular can clear up here: The other awards go to The Wannsee Conference (ZDF), the drama In the Fire – Two Sisters (Arte/ZDF), which accompanies a Bundeswehr soldier on the search for her missing sister in Iraq, and the ZDF series uncharted territory. Caroline Link received a special prize for writing and directing the series safe (also ZDF). And: The student jury, which awards its own prize, draws with the horror film Sleep also a fictional ZDF production this year.
The public broadcasters dominate
The public broadcasters also clear up in the journalistic categories. In the area of information and culture, no private production makes it onto the list of prizewinners. The winners are the documentary Nuclear Power Forever (SWR/NDR), The story in the first: life after Butscha – trauma and hope (WDR) The Other Side of the River (Arte) about a Kurdish woman in autonomous Rojava as well Injustice and Resistance – Romani Rose and the Civil Rights Movement (ZDF/3sat) on the fight against discrimination against Sinti and Roma in Germany.
This year, the award for the special journalistic achievement goes to the RBB: the editors of the political magazine contrasts is honored by the jury “for the continuous investigative research on peripheral issues of right-wing radicalism”.
In the children and youth category, the RBB production Sandman Frame: Recycling Vehicle (RBB) and the TikTok channel “sympathetic” (Funk). A special prize from the jury was awarded to the contribution STRG_F on the Taliban: why do people like them? (NDR/funk) “for the differentiated analysis of the situation in Afghanistan”.
Special award for comedian Maren Kroymann
The work of the comedian Maren Kroymann is also highlighted. The 73-year-old receives the so-called special honor, which is also awarded by the German Adult Education Association (DVV). Its current president is former Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who praises Kroymann as a “true pioneer in German television history”. “She was the first woman to have her own satirical show on ARD. She used this stage to show that women on television are not just accessories, that they are not only entitled to their own voice, but also their own attitude,” Kramp-Karrenbauer said in quoted in a press release.
Incidentally, Grimme director Frauke Gerlach is much more political than the ex-minister. With a view to the many public service award winners, she criticizes the previous structures of ARD and ZDF: “The exemplary productions show what the current reform of public service broadcasting must be about,” says Gerlach. Namely: “about the future viability and acceptance of the democracy-securing mission” of the ÖRR. “Every reform step should therefore be guided by serving this goal.”