January 30, 2026

Grimme Award Nomination for Lena’s Farm

The nomination committees of the 62nd Grimme Awards convened in early January and, across the categories Information & Culture, Fiction, Entertainment, and Children & Youth, selected 71 productions and individual achievements from more than 750 submissions for nomination. A total of eleven nominations went to commercial broadcasters and streaming platforms, including two in Information & Culture, four in Fiction, three in Entertainment, and two in the Children & Youth category.

The series “Lena’s Farm” is nominated in the “Children” section of the competition category “Children & Youth”. The series – created by our CREATORS at Studio FILM BILDER and MINYA Film for ZDF – is broadcast on KiKA.

The team includes Elena Walf (director and writer), Simon Thummet and Barbara Kuznetsova (writers), Ingo Weis and Jens Ripke-Desaules (editors), as well as Thomas Meyer-Hermann and Miljana Dragicevic (producers), and many more.

The winners of the 62nd Grimme Awards will be announced in March. Fingers crossed for all nominees!

Complete list of nominees

Source: Press Release Grimme Award, January 22, 2026

October 17, 2025

Japan Prize for LENA’S FARM

The series LENA’S FARM, created by our CREATORS from Studio Film Bilder, has won the renowned Japan Prize in the Pre-School category. Director Elena Walf will accept the award on November 20, 2025, in Tokyo.

LENA’S FARM is aimed at young children and their families, portraying the colorful life on a farm. With empathy and humor, Elena Walf transforms the relationships among the farm’s animal residents into poetic stories and lovingly drawn images. Animated in classic hand-drawn style, each film bears the author’s distinctive touch down to the finest detail, and every one of the 26 episodes (each 5 minutes and 40 seconds long) also works as a self-contained short film.

Produced by Studio Film Bilder in co-production with ZDF and Minya Film (Zagreb), the series received funding from MFG Baden-Württemberg, Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung, the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, and Creative Europe MEDIA.

Within just a few months of its release, LENA’S FARM has already won 17 awards, including at Cartoons on the Bay and the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. The series was broadcast on KiKA and has so far been sold to twelve international broadcasters and streaming platforms, including Disney Europe. The world sales company Meta Media (London) believes that the highly regarded Japan Prize will help LENA’S FARM win the hearts of even more children around the world.

Source: Studio Film Bilder

June 18, 2025

Lena’s Farm wins at Annecy 2025

Director Elena Walf and Studio Film Bilder are celebrating a successful start to the festival tour of their series LENA’S FARM. After already winning awards in recent days at the Italian festivals Cartoons on the Bay and Periferie Animate, as well as at the festival in Zlín, Czech Republic, the crowning moment came in France: on Saturday, June 14, 2025, at the Festival d’Animation Annecy, Elena Walf was honored on the main stage with the Jury Award for a TV Series.

The series consists of 26 episodes, each 5 minutes and 40 seconds long, which also work as stand-alone short films. It was produced by Studio Film Bilder in co-production with ZDF and Minya Film from Zagreb. Financing was made possible by MFG Baden-Württemberg, Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung, the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, and the Creative Europe MEDIA program. Global distribution is handled by Meta Media, London.

Congratulations to Elena Walf, Studio Film Bilder and everyone else involved!

Source: Studio Fil m Bilder | A nnecy Festival 2025

January 17, 2025

Studio FILM BILDER’s “Lena’s Farm” on TV

The animated series “Lena’s Farm” by Elena Walf (Studio FILM BILDER) will be broadcast on KiKA, the children’s channel of ARD and ZDF, from February 4, 2025. In the new animated series for pre-school children, the animals on Lena’s farm experience all kinds of social challenges, which are told non-verbally in humorous stories. “Lena’s Farm” (ZDF) – an instructive example of understanding and tolerance – can be seen from February 4, 2025, Mondays to Fridays at 9:10 CET as well as on kikaninchen .de and in the KiKANiNCHEN app.

Author Elena Walf tells heart-warming stories about understanding and tolerance. Each episode revolves around a different problem between individuals and the group, with a different animal always taking center stage. These are interpersonal problems that are easy for children to understand thanks to the translation into the animal world. The series manages without any language at all. Elena Walf’s imagery is all the more expressive for that. It is as clearly and pointedly drawn as it is lovingly embellished in detail.

„Lena’s Farm“ is a production by Studio FILM BILDER GmbH, Producer ist Thomas Meyer-Hermann (more information and credits at Studio FILM BILDER). Editor in charge at ZDF is Ingo Weis.

Source: Press Release KiKA

November 21, 2022

Next Pre Fixe with Animation Lounge on December 12 with Elena Walf (Studio Filmbilder)

Together with the Film- und Medienfestival gGmbH (organizer of Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film) and the AMCRS, MFG organizes the Pre Fixe with Animation Lounge as a prelude to the monthly network meeting of the film industry (Jour Fixe), at which speakers from the animation film scene report on current projects using practical examples and provide insights into their work.

On December 12, 2022 at 18:00 CET, Elena Walf will talk about “News from “Lena’s Farm”: Insights into the creation process of an animation series“.

The hand-drawn animation series “Lena’s Farm“, on which Elena Walf has been working with her team for three years, is being created at Studio Filmbilder in Stuttgart. Producer Thomas Meyer-Herrmann had the idea for the series; the source of inspiration was Elena Walf’s short film “Bat Time” (2015), which was made as part of the TV magazine “Ich kenne ein Tier”. Each episode is designed like a short film and manages entirely without dialogues. The focus is on the big and small inhabitants of Lena’s farm: from cow to dog and squirrel – everyone is there. Elena Walf reports on the making of the series with numerous examples and provides insights into the creative process.

The event will take place at Theater Rampe, Filderstraße 47, 70180 Stuttgart, and is free of charge.

The Jour Fixe offers a unique opportunity for exchange and networking with the MFG Unit Film Funding team. All participants are cordially invited to join the subsequent Jour Fixe starting at 19:00 CET.

Please note: There is no longer a requirement to show a negative Corona test in order to participate. Nevertheless, we recommend to do a quick test on your own before the event and to wear a mouth-nose-protection during the event.