ma.ja.de.

ma.ja.de. is one of the few German production companies to make documentaries that for years now have won international film festival awards, and proved themselves worthy of cinema acclaim and worldwide sale.

Since 1991 the company has been been involved in a number of successful collaborations with many renowned directors from both Germany and abroad. They include Sergei Loznitsa, Pirjo Honkasalo, Vitali Mansky and Thomas Heise, who are among their respective countries‘ most famous documentary filmmakers.

Between 2004 and 2008 ma.ja.de. produced more than 20 documentary films. The latest production Revue by Sergei Loznitsa had its premiere in Rotterdam this year and was shown in 15 international film festivals since. In Cracow Revue won the Golden Horn Award for the best documentary.

Staub by Hartmut Bitomsky which had its premiere at the International Filmfest in Venice 2007 in the competition section Orizzonti started in February 2008 in the German cinemas. Thomas Heise’s Children. As time flies. Premiered at the Leipzig International Filmfest for Documentary and Animated Film 2007 as the only German film in international competition and won the Silver Dove Award. The film will open in German cinemas in autumn 2008. Furthermore ma.ja.de. produced Tenders‘ Heat. Wild, wild Beach by Vitali Mansky, Alexander Rastorguev and Sysanna Barangieva which alongside Sugar Town by Kimon Tsakiris was shown at the 2006 Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival and won the Jury Award. The Bollywood documentary Tailor Made Dreams by Marco Wilms opened the Festival in Nyon 2006, was awarded with the Golden Giraldillo for the best documentary film at the film festival in Sevilla, and released in cinemas in Spain in Autumn 2007.

 As co-producer, ma.ja.de was among others involved in The 3 Rooms of Melancholia by Pirjo Honkasalo which was awarded the Lina Mangiacapre Award in 2004 and was given a special mention by the EIUC at the Venice Film Festival. The 3 Rooms of Melancholia ran at the 2005 Sundance Festival and went on to enjoy cinema screenings in 15 countries.

More recently ma.ja.de‘s growing involvement in international feature film production led to the founding of ma.ja.de fiction. The projects are being forged under the banner „Documentary filmmakers go feature“, which will allow for very distinct points of view. The first ma.ja.de fiction film production was Khadak by Peter Brosens and Jessica Woodworth. At its world premiere at the 2006 Venice Film Festival Khadak was awarded the „Lion of the Future“ for the best feature film debut. It has already been shown at a number of film festivals, including Toronto and Sao Paulo, receiving its US premiere at the 2007 Sundance Festival. In April the film opened in the German cinemas. Fragments of Grace a second promising feature film project by the two filmmakers is in pre-production.

Other feature film projects with Sergei Loznitsa (You, My Joy) and Thomas Heise (Good Friday is a Friday) are in development.

In 1995 CEO Heino Deckert founded the d.net, a union of seven independent European producers. Heino Deckert is also actively involved in distribution since 1999, starting up the company‘s own worldwide distributor of documentary films Deckert Distribution in 2003. In 2006 Heino Deckert was elected to chair the EDN (European Documentary Network).

ma.ja.de is based in Leipzig and has a second office in Berlin.