Katja has extended the network's offer and expertise in the field of "Green Filmmaking", i.e. consulting, teaching and writing for broadcasters, production companies, institutions, festivals and filmmakers to promote the concept of sustainability in media production and culture. The certified CSR and sustainability manager leads the sustainability management course at the International Screen Institute, supervises in-house productions at BR in ARD and freelance production companies. She is honorary chairwoman of the board of the Federal Association of Green Consultants.
Katja Schwarz, born 1966 als Katja Grobholz, after a year abroad in Great Britain and Italy studied Slavonic and English studies and philosophy. She spent six months in Russia and was able to gain first film experiences while making her own documentary film. She also worked as gallery manager at Kunstpavillon in Munich.
After graduating from Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich she worked as production assistant at megaherz tv GmbH until she joined Odeon Film AG in 1996. There she headed the press and PR department of the whole Odeon Film Group and served as online and IR manager. 2010 she took on the additional remit as sustainability advisor, to insure corporate social and environmental responsibility in film and TV production. This activity then was a novelty in film production – they produced 2011 the first TV series of Europe in a climate neutral way – and gained importance over the years, likely to become a standard.
Since 2013 she has extended the Tolle Idee! network's offer and expertise in the new field of "Green Filmmaking", i.e. consulting, teaching and writing for production companies, broadcasters, institutions,festivals and filmmakers to promote the concept of sustainability in media production.
The certified CSR and Sustainability Manager is presently Chair Woman of the German Association of Green Film & TV Consultants. Katja aims to improve conditions and accelerate the transformation towards achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals by creating cooperations and partnerships.
Among other events, she took part in the following activities:
- 2023 Green Consultant for the German public broadcasting company ARD/BR
- Teaching Green Consulting at the Green Consultant courses of Hochschule der Medien, Stuttgart, und Universidade Lusófona, Lissabon, Portugal
- 2022 and 2023 Course Director "Sustainability Management" at International Screen Institute
- 2022 About "The Role of Green Consultants" at the Capacity Building Seminar in Brussels
- 2022 and 2023 Seminars on "Green Management and Producing" for PAIQ – the training initiative of the German Producers' Alliance
- 2021 and 20222 Lectures & coaching at the first of its kind Alumni workshop and regular training programme of SOFA – School of Film Advancement
- 2021 Lecture at "Saratov Sufferings" – the film festival for documentary melodrama
- 2020 Moderation of the “Crossborder Panel: Sustainable Filmmaking” as part of the Limburg Film Festivals in Venlo, Netherlands
- 2019 appointed to the jury at the Barents Ecology Film Festival in Petrozavodsk in Russia and the neighbouring Joensuu in Finland
- MasterClass and lectures at "Moscow School of New Movie productions" and "MovieBand" during the EcoCup Filmfestival 2018 in Moscow
- Giving the initial Workshop for ecological ways of movie productions at UFA in 2017
- Keynote „Can filmmaking be sustainable?" at Goethe-Institut in Los Angeles 2016
- 2015 Sustainability Consultant for the „Green Shooting" of the MFG, the „Tatort"-Special „Five Minutes of Heaven"
- Networks „sustainable ways of movie productions" and „CrewTech"
- Learning audiodescription of films at SDI
- workshops of the „Green Pictures Group NRW", organised by Energieagentur.NRW und Thema1 for the first time in 2014
- SEO and online editing for Inostudio in 2013
- 2013 workshop „Green Shooting for Documentaries" at NaturVision Filmfestival Ludwigsburg
- articles on sustainability in filmmaking at Odeon Film Group, e.g.
- „Filmemachen in Grün" (Green Filmmaking) in the journal of Film- und Medienstiftung NRW
- „Mean But Green": viral clips on climate change and sustainability at ifs - internationale filmschule köln
- 2012 Consulting Bavaria Film
- First climate neutral production of a TV series in Europe: „The Country Doctor" by novafilm, Odeon Film Group subsidiary
- 2011 Fostering the development of and co-creating the first carbon calculator for film making in German speaking countries with Odeon Film Group and climate protection company ClimatePartner
- 2010 Introducing and developing sustainable filmmaking in the Odeon Film Group in 2010 and in Germany in the following years
- web-design (former) artefloreale.de, salon-annegret.de and tolleidee.net
Katja Schwarz was part-time working as PR Manager and Sustainability Consultant for the architectural and consultancy company CSMM - architecture matters.
She has also been working as translator from Russian, English and as web designer.