Producer, writer, director and indie boss Philipp Käßbohrer will be honored as Deadline’s 2025 German TV Disruptor at Seriencamp in Cologne, the city where his bildundtonfabrik prodco is based.
Käßbohrer and his fellow btf label boss Matthias Murmann created Netflix’s dark comedy-drama How To Sell Drugs Online (Fast). The fast-paced half-hour series has unique visuals with graphic overlays and VFX touches weaved into the tale of a high-schooler’s attempt to sell ecstasy on the dark net. The final episodes of the show dropped earlier this year.
For btf, landing a drama show with the streamer was a big deal. When the series was greenlit the prodco was best known in the German biz for making a popular late-night talk show, but at that point had never made a scripted series.
Käßbohrer tells Deadline he didn’t want to stay in one lane and that’s why he started knocking on doors with How To Sell Drugs Online (Fast). Netflix was new to German originals at the time and had its own plan to disrupt the market, which made it a good match for btf. Four seasons later, the rest is TV history.
Watch on Deadline
The btf prodco, meanwhile, remains one of Germany’s true indies, which is to say it is not a label within one of the large producer-distributor groups. That indie spirit is writ large in btf’s work, which spans talkshows, docs, films, drama and music videos. It has made shows for the legacy broadcasters as well as Prime Video and Netflix.
Recent projects include drama series Späti for ZDFneo, Perfekt Verpasst (The Perfect Miss) for Prime Video, and the Bayern Munich documentary FC Hollywood.
Käßbohrer will take part in a Q+A with Deadline at Seriencamp before receiving his German TV Disruptor accolade.
Seriencamp runs June 3 through 5.