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Jan Bolender was born and stud­ied in Mainz, worked as an assist­ant dir­ect­or in Ber­lin and finally did his Mas­ter of Arts in film dir­ect­ing in Ham­burg. In 2014 his fea­ture film “Der Sieger in Dir” was screened on ZDF. 2017 he staged his first theatre play “Life is a bitch — oder wie ich gestern meine Zukun­ft fand”. Since he’s 16 Jan is paint­ing and has had exhib­i­tions in Mainz, Frank­furt a. Main and Ber­lin. He is work­ing and liv­ing in Berlin.

EDUCATION
2005  dip­loma in graph­ic design at FH Mainz
2006-08  1st and 2nd AD for sev­er­al TV Movies and shorts
2010  Mas­ter of Arts in film dir­ect­ing at Ham­burg Media School

directing/ act­ing and cam­era courses with Stefan Krohmer, Friedemann Fromm, Götz Spiel­mann, Frank Bet­zelt, Kai-Ivo Baul­itz, Michael Ball­haus, Jo Heim, Mareike Fell a.o.

TEACHING
2010  film pro­ject at Leu­phana uni­ver­sity Lüneburg
2013  film course at FH Mainz

WORKS

films

error 415: love (2016)
Der Sieger in Dir/ The win­ner with­in (ZDF, 2012)
Freigänger/ Walk free (short, 2010)
Weit­er laufen / can­’t stop run­ning (short, 2008)
Gefunden/ Traced (short, 2008)
else (short, 2008)
7 (short, 2005)
Nachbarn/ neigh­bours  (short, 2004)
Der let­zte Soldat/ the last sol­dier (short, 2004)

the films have been screened at more than 60 fest­ivals around the world

theatre

Life is a bitch — oder wie ich gestern meine Zukun­ft fand (script and dir­ect­or, Vag­anten Bühne Ber­lin, 2017)
Das Geheim­nis der Irma Vep (dir­ect­or, Vag­anten Bühne Ber­lin, 2017)
Hard Candy (dir­ect­or 2nd phase, Ufer­hal­len Ber­lin, 2015)

radio plays

Monte Velho (2019)
Der Beton­flüster­er (2018)

exhib­i­tions of paint­ings (since 2006)

l’Ateli­er, Berlin
Galer­ie Dikmay­er, Ber­lin: group exhibition
Markus-Kranken­haus Frank­furt a. Main
Landgericht Mainz
Park­hotel Nierstein
Wein­haus Weinel, Mainz
Galer­ie in der Römer­pas­sage, Mainz: group exhibition
Prax­is Dr. L. Riedel, Mainz

PRIZES and NOMINATIONS

2019 prize for best radio play at Leipzi­ger Hör­spiel­som­mer for “Der Betonflüsterer”
2018 1st prize at Ber­liner Hör­spielfest­iv­al in sec­tion “das kur­ze brennende Mik­ro” for “Der Betonflüsterer”
2017 1st prize in com­pet­i­tion “Dekalog” of the Guardini found­a­tion for “Der Sieger in Dir”
2012/13: EATC Writ­ing Bursary for the script of „Der Sieger in Dir“
2011: nom­in­a­tion for best short of Max-Ophuels-Pre­is 2011 for „Freigänger“; 2nd prize best script, Lions Inter­na­tion­al  Short Film Con­test, Istan­bul for „Freigänger“
2010: Batiplus Award of the Aes­thet­ism, Time Film Fest­iv­al Lausanne for „Weit­er­laufen“; prize of the Landeszen­t­rale für polit­ische Bildung Rhein­land-Pfalz for „Weit­er­laufen“; 2nd prize best short FILMZ Fest­iv­al Mainz for „Weit­er­laufen“
2005: 1st prize in the com­pet­i­tion „Nach­haltigkeit“ of the Fra­port AG for „Nachbarn“