Michael Souvignier

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Claudia Kleinert and Michael Souvignier at the 2015 award ceremony by the German Academy for Television in November 2015.

Michael Souvignier (born October 31, 1958 in Essen ) is a German film producer , director and photographer .

Life

After graduating from high school in 1979, Michael Souvignier began studying photo and film design and graduated in 1984 with a diploma. During his studies, his first exhibitions in Essen, Münster and Osnabrück, and later also in Zurich and Paris, showed his photographs. Shortly after completing his studies, he founded the film production company Zeitsprung Pictures GmbH in 1985. In addition to his initial directorial work for non-fictional TV formats (e.g. talk in the tower ) and commercials, Michael Souvignier turned more and more to work as a producer. With television films such as Die Mädchenfalle - Death comes online with Alexandra Maria Lara and Thomas Kretschmann , he established the Zeitsprung company on the German film and TV market.

Michael Souvignier achieved a particular success with the Sat.1 two-parter Das Wunder von Lengede , which was the most successful event production on German television with a rate of 36.2% in the target group and a total of 11 million viewers. The Zeitsprung film Contergan about the effects of the sleeping pill that was widespread in the 1960s caused quite a stir in the media , the transmission of which was prevented by an injunction and was only possible after a long legal dispute. Contergan made history. The pharmaceutical company Grünenthal GmbH took action against the leap in time until the Federal Constitutional Court. Zeitsprung won the trial and nothing stood in the way of the film being broadcast on television. This legal dispute lasted 2.5 years and resulted not only in a multi-award-winning film and excellent audience ratings, but also triggered a themed week with talk shows and documentaries on ARD. Within 3 months of being broadcast, the special pensions for Contergan victims doubled. Grünenthal has also agreed to pay 50 million euros to those affected.

Since 2010 Michael Souvignier has resumed his work as a photographer in addition to his work as managing director and producer and shown his pictures in several successful exhibitions in Düsseldorf, Berlin and Cologne.

In July 2012 his wife Ica Souvignier died , with whom he ran the Zeitsprung company for many years. The long-time CFO of the Kirch Group, Herbert Schroder, later became a silent partner with a 50 percent jump in time. Souvignier is now in a relationship with the weather presenter Claudia Kleinert .

Filmography (selection)

Awards (selection)

The works of Michael Souvignier as a producer have received numerous awards.

literature

Web links

Commons : Michael Souvignier  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Grünenthal wants to pay victims 50 million in Die Welt on May 8, 2008.
  2. ↑ Antje Hildebrandt: MEDIA: Eye for inconspicuous heroes. In: Focus Online . October 6, 2014, accessed October 14, 2018 .
  3. ↑ ARD weather presenter: Claudia Kleinert cheated by ex-boyfriend with three women - DIE WELT. Retrieved March 5, 2016 .
personal data
SURNAME Souvignier, Michael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German film producer, director and photographer
DATE OF BIRTH October 31, 1958
PLACE OF BIRTH eat