Sam Davis (producer)


Sam Davis is a German-American film producer. He is the founder of Cologne, Germany-based production company Rowboat Film- und Fernsehproduktion, and lives and works in Cologne.

Life

Sam Davis is a graduate of the University of Southern California and studied German at UCLA. After working at 20th Century Fox, he founded his own company Insight Out Films. In 1992, Sam moved to Frankfurt, where he wrote and directed the documentary ”Warum wir hier sind“ for the BBC and WDR. From 1993 until 1998, Sam was head of the TV Movie Department at RTL Television in Cologne. During this time, he was responsible for the development and production of approximately 100 TV movies and miniseries. He introduced Germany to the made-for-TV movie.
In 1998, Sam Davis became a partner and Co-CEO of Cologne-based production company Zeitsprung. While holding this position he produced event productions, TV movies and series.
From 2004 until 2009, Sam took charge of the German Fiction department of Endemol Germany where he was responsible for TV movie and series productions such as "Liebe ohne Rückfahrschein", "Mr. Nanny - Ein Mann für Mama" and the two-part "London, Liebe, Taubenschlag".
In January 2010, Sam Davis co-founded and became CEO of Rowboat Film- und Fernsehproduktion. Rowboat's first TV movie A Day for a Miracle premiered at the Hamburg Film Festival in 2011. It was broadcast January 18, 2012 on ORF and, with over one million viewers, the highest rated film of the year. On March 5, 2012 A Day for a Miracle was also successfully broadcast on ZDF with 5.8 million viewers. In 2012 Sam won the ROMY prize in Austria for Best Producer for A Day for a Miracle. The movie was also nominated in the following categories: Best Screenplay, Best Movie, Best Actor, and Best Actress. At the International Emmy Award 2013 A Day for a Miracle won in the category TV Movie/Mini-Series. Since then Sam Davis has produced successful series such as Murder by the Lake and Professor T.
In 2017, Sam Davis was the moderator of the Nominee Panel for Best Performance by an Actor an Best Performance by an Actress in the context of the International Emmy Award ceremony. In the last few years he visited The International Emmy World Television Festival as a delegate of the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW.
Sam Davis is married and has four children.

Awards and Nominations

Publications

In 2000, Sam Davis book Quotenfieber - Das Geheimnis erfolgreicher TV-Movies was published. In this book, he writes about the German television broadcasting business, how fictional TV-movies are made, what functions they have and the importance of ratings.