Anthony Wonke

Anthony Wonke is a film director. ==Career== Anthony Wonke is an Emmy and triple BAFTA winning director and an Oscar nominated Executive Producer. He has also won, amongst other awards, the Prix Italia, Peabody, Grierson and RTS for his films. Anthony is known for his original feature documentaries Ronaldo, Being AP, Fire in the Night, The Battle for Marjah as well as his documentary series The Tower: A Tale of Two Cities. He is currently working on a major production for Disney, which will be announced soon. Wonke's work ranges across a variety of genres always highlighted by intelligence, visual flair and emotional insight. His work has been shown at film festivals in the USA, Canada, the Far East, and the UK, as well as being televised on BBC 1, BBC 2, Channel 4 and HBO. In 2016, Wonke was the executive producer on the Oscar nominated short Watani: My Homeland. The 40’ documentary follows the story of a family’s escape from the Syrian Civil War, and their attempt to start a new life in Germany. In 2015, he released his latest theatrical features Ronaldo with Universal Pictures and Being AP with BBC Films. 'Ronaldo' is an intimate and definitive portrait of Cristiano Ronaldo, voted the world’s best football player. It was 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' received its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. 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 premiere 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 premiere 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. 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.