Jan Martin Scharf was born in Cologne in 1974. He attended the New York Film Academy (1996) and the Kunsthochschule für Medien in Cologne (1998 – 2004). In 2001, he received a six-month scholarship for Philipp Parker's "European Script Development Training". His graduation film "Wahrheit oder Pflicht" (co-directed by Arne Nolting) won the award of the Student Jury  at the 2005 Max Ophüls Preis Festival and the "Silver Zenith" for debut films at the Montreal Film Festival. He went on to write scripts for TV shows and also directed several episodes. In late 2013, Scharf began to work on his next feature film: "Dessau Dancers" revolves around the political and private conflicts experienced by a group of young break dancers in mid-1980s East-Germany.