Sipur Studios President Michael Peter Schmidt Passes

Michael Peter Schmidt, president of Sipur Studios and former chief creative officer of Red Arrow Studios, has passed away at the age of 52.

Schmidt has shepherded some of Sipur’s most impactful productions, including We Will Dance Again, The Devil’s Confession: The Lost Eichmann Tapes and Bad Boy. Two weeks ago, he and the entire We Will Dance Again team received a honorary Emmy for their achievement in a Television Academy Honors ceremony in Los Angeles. The film is also nominated for best documentary at the News & Documentary Emmy Awards.

Prior to Sipur, Schmidt spent 15 years at ProSiebenSat.1, joining in 2005 and taking on a number of senior management roles, including head of development, head of comedy and senior VP of entertainment for German free TV operations. He joined the management team that founded Red Arrow Studios in 2009, becoming its chief creative officer in January 2010 and leading global format ad IP development, acquisitions and international distribution.

Schmidt began his career as a performer in a well-known German comedy troupe and went on to work in the TV industry with roles on both the network and production side of the business, including as a producer at WDR; TV director at Brainpool; creative producer for RTL Television’s entertainment department; executive producer and consultant for Granada Germany; and editorial director at Viva.

“We are heartbroken by this loss of our beloved friend and colleague, and our thoughts are with Michael’s family, friends and all those around the world who had the privilege of working with him and learning from him,” said Emilio Schenker, CEO of Sipur, speaking on behalf of company chairman Gideon Tadmor and the entire studio team. “He was our mentor and our dear friend—the heart and soul of a young company trying to rise up. He was our guiding source, our compass and our spark.”

He continued, “Michael was a driving force who has been with me since the beginning in shaping our expanding international strategy of developing, financing, producing films series, documentaries and reality formats for the international market. He was a visionary, hands-on leader and a true champion of the global entertainment industry who has played such a key role in Sipur’s phenomenal growth in a relatively short amount of time. As a longtime senior executive in international television, he brought leadership and unmatched passion, wisdom and integrity to every project he touched. His contributions to the history of the global television industry will resonate for years to come.”

“Michael embodied the true essence of why we do this—why we tell stories at all,” Schenker added. “In an industry that can sometimes forget its heart and get swept away by the hustle and bustle, Michael never did. He was a creative through and through, a boy who grew up with the camera glued to his hand, who lived for making people smile and ‘feel something,’ as he would say, who lived for storytelling, who was ready at any point in the day to talk through an idea with you. Big or small. Morning or night.”

Schenker said Schmidt displayed a zest for life, things, technology and history and was “still excited by every facet of it—from the seed of an idea, to the long hours of its development, preproduction, postproduction, dailies, excels and table reads. He wasn’t afraid to be vulnerable. And most importantly, he was absolutely hilarious, a comedy lover and a joke enthusiast with a laugh and sense of humor that could lift anyone up.”