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Jan Bonny was born in Düsseldorf in 1979. After completing a workshop at the New York Film Academy in 1999, he studied directing at the Kunsthochschule für Medien (KHM) in Cologne from 2000 to 2006. He wrote his diploma with the screenplay for the feature film "Gegenüber", which he filmed directly after his studies: a drama about a seemingly happily married policeman (Matthias Brandt) who is physically abused by his wife. "Gegenüber" premiered at the Cannes International Film Festival 2007 in the Quinzaine des réalisateurs section and received a special mention at the C.I.C.A.E. Award ceremony. Numerous other festival participations all over the world followed. At the Munich Film Festival 2007, Bonny won the German Film Award for Best Screenplay for "Gegenüber".
Together with Oliver Schwabe, Bonny wrote and directed the television play "Ich, Ringo und das Tor zur Welt" (2010) about the legendary author and director Horst Königstein (1945-2013) for whose film "Unser Reigen" (2006, TV) Bonny had written the script. The leading role was played by Matthias Brandt , with whom Bonny worked again in his award-winning "Polizeiruf 110" episode "Der Tod macht Engel aus uns allen" and the music video "Boogieman" (2015, for musician Olli Schulz).
Together with Alex Wissel, Bonny realised the long-term performance film "Single", about Wissel's nightclub "Single Club" in Düsseldorf. The film celebrated its world premiere in November 2015 at the film festival "We Are a Parasite on the Institution of Cinema" at the Museum Moderner Kunst (MUMOK) in Vienna. With Wissel he also realized the experimental series "Rheingold" (2016) and the short film "Von hier an". (2017).
Jan Bonny also directed numerous commercials (initially in collaboration with Sonja Heiss under the pseudonym Sonny & Bonny) for McDonalds, Adidas and Audi.
The intense television play "Über Barbarossaplatz" (2016), about a psychologist whose life becomes unbalanced after the suicide of her husband and practice partner, received excellent reviews. Bonny's "Tatort" episode "Borowski und das Fest des Nordens" (2017) and the "Polizeiruf 110" episode "Das Gespenst der Freiheit" (2018, again with Matthias Brandt as Munich investigator Hanns von Meuffels) were also praised for their intense emotionality. "The Horror" (2018) was created as a web series, consisting of four episodes lasting about eight minutes.
"Wintermärchen" ("A Winters Tale" 2018) was Jan Bonny’s next feature film, his first since "Gegenüber". Based on the NSU case, "Wintermärchen" tells the story of three young, xenophobic people from desolate backgrounds who indiscriminately carry out murderous attacks on migrants and foreigners. "Wintermärchen" premiered at the Locarno Film Festival 2018; at the Film Festival Cologne 2018 it received the 'Made in NRW' award. The film was released in German cinemas in March 2019, when Bonny had already begun filming his next TV film "Endlich Leben": Matthias Brandt impersonated a man who as a child had to watch his parents and his best friend get shot by two policemen; as an adult he returns to his home village to take revenge.