This year, the private broadcasters came away completely empty-handed at the coveted Grimme Prize for quality television. This has only happened twice in the past 20 years. The Grimme Institute in Marl almost exclusively selects productions from public broadcasters: twelve of the 14 Grimme Prizes and all three special prizes go to ARD, ZDF and their joint young offer Funk. The streaming service Disney+ has won two awards.
The Grimme Prizes do not involve any money, but are considered highly prestigious among television people. They are intended to honor television programs and performances “that are exemplary and model for program practice,” as it is said.
This year, BR correspondent Katharina Willinger is being honored for “Special Journalistic Achievement” for her foreign reporting from Turkey and Iran. The jury particularly praised the fact that Willinger continues to report even “when most of the cameras have moved on and the media attention has long since shifted back to other crises.”
In the Information & Culture category, the following documentaries will be honored with a Grimme Prize:
- “Three Women – One War” (WDR/RBB/Arte)
- “Ukraine – war diary of a pediatrician” (RBB/Arte)
- “Single Perpetrator” (ZDF), a trilogy about the survivors of the right-wing extremist attacks in Munich, Halle and Hanau
- “Songs of guest workers – love, D-Mark and death” (WDR/RBB/Arte)
In the fiction category, the prizes go to these productions:
- “Nothing that happens to us” (WDR), a production that the jury praised as an “extremely valuable contribution to the Me Too debate”.
- “Tamara” (ZDF), a German-German identity story
- “Sam – Ein Sachse” (Disney+), a mini-series that fictionalizes the career of East Germany’s first Afro-German police officer. The jury praised the entry as “the first major Afro-German series that was long overdue.”
- “Haus Kummerveldt” (WDR/ZDF/Arte), a web series about female emancipation in the German Empire, receives a special prize for its experimental combination of history, pop and politics.
In the entertainment category, the jury will award two prizes in 2024:
- “Bosetti Late Night” (ZDF/3sat)
- the pilot episode of the talk show “The Last Drink with Anna Dushime” (RBB)
In the children and youth category the prizes go to:
- “The show with the mouse special – Morocco Mouse” (WDR), a two-part series with Siham El-Maimouni, who will appropriately moderate the award ceremony on April 26th. The jury praised its child-friendly presentation. She tells personal stories “that are significant for Germany as an immigration society. This creates an insight that is free of tourist or ‘exotic’ perspectives.”
- the project “HYPECULTURE: Street Slang || How Rap Changes Germany” (Funk)
- the three main actresses of the series “The Three!!!” (Disney +) receive a special price.