DOK.series Award

Donated by TELLUX and megaherz, endowed with 2,500 euros

Series are more in demand than ever, never before has serial narration been so creative and heterogeneous as it is today. Since 2021, the DOK.series Award has been the prize for particularly exciting serial concepts. At a pitching event during the Marketplace in May, the projects are presented to a jury of renowned industry experts. The winning project is funded with 2,500 euros.

Award winners 2022: MEMORY WARS by Hendrik Löbbert (director), Erik Winker (producer) und Daniela Dieterich

The DOK.archive Award 2022 goes to Hendrik Löbbert, Erik Winker and Martin Roelly for their serial concept of MEMORY WARS. 

Her research on human memory made her famous, and Elizabeth Loftus became an advocate for the doubt of recovered and falsified memory in the courts of America. She was called to the stand by the lawyers of the great trials of recent decades: Ted Bundy, Oklahoma Bombing, The Hague War Crimes Tribunal, Michael Jackson, Harvey Weinstein, and many others. As a scientist, her job was to convince juries that eyewitnesses can be wrong and that our memories are very flexible. These cases were about much more than the fate of the perpetrator and the victim. These media spectacles were both a barometer of mood and a mirror of the state of Western society. Racism, sexism, corruption - the issues of the trials were also always washed up on the streets. And vice versa.

MEMORY WARS is designed as a four-part mini-series. Each episode deals with a different view of the truth - in court before the jury, in memory research, and in the public narrative that accompanies and fuels the cases. Parallel to this, on the horizontal story level, the deployment of Elizabeth Loftus as an expert witness in court develops throughout the series. In the process, we follow Loftus in documentary form from her first meeting with her client to the pronouncement of the verdict in court. In between, we experience her in her private environment and as a sought-after speaker on international stages. However, she is not welcomed with open arms everywhere, and the protest against her and her work becomes increasingly vehement.

Jury statement

"The exclusive access to Elizabeth Luftos that the team around director Hendrik Löbbert has developed over the last seven years is fascinating and arouses absolute curiosity. In the projected four-part miniseries, the intensive examination of the personality, the work and the world of the main protagonist makes clear the immense field of tension in which truth is negotiated. From our point of view, the documentary series has the potential to initiate discourse and to get the audience out of their comfort zone."

The nominated projects 2022

Jury 2022

Felix Kempter, Executive Producer, Editor Sky Original Documentaries, Sky Germany
Siegfried Steinlechner, Editor, ORF, Editorial Office Culture Documentary Film
Julia Leeb, Journalist
Julia Weber, Global Screen
Gülseren Ölcüm, ZDF

Award Sponsors

TELLUX-Film

Since 1960, TELLUX-Film has been producing high-quality, award-winning programs in the fields of feature films, documentaries, series and multi-part films. As part of the TELLUX Group TELLUX-Film is one of Germany's largest independent film and media companies. With offices in Berlin, Bonn, Dresden, Erfurt, Halle, Cologne, Munich, Stuttgart, Hamburg, Wiesbaden and Vienna, the vision of the members of the TELLUX Group is to tell original and moving stories in order to provide an international audience with ever new inspiration. To achieve this ongoing goal time and again, TELLUX-Film produces high-quality dramas, impressive documentaries and transmedial experiences.

megaherz

megaherz has been successfully producing extraordinary film and television projects since 1983 with approximately 50 employees. Managing directors of the company are Fidelis Mager and Oliver Gernstl.
In order to be able to form the optimal team for each project, megaherz maintains a close cooperation with a pool of renowned authors, directors, cameramen and creative employees. As a full-service production company, the company relies on short, fast paths from the development of material and ideas, preparation and implementation to the entire post-production, all from one source.