Anthony Wonke

Anthony Wonke is a British documentary film maker.

Career

Anthony Wonke is an Emmy and triple BAFTA Award winning director and producer. He's also won among others a Grierson, RTS (Royal Television Society), Peabody Award and the Prix Italia for his films. Best known for his feature documentaries and series, and recently for his award winning commercials, he is now in development with a feature film in addition to several feature documentaries. His work ranges across a variety of genres but is characterized by intelligence, visual flair and emotional insight.

November 2015 sees the theatrical release of two feature documentaries directed by Wonke. Ronaldo, an intimate and definitive portrait of Cristiano Ronaldo, voted the world’s best football player, will have its world wide theatrical release with Universal Pictures. It has been produced by the makers of Senna and Amy.

Being AP is the extraordinary story of A P McCoy, who through obsessive dedication to his sport and heroic disregard of injuries has become the most successful jump jockey of all time, as he starts to contemplate retirement. Being AP is produced by BBC Films/Irish Film Board/Northern Ireland Screen and received its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. It also has its theatrical release in November 2015.

In 2014, Wonke produced Children on the Front line, a disturbing but poignant film for Channel 4 and Arte, about children living in the midst of the fighting in Syria, demonstrating the humanity of those at the heart of the conflict. Wonke and co-director Marcel Mettelsiefen have garnered 16 awards for this film including an Emmy, two BAFTAs, the Prix Italia, Peabody, RTS, Grierson, One World plus many other nominations.

In 2013, Fire in the Night a theatrical documentary about the Piper Alpha disaster produced by STV for Creative Scotland/BBC, had its world premier at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and went on to win the festival’s prestigious Audience Award. It was also nominated for three Scottish BAFTAs including the Audience Film Award and best Feature Film and went on to win best Single documentary. It was released across UK cinemas before its TV premier on BBC2 to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the disaster.

In 2012, The Battle for Marjah, the 90’ feature documentary Wonke made with Ben Anderson about a platoon of marines in Afghanistan with Wall to Wall Media for HBO/Channel 4, was nominated for three Emmy awards and won the History Makers Award for Best Current Affairs. Also in 2012, Crack House USA, a 90’ film he directed for MSNBC/More 4 about a drugs gang in Chicago brought down by a federal wire tap, was nominated for the BAFTA Factual Photography Award.

He has been making a feature documentary film about workers in the Gulf - Between the Waves and the Sky and is developing a feature film with Touchpaper productions. Also with Touchpaper he is in pre-production on A Taste of Chlorine a short film for BBC Films based on the award winning French graphic novel of the same name.

In 2008, he won the BAFTA Factual Series Award for his epic 8 x 50’ BBC 1 documentary series The Tower: A Tale of Two Cities. He directed and series-produced this over three years, charting the extremes of contemporary society by focusing on a tower block within one of the poorest council estates in London which was being sold as luxury flats. The series was also nominated for a Grierson and Broadcast Award, and won the RTS Award for Factual Editing.

Subsequently, Wonke series produced and directed The £800M Railway Station, a 6 x 30’ series for BBC 2. Nominated for a Broadcasting Press Guild Award, the series explores the passion, sacrifice and politics behind the renovation of St Pancras International.

In 2008 he was granted exclusive access to the female British Olympic Gymnastics squad, showing the hopes, joys and disappointments behind the Olympic dream. The resulting 90’ documentary, Gymnast, was broadcast on BBC2 in June 2012.

In the last three years Wonke has added commercials to his directing portfolio and the results have been highly acclaimed. He has worked for Ogilvy Mather, New York, Saatchi and JWT on the BP, Lurpak and Mazda 3 campaigns respectively. His innovative direction of the Ogilvy Mather Du Pont Horizons campaign has been rewarded with a clutch of awards at the BRAVES, the Stevies, the Internet Advertising Awards, the One Show Pencils and a place on the shortlist at Cannes Lion Awards. His Brooklyn Brothers/We Are Social Jaguar “Your Turn Britain” campaign won a Campaign Award and two Chartered Institute of Marketing Awards while his Partizan/Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R Vodafone Real Families Campaign won a British Arrows Craft Award in 2014.

Wonke is represented for film and television by Casarotto Ramsay and Associates, and by Partizan for commercials.

Personal life

Wonke is married with two daughters and lives in North London.

Filmography

Awards and Honours

Awards

• 2008 British Academy Television Award, British Academy Television Award for Best Factual Series: The Tower: A Tale of Two Cities
• 2008 RTS Award, Factual Editing: The Tower: A Tale of Two Cities
• 2012 History Makers Award, Best Current Affairs: The Battle for Marjah
• 2013 Edinburgh International Film Festival, Audience Award: Fire in the Night
• 2013 British Academy Scotland Awards, Best Single Documentary: Fire in the Night

References

External links

• Casarotto Ramsay and Associates
• Anthony Wonke's imdb page