Martin Pieper

Martin Pieper studied law in Cologne and Lausanne and began his career at ZDF in 1990 as a lawyer working on international co-productions, before moving into commissioning. From 2000 to 2023 he headed ARTE's Culture and Science, Thema and Current Affairs departments in turn. During those years he was responsible for more than 500 productions across all genres, with a particular focus on European documentary co-productions. In 2006 he received the Grimme Prize for the format development of "Durch die Nacht mit …".
From 2023 to 2025 he worked as a consultant for international co-productions at Beetz Brothers Film Production, among other things as producer of "Elon Musk Unveiled: The Tesla Experiment", "Mariinka" and "Master of Apocalypse: Roland Emmerich". He is currently a producer and co-founder of Magic Films in Wiesbaden.
 For more than three decades he served on the funding committee of MFG Filmförderung Baden-Württemberg; among other juries, he sat on those of the Guangzhou International Documentary Film Festival and FIPADOC. He has worked as an expert and tutor for EAVE, Eurodoc, EDN, Documentary Campus and the Media Business School, among others, and has taught at Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg and the UdK Berlin.