Philipp Steffens

CEO

RTL Television

Philipp Steffens began his career while still in film school as a Financing Consultant on the award-winning feature Goodbye Bafana (2005, directed by Bille August). He also spent time working for EURIMAGES and the MEDIA Program learning about European co-productions and funding models.

Steffens graduated from the internationally-acclaimed film school Filmakademie BadenWuerttemberg, Ludwigsburg, in 2006, where he specialized in International Producing and TV Series Producing. The same year he completed his studies, Steffens founded his first production company, greenskyfilms, along with other film school graduates.

As CEO of greenskyfilms, Steffens co-produced the international movie 8, with such notable directors as Gus Van Sant, Jane Campion, Wim Wenders, Gael Garcia Bernal and many others. The film won the “Cinema for Peace Award” in 2009 and was shown at festivals around the world. He also produced the German-Swiss coproduction, Night Rush, which was shown at the Zurich International Festival in 2009. And, he was the Executive Producer of the TV Movie Stage Fight (Schurkenstueck), which was nominated for the “Fiction Rookies 2011” award at the Banff Film Festival. 

In 2008, Steffens became one of the youngest producers to receive a prime time TV show greenlit by a major German network, ProSiebenSat1. He created and executive produced the hit German TV series, The Last Cop (Der letzte Bulle), which was nominated for the Bavarian Television Award in 2010. The following year, the show received nominations for the Grimme Preis, the Jupiter Award and the Golden Camera, and won the Bavarian Television Award 2011. In 2012, it won the German Television Award for “Best Series.”After leaving greensky, Steffens launched Twenty Four 9 Films where he continued to produce The Last Cop, while also taking on new challenges.

Steffens produced Flying Home starring Jamie Dornan (50 Shades of Grey), directed by Academy Award nominee Dominique Deruddere. He was the Executive Producer for The Prison Doc (Der Knastarzt), a medical drama series that aired on RTL Germany. And, created and executive produced The Valley (Weinberg) – the first hour-long prime time series for TNT Germany – for which he received a Grimme Preis in 2016. The Valley is being sold internationally by Beta; the format was recently optioned for remake in the US.

In March 2014, Steffens became the Head of Fiction at RTL Television GmbH in Germany. He’s responsible for overseeing all the drama and comedy productions for the broadcaster, including the critically-acclaimed Deutschland ’83 - the highest-rated subtitled program in television history in the UK - as well as Starfighter, Adidas  vs. Puma (Duell der Brueder) and the most successful primetime Drama show in private broadcasting, The  Teacher (Der Lehrer). Steffens is a member of the grant committee for the Film Foundation NRW and the FFF (FilmFernsehFonds Bayern).

Steffens is fluent in German, English and French. He currently lives in Cologne, Germany, with his wife and two boys.

Speaking at: International Commissioners Roundtable; Luncheon Roundtables