ICON DOCS
ICON DOCS stands for high-quality factual productions for the German and international market.
State-of-the-art projects with a distinctive high production and news value as well as strong social relevance are our passion. Our focus is on current, political and investigative topics, biographies and contemporary history. Because we believe that content determines form, we work with our network of freelance writers and producers to produce cinema, TV and streamer projects as one-offs or as serial formats.
We work closely with public and private broadcasters as well as streamers, with whom we realize in-house developments, commissioned productions as well as international co-productions.
ICON DOCS is a brand of Bavaria Fiction. Bavaria Fiction is one of the most successful production companies in Europe. A subsidiary of Bavaria Film and ZDF Studios, the company is headed by managing directors Marcus Ammon and Jan S. Kaiser and has its headquarters in Munich as well as other locations in Cologne, Stuttgart and Berlin.
Documentaries
in development
Team
As Head of Documentaries at ICON DOCS, Emanuel Rotstein is responsible for the development and production of factual content. A multiple award-winning author and producer was previously Senior Director of Programming at A+E Networks Germany for linear and non-linear Pay-TV channels “The History Channel” and “Crime + Investigation” until December 2021. Rotstein has made a name for himself within the industry, particularly as the author and producer of local originals. Most recently, the true-crime documentary “Car Park Murder – Who killed Charlotte Böhringer?” for Sky and the biopic “Ultra-Orthodox: Rabbi Akiva’s Journey to Freedom” for ZDF and 3sat were produced under Rotstein's leadership.
During his time at A+E, Rotstein was responsible for landmark documentaries such as “The Liberators: Why We Fought” regarding the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp by the US Army, “The Eleventh Day – The Survivors of Munich 1972”, “Guardians of Heritage” and “The Invisible Line – America’s Nazi Experiment” about the infamous Third Wave social experiment. Most recently, the true-crime format “Face to Face” for “Crime + Investigation” was created under Rotstein's leadership. Prior to that, he headed the editorial department of MPR Film und Fernsehproduktion GmbH from 2003 to 2010 and worked under the aegis of Maurice Philip Remy on the multiple award-winning documentaries “Mogadischu”, “Max von Oppenheim” and "Kill Hitler". Emanuel Rotstein is a graduate of the University of Westminster, London.
Tina Leeb has been a producer at ICON DOCS since May 2023. She is a renowned executive producer and consultant for international documentary productions and was managing producer of her own company Celluloid Fabrik until 2017. She then worked as a freelance producer for selected production companies and was Head of Documentaries at Saxonia Entertainment from 2019 to 2022. Her previous productions have won numerous awards and have screened at IDFA, DOK Leipzig, Doc Aviv, Guangzhou IDFF, Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival, Sochi International Film Festival and Docs against Gravity, among others.
Tina Leeb's last TV project, the documentary mini-series "Murky Skies" by ZDF/ARTE, ZDF info, HOT 8, VPRO and Dogwoof was sold to 30 countries.
Ole Elfenkaemper works as Creative Producer for ICON DOCS. Ole, originally from northern Germany, began his creative career making skateboard videos, inspired by Spike Jonze's work. This hobby naturally evolved into still photography, leading him to the challenging environments of the Balkans and the Middle East as a photojournalist. Since 2014, Ole has worked on various documentary productions commissioned by ARTE, ZDF, 3sat, YouTube Originals, and Sky Germany among others, either as cinematographer, director or producer. Ole was nominated twice for the Grimme Award.
Furthermore, he produced and co-directed several short films as well as his first feature documentary “An Hour from the Middle of Nowhere” which was screened at various film festivals and had its U.S. Premiere at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in 2024.
Felix Türcke has been part of Emanuel Rotstein's team since September 2022: first as a working student and since October 2023 as a dual student. Felix is currently studying ”Production Management for Film and TV” at Ansbach University of Applied Sciences.