Akkord Film sets out new management team as it targets international market

L-R: Imke Fehrmann, Dirk Beinhold and Valentin Greulich

German animation firm Akkord Film has expanded its leadership team with the addition of two co-CEOs to work alongside company founder Dirk Beinhold.

Imke Fehrmann and Valentin Greulich will jointly manage Akkord Film as co-CEOs with Beinhold, who founded the studio in 2001.

Greulich joined Akkord Film as a producer in 2012 and has since helped shape the company’s development and strategy. He took a one-year sabbatical as an international project consultant in 2020 and now returns as a financing and coproduction expert, Akkord Film said.

Fehrmann, meanwhile, is an animation expert with more than 30 years of experience. She joined Berlin- and Hamburg-based Akkord Film in 2019 as executive producer and chief operating officer.

Fehrmann has previously held senior production roles at international companies such as Animal Logic, Axis Animation, Aardman and Lucasfilm Animation. She is a mentor for Women in Animation and a co-founder of German Women in Animation.

It comes as Akkord Film aims to produce more films and series targeted at an international audience and tailored to traditional and new media platforms.

As well as adapting and modernising book series and sagas from German-speaking regions for the international market, Akkord Film said it also wants to put more focus on global IP and original content.

In addition, it is looking to strengthen its existing script development team, which consists of three experienced creative producers: Katharina Wicke, Susanne Biesinger and Claudio Winter.

Beinhold founded Akkord Film after a decade in executive positions, including a role as a creative executive at New Regency and heading production for ProSieben and Studio Babelsberg.

The company has been behind titles including Raven the Little Rascal, Rabbit School: Guardians of the Golden Egg, Petronella Applewitch and The Elfkins: Baking a Difference.

The latter is set to be followed up by another Elkins feature scheduled to go into production in 2022, while Akkord said two as-yet-unannounced animated series and two more feature films are set for completion in 2024-2025.

Akkord Film’s latest animated feature film, The Rabbit Academy: Mission Eggpossible, will be released in cinemas in Germany by Leonine on March 17 next year.

Akkord also has other projects in development with Tobis Film, ZDF, SWR, NDR, KiKA, Sola Media and Global Screen, among others.

Beinhold is the vice-chairman of Animation in Europe, the European animation producers association, a founding board member of the new animation branch of the German Film Academy and a board member of the animation branch of the German Producers Alliance.