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Iconic German film and TV executive Jan Mojto is launching a partnership with longstanding friend and UFA head Nico Hofmann that will produce German and European series and films for the international market.

They are joined in the unnamed venture by Beta producer Jan Wünschmann.

The partnership was announced Wednesday, on the eve of the annual Berlin Film Festival. No projects were disclosed.

Hofmann and Mojto are connected by half a lifetime of producing. With “The Tunnel”, the duo pioneered the TV event genre in Germany in the early 2000s. Since then, two dozen collaborative and internationally successful television and film productions have followed. These include hits “Generation War,” “Dresden,” “The Tower” and “The Same Sky.”

“This partnership is the fulfillment of a long-held wish. Nico Hofmann is one of the best German producers; He is a gifted storyteller. His professional and personal qualities, which I have known for more than 25 years,...

Exclusive: StudioCanal to handle world sales on Kai Wessel’s wartime drama.

StudioCanal is to handle international sales on Kai Wessel’s Fog In August (Nebel im August), the first feature film to address the Nazis’ euthanasia programme.

Based on Robert Domes’ 2008 eponymous historical novel, Fog In August centres on the authentic life story of 13-year-old Ernst Lossa who was committed to a mental hospital in Sargau in 1942 because of his origins in a family of travellers.

However, Ernst soon discovered the truth behind the hospital’s facade and sabotaged its euthanasia programme to help his new-found friends. But his actions did not go unnoticed by the institution’s administration.

The role of Ernst is played by the young Berliner Ivo Pietzcker who played the central character in Edward Berger’s Berlinale 2014 competition film Jack, which won a German Film Award last month.

The hospital’s staunch Nazi chief physician Werner Veithausen is played by Sebastian Koch who came...

ROME -- The European premiere of Caravaggio was the highlight of Tuesday's first full day at the RomaFictionFest.

Veteran television director Angelo Longoni's biographical telefilm about the Renaissance master painter, screened to a full house Tuesday. It was only the second public screening for the film, which screened once in New York last month.

The RomaFictionFest encompasses some 140 programs created for television.

Caravaggio star Alessio Boni was among the stars on the event's orange carpet -- the festival uses an orange carpet rather than a red one to differentiate itself from a traditional cinema festival -- and he will appear here later in the week for Robert Dornhelm's War and Peace, the centerpiece film of the July 2-7 festival.

Also screening Tuesday were the TV film Dans L'Ombre du Maitre (In Her Master's Shadow), a film about a young genius from France's David Delrieux; Kai Wessel's miniseries Die Flucht (March of Millions); and The State Within, a miniseries about an air confrontation between the U.K.

MUNICH - The government of Bavaria, Germany's biggest and wealthiest state as well as a major media center, held its annual TV awards -- the "Blue Panthers" -- on Friday in Munich.

As usual, the extensive German pubcasting system picked up on most of the awards, wrapping up nine of the 13 Panthers on offer.

But there were a few surprises. Small-time commercial channel Vox won a special prize for an episode of its travel show Voxtours about Ethiopia's Surma tribe called Journey to the Last Gladiators. And Friedemann Fromm was named best director for two different episodes of two different shows.

This year's prizes were awarded for the first time in five categories: informational broadcasts, television films, series, entertainment programs and cultural/educational offerings.

A complete list of winners follows:

Best screenplay: Daniel Speck for Meine verruckte turkische Hochzeit (My Crazy Turkish Wedding) -- ProSieben

Best informational report: Ralf Benkoe for "Ein Deutscher im All (A German in Space) -- RTL

Best camera work: Holly Fink for Die Flucht (The Escape) -- ARD, Arte

Best direction: Friedemann Fromm for Vom Ende der Eiszeit (On the End of the Ice Age) / NDR, ARD, Arte and Tatort (Crime Scene) -- BR, ARD

Best sports documentary: Manfred Oldenburg for "Das verflixte dritte Tor - Wembley '66: Die wahre Geschichte" (The Cursed Third Goal -- Wembley '66: The True Story) - ZDF

Best documentary: Juliane Schuhler for "Marcel - Ein Kampfchen, das war' schon" (Marcel - A Little Fight Would Be Nice) -- BR

Best performance in a comedy series: Cordula Stratmann for "Schillerstrasse" (Schiller Street) -- Sat.1

Best actress in a TV film: Rosemarie Fendel fur Das zweite Leben (The Second Life) -- ARD/BR

Best actor in a TV film: Friedrich von Thun for Helen, Fred und Ted -- ARD/BR/NDR

Best actress in a series: Saskia Vester for KDD - Kriminaldauerdienst (Criminal Investigations) -- ZDF

Best actor in a series: Christian Ulmen for Dr. Psycho -- ProSieben

Best upcoming actor/actress: Rosalie Thomass for her role in Polizeiruf 110 (Police Emergency 110) -- BR, ARD

Special prize: Richard Gress, Producer, Author, Director, Cameraman and Editor for "Voxtours: Reise zu den letzten Gladiatoren" (Journey to the Last Gladiators) -- Vox"...