Programming Profile

Albatross World Sales has a wide-ranging slate for 2021. MD Anne Olzmann reveals the German factual distributor’s playlist for C21’s Digital Screenings and discusses the future of the genre.

Factual content has seen a boom on streaming platforms in the past year, with the launch of Discovery+ and National Geographic featuring on Disney+, for example. Furthermore, the pandemic and resulting production shutdowns have also driven up demand for factual.

“We noticed a significant increase in the demand for documentaries in general, where buyers that would usually pick up single specials have acquired more hours than usual to cope with the loss in programming in their schedules and the cancellation of events such as the Olympics,” explains Albatross MD Anne Olzmann.

Amid this changing market, Olzmann says the Leipzig-based distributor has found its niche in offering mainly natural history, science and travel programmes.

Olzmann explains that “beautiful wildlife shows will always work when people want to relax,” thus creating demand for natural history content. However, she adds, a growing number of viewers now want more than just nature shows.

“I have noticed a significant trend in stories that have an impact investigating environmental issues and showing ambitious solutions to solve these issues. We want to showcase the efforts people are making to restore nature and the processes it undergoes to do that itself.”

Albatross has two titles in its line-up showing how well nature does when it’s given the chance to come back. Metamorphoses – The Return of the Wilderness (5×52’) is a series from German outfit Längengrad Filmproduktion that examines how natural regions that were once ruined to make way for industry have begun to flourish again.

Three episodes have been delivered and two are still in production, and the series is part of a larger sustainability project by the producers that has so far included Paradise Preserved (5×52’), Water is Our Future (5×52’) and Islands of the Future (5×52’). The titles have all been successful internationally.

Accidental Wilderness – Europe’s Everglades (1×52’ 4K), meanwhile, visits a small corner of rural Germany that has become a paradise for migrating birds since the nearby city of Münster rerouted its sewage pipes that used to feed into the area. The programme is produced by German company Light & Shadow.

Albatross’s slate also illustrates the fragile relationship between humans and nature. Glorious Bustards is a 1×52’ 4K special that comes from German production company Altayfilm, which also produced the best-selling documentary and festival favourite On Thin Ice (1×52’ 4K). As the great bustard bird heads towards extinction in many regions, the film follows German conservationists trying to bring the species back to life.

Similarly, The Otter – A Legend Returns (1×52’ 4K) explores the mammal’s return to the canals of the Netherlands after it became extinct in the country in 1988. Produced by Hilco Jansma Productions and fellow Dutch company Ispida Wildlife Productions (IWP), the film shows how a series of local initiatives has helped bring the species back while giving a rare glimpse into the elusive animal’s behaviour.

The Albatross exec also sees a new trend for wildlife titles that offer a feature-length version, and the company has some of these on its slate.

Wild Horses – A Tale From The Puszta (1×52’ or 1×88’ 4K), by Zoltan Török, is the beautiful story of a wild Przewalski horse foal born in the Hungarian Puszta, which has become the home of the largest herd of this rare wild horse species. Some decades ago Przewalski horses nearly went extinct in their original habitat, the wide Mongolian landscape. The remaining few animals found a new home on the steppes of Hungary where they started to thrive on the largest plains of Central Europe.

Wolf: Wanderer Without Borders (2×52’ or 1×90’ 4K), from IWP in coproduction with BNNVARA, follows the journey of a young, lone wolf back westwards on his search for his own territory and mate after the species was nearly eradicated over the past few centuries. Albatross is actively looking for pre-sales for this title.

Olzmann also cites Albatross’s new film Wild Heart of Europe – The Return of an Ancient Forest (1×52’/1×90’ 4K) from German production company Lisa Eder Film. The film looks at a unique experiment in the Bavarian Forest National Park that has revealed what happens when humans allow nature to reclaim its habitat. A primeval forest is growing out of the former commercial forests, creating a unique ecosystem and a refuge for biodiversity.

Aside from heightened demand for natural history programming, Olzmann says the travel restrictions of the past 12 months have driven audiences to travel programming. “The pandemic has definitely bred an escapist feeling, as people are viewing the outside world through their TVs,” she says.

Albatross is therefore offering viewers a chance to travel the world with aspirational travel content for its 2021 slate. Jewels of The Alps – Italy’s Great Lakes (5×52’) uses state-of-the-art camera techniques to capture the nature and scenery of Alpine Italy. Made by German producer Marco Polo Films for ZDF/Arte, the series is also available in 4K.

Also on the Albatross slate for this year is a series exploring the life of the nomadic shepherd. Herders: Guardians of the Earth (5×26’) looks at the challenges climate change presents to people herding flocks, and how they have adapted to maintain the sustainability of their livelihood, setting an example for other pastoral practices.

Another show offering a migratory perspective is They Came To Stay – Our Alien Animal Neighbours (3×52’ 4K), also from Marco Polo. The series shows how exotic species such as rheas, nutrias and green parrots have moved into European ecosystems far from their natural habitats. It tells how seemingly exotic wildlife can be watched in Central Europeans’ own backyards and the ecological impact this is having.

“When it comes to our own acquisitions, we’re always looking for shows that can travel. It’s one of the first things we think about before buying. What we’re doing now is joining projects from the very beginning to help develop with that international approach from a distributor’s point of view, and to make the project more suitable for the global market. Our main sales markets are actually outside Germany, so this is crucial,” says Olzmann.

This doesn’t necessarily mean, however, that the programme itself has to be a multinational production. One example on the slate is Echoes of the Ice Age (1×50’ 4K), from local prodco Nautilusfilm. The show presents the wildlife and scenery of Germany’s Lake Königssee, showing how the geological structure of the region has links back to the last Ice Age 12,000 years ago and displaying the astonishing biodiversity of the region.

“It can be a rather local production about a wild part of Germany but it serves as an example of how things can work internationally as well. This is also the case for Wild Heart of Europe – The Return of an Ancient Forest, mentioned earlier. A national park in one country, for example, can be a blueprint for forests in other countries. This German park, for example, found ways to deal with the threat of bark beetles, which are a danger to forests all over the world,” she says.

“However, you always have to think about why somebody in another country or continent would want to watch a show about a German national park. It’s important to always think of a global audience and convince people from other countries to watch, so there is a thin line.”

This issue also means the Albatross team has to think very carefully about whether to have hosts presenting its documentaries. “A host has to have a reason to be there. They have to be experts and be the link between the audience and the subject matter,” Olzmann explains.

“It’s always better if the host is speaking English, but in comparing hosted versus non-hosted, the non-hosted show usually does better. Hosts can sometimes work in travel programmes, as they can play a part in transporting the viewer. But in general, we’ve been hesitating because public broadcasters don’t tend to like that style as much as commercial networks. Hosted programmes tend to be series and with pubcasters it’s usually one-, two- or three-parters,” she explains.

The Albatross model is still largely based on selling to linear networks. However, the pandemic has increased the number of non-linear factual acquisitions made by VoD platforms. According to Olzmann, this has allowed Albatross to broaden its market.

“Overall, the market is in a constant shift to adapt to current viewer behaviours. This has helped us to open up new markets and I see the VoD platforms becoming even more significant over time. Until now, our editorial angle made us a more natural fit for linear broadcasters. So we’re sourcing programming to cater to both,” says Olzmann.

As for the shift to VoD programming, Olzmann sees the AVoD model becoming more relevant. Viewers, she says, can’t be expected to pay for many subscriptions every month. She says AVoD platforms are also good for the distribution business, as they are often still looking for library content rather than brand-new shows.

As well as driving audiences’ appetite for factual, lockdown has also meant that companies in the distribution sector have had to adapt to the situation and find new ways of reaching clients. “It is essential to build, maintain and extend a network of relationships and nothing can really replace the personal meetings at the markets,” says Olzmann, who emphasises the importance of maintaining “trusted relationships.”

She hopes that – pandemic permitting – events will return to normal this year, but also feels there are benefits to virtual meetings. “In general, virtual events have worked well for us and I’m hoping for more hybrid models in the future to avoid extensive travelling and help us reduce our carbon footprint. After all we should all be learning from the docs we sell.”