Bavaria Fiction spins off documentary unit as Icon Docs to meet rising factual demand

Emanuel Rotstein (Source: Bavaria Fiction/Linda Gschwentner)

German production outfit Bavaria Fiction has spun off its documentary division as Icon Docs, an independent label that will continue to produce content for both the local and international markets.

Bavaria Fiction’s documentary unit was launched in March 2022 and is headed up by Bavaria Fiction’s doc chief Emanuel Rotstein, who will continue to report to MD of content, Marcus Ammon. The label will work on in-house and commissioned productions as well as national and international co-productions across films and series for cinema, TV and streamers. It will have “a clear focus on current, political and investigative topics, biographies and contemporary history,” said Rotstein.

Icon Docs is already underway on productions including 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.

Projects in development include Hitler In Hollywood (working title), which examines the complex relationship between Hollywood and Nazi Germany in the 1930s and The Park – New York’s Revolutionary Heart (working title), a documentary about Washington Square Park.

“In recent years, the demand for factual programming has increased worldwide. We have therefore established Icon Docs as an independent label in the German and international market with our documentary team centred around the renowned leadership of Emanuel Rotstein,” said Ammon.