Biography
Jonathan Schörnig was born in 1991 in Leipzig, Germany. After graduating from high school, he gained practical experience in film, first as a director and camera trainee (at the TV crime series "SOKO Leipzig" and "SOKO Cologne"), then as second assistant director on the feature film "Dessauer Tänzer" (2013). He completed his training as a media designer for image and sound and graduated in 2015 with the short film "Herr Lindner und sein Garten"; for this film about a passionate hobby gardener who defies the usual clichés, Schörnig received the FineX young media designer award.
In the following years, Schörnig worked as a cinematographer for television formats and documentaries. In 2019, he produced the 15-minute documentary "Never Give Up" about a Nigerian musician who had to flee his home country and eventually ended up in Malta; the film was screened at several international festivals and won several awards.
In parallel, in 2019, Schörnig began working on the documentary "Einhundertvier" ("One Hundred Four") for which he accompanied a sea rescue of refugees in the Mediterranean. In 2021, he began studying at the Bauhaus University in Weimar. In October 2023, "Einhundertvier" premiered at the DOK Leipzig festival and won four awards: the main prize, the Golden Dove in the German Competition, the Documentary Film Award of the Goethe Institute, the ver.di Award for Solidarity, Humanity and Fairness, and the "Leipziger Ring" Film Award. The regular theatrical release took place in May 2024.