PRESS RELEASES & AD-HOC

Edel, ZDF and b.water Animation studioS win the “Goldener Spatz” with their newly produced animated series Pettersson and Findus

Hamburg, June 07, 2022

The popular children’s media festival “Goldener Spatz”, which takes place once a year in Gera and Erfurt, is the largest festival for German-language children’s media. For six days, pre-selected film and television contributions for children and young people are presented from a large number of submissions. The sponsor of the more than 70 events is the German Children’s Media Foundation “Goldener Spatz”. A distinctive feature of the festival is that the prizes in the various categories are awarded by a children’s jury

Once again this year, 36 entries from various categories were nominated for the coveted award, including an episode of the third season of the “Pettersson and Findus” production from Edel and ZDF, which will be released in 2021.

The animated series convinced the jury with its episode “Die tote Elster” in the category “Serie/Reihe Animation” (series/series animation), beating out eight other productions. The other nominees included episodes of “The Smurfs,” “Rico & Oskar” and “100% Wolf”. At the awards ceremony on June 3 at the theater in Erfurt, Edel and ZDF were then presented with the “Golden Sparrow” award.

The special feature of the award-winning episode of the third season, “Die tote Elster”, is its child-friendly approach to the subject of death. For example, Pettersson explains to little Findus that the magpie Curiosity Nose, who was a regular visitor to their farm, died not by accident but quite naturally due to her advanced age. In this lovingly written episode, Findus learns what it means to say goodbye and deal with his grief. Together with Pettersson, the chickens and other animals, he builds her a beautiful funeral in her favorite place. Here they remember all the wonderful experiences and funny moments with Curiosity Nose.

The storytelling, which is as calm as it is emotional, was also well received by the children’s jury. Their reasoning praised the “very beautiful animation” of the series because it captures the similarities to the original books well, and also emphasized the sensitive presentation despite the difficulty of the subject. In terms of content, the idea that all the animals mourned together and paid a beautiful last tribute to the magpie alongside the birch tree was particularly convincing. The jury describes the episode as both “exciting” and “peaceful” in equal measure.

The producers, on the part of Edel, Andrea zum Felde and Claudia Radtke, producer and director Dirk Hampel, CEO of b.water Animation studioS, and ZDF editor Jörg von den Steinen proudly accepted the award at the festival’s closing ceremony.

“Our first own production and directly honored with the Goldener Spatz! We are so proud and happy and thank the children’s jury for this terrific award. This is a joint effort of the author Götz Brandt for the sensitive story, the wonderful ZDF editor Jörg von den Steinen and the whole production team of b.water Animation studioS. We thank you for the great collaboration.”
Andrea zum Felde, General Manager Edel Kids
Claudia Radtke, Producer Edel Kids

“Of course, this episode is not the norm in the usually cheerful world of Pettersson and Findus. But you can trust these wonderfully positive characters by Sven Nordqvist with a little melancholy for once. Thus, despite the childish challenge of coping with grief represented by Findus, our screenwriter Götz Brandt has managed to make the farewell to the magpie a very lively and dignified celebration that everyone will always remember with pleasure. And in the best case scenario, the audience’s children will take their cue from the little tomcat if they themselves should ever find themselves in a similar situation.”
Jörg von den Steinen, ZDF Editor Children and Youth

“With the production of 26 episodes of Pettersson and Findus, a long-cherished dream has come true. It was a great collaboration with ZDF and the work was a great pleasure.”
Dirk Hampel, CEO of b.water Animation studioS