The wings of art on your back and the world in your hands: the design of the famous Emmy trophy reflects the original name of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. While it’s now as eye-catching as the Television Academy in the United States, it’s still the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences that will be awarding the International Emmys for the 50th time next Monday. The award recognizes the best non-American television productions from around the world, as well as Spanish-language productions from the United States.
Winning the huge trophy is both an accolade and a challenge, as quite a few winners have reported having to assure themselves at security on the return trip that an Emmy in their carry-on bag was not a weapon. A luxury issue, of course, which Prime Video, Constantin Entertainment and Michael Bully Herbig would like to accept this year: The German adaptation of “LOL” is the only German production at the 50th International Emmy Awards on Monday evening. In addition to Herbig, Philip Pratt and Volker Neuenhoff of Amazon, as well as Otto Steiner and Anna Franz of Constantin Entertainment will be present.
The fact that, despite only one nomination, several dozen German guests are currently on their way to New York has to do with the importance of the international Emmys, including the previous festival, the reception of the German consul in New York and some long well-established networking events, which are even more in demand this year after the Coronavirus break. After all, it goes without saying that the television business has long since become much more international. More than 1,000 guests are expected in New York. For 14 years, the NRW location has maintained a partnership with the International Emmys through the state, the state media agency and the Film and Media Foundation NRW – and is again heavily represented this year.
Among others, Ute Biernat (UFA Show & Factual), Sam Davis (Rowboat), Michael Souvignier (Zeitsprung), Lutz Heineking jr. (eitelsonnenschein), Christiane Ruff (ITV Studios Germany), Jens Wolf (MMC Studios) and actresses Nilam Farooq (“Closed Society”, “Contra”, “Jerks”) and Pia Stutzenstein (“Alarm for Cobra 11”) as well as moderator Shary Reeves (“Black Eagles”). Dr Mark Speich, Secretary of State for Federal and European Affairs, International Affairs and Media in NRW, represents the organisers. With the German iEmmy ambassador Leopold Hoesch (Broadview TV), the host of the Cologne jury meeting of the International Emmys will also be present.
The NRW broadcasters are also represented on site: in addition to Oliver Schablitzki, Thorsten Braun and Sabine Kreft from RTL Germany and, as before, Henning Tewes. This year, however, Norbert Himmler is not present in his new role as director of the ZDF due to the show “Wetten, dass..?” on a Saturday night. Other prominent names who have again confirmed their attendance include: Regina Ziegler (Ziegler Film), Nico Hofmann (UFA), Marcus Ammon (Bavaria Fiction), Korbinian Dufter (Neue Super), Al Munteanu (Square One), Kay Siering (Spiegel TV) and Fabian Tobias (Endemol Shine). Thomas Lückerath and Alexander Krei represent the multimedia magazine DWDL.de, which has been reporting German TV hits on the international Emmy scene since 2007.
