Two of Germany’s leading producers, Michael Polle, whose credits include European Film Award winner “Babylon Berlin,” and Mischa Hofmann, a German Film Award winner with “John Rabe,” have combined forces to set up the production company Polle & Hofmann Pictures.
Polle was most recently managing director at the production company X Filme Creative Pool, while Hofmann was managing director of Odeon Fiction. Both producers worked together on “Streets of Berlin,” which aired on ARD in primetime, attracting up to 10 million viewers and taking a market share of around 27%.
In 1996, Hofmann founded Hofmann & Voges Entertainment together with Philip Voges, which was taken over by Odeon Film in 2007. Until recently, Hofmann was managing director of Odeon Fiction. He has worked as a producer in many different genres. Over 200 TV and cinema productions were made under his aegis as managing director from films such as “Erkan & Stefan,” “Wo Ist Fred?” and “John Rabe” to series such as “Streets of Berlin,” “Turkish for Beginners,” “Spy City” and most recently “Die Saat.” His productions have been honoured with the German Film Award, the German Television Award and the Bavarian Film Award.
Polle worked as a producer at Bavaria Film from 2005, then in the same position at Hofmann & Voges Entertainment from 2007. Among other shows, he was involved in “Streets of Berlin” and produced the Grimme Prize and German Television Crime Award-winning “Tatort: Nie wieder frei sein.” In May 2010, Polle moved to X Filme Creative Pool, where he initially headed the TV department and was appointed managing director in 2021. His productions there included the Grimme Award-nominated “Tatort – Die Wahrheit,” “Wunschkinder” and “Tatort – Unklare Lage” as well as the series “Babylon Berlin” and “Tina Mobil.”
Internationally, he produced the series “Furia” with Monster Scripted (Norway), ZDF and Viaplay, which premiered in the competition of Series Mania Festival in 2021. Most recently, he produced together with True Content Entertainment (Denmark), Epo Film (Austria) as well as ZDF, DR and New8 the German-Danish series “Other People’s Money,” which premiered in Panorama at this year’s Berlinale.
Polle is deputy chairman of the TV section of the German Producers Alliance.
Hofmann said: “I’ve known Michael since 2005, when he produced ‘Streets of Berlin’ at Hofmann & Voges. We haven’t lost sight of each other since then. Now we see the right time to work together again because we have the same view of projects and producing in general. We both want to act independently and concentrate on content and creative allies. We rely on very close relationships with extraordinary talents. We want quality over quantity and to be the first port of call for partners who value and share this attitude.”
Polle added: “It has always been our vision to build a home for creatives where we can create something special together and on an equal footing. Stories that move, that push boundaries, that have an emotional signature, but don’t lose sight of the audience – be it in cinema or streaming/TV. The spectrum ranges from national to international productions. It’s about bringing a shared vision of a story to life and sending it out into the world from Germany. Mischa and I already agreed on all of this back in the Hofmann & Voges days, and so now we’ve both come full circle in a beautiful way.”
