Franziska Schönenberger, daughter of a Swiss father and a Bavarian-German mother, studied journalism, as well as directing at the University of Television and Film Munich. Jayakrishnan Subramanian was born in Tamil Nadu, India. According to his parents' wish, he attained first a degree in mechanical engineering before following his true calling, studying art at the Madras University in Chennai, and graphic design at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad. Then Franziska and Jay met in this globalised village somewhere between Munich and Mumbai and started working together.
Subsequently, Jay moved to Germany to obtain a master in media art from the Bauhaus University in Weimar. In their films, both try to integrate their diverse cultural, artistic and creative background. Therefore their feature-length crosscultural documentary AMMA AND APPA was their first trial, which premiered at the Berlinale International Film Festival. The film toured more than 50 festivals worldwide. It won and was nominated for several awards like the Berlinale Dialogue en Perspective, Documentary Talent Award Dokfest Munich. THE SHADOWS OF THE DESERT, their second feature documentary, photographed by Christopher Aoun, the two time Academy Award-nominated cinematographer, premiered in competition at Dokfest Munich and the São Paulo International Film Festival. Both films played in cinemas in Germany.
Their first fictional ventures are the short film RETTAI JADAI - THE GIRL WITH THE RED RIBBONS, where they have cast actress Kalieaswari Srinivasan of the Palme d'Or winning film Dheepan. The film recently won an award at the Indian competition the Oscar-qualifying Bengaluru International Short Film Festival. MY MIRROR their second short film premiered at International Film Festival Hof and doing rounds at the festival circuit now. Their works were shown in Los Angeles, Warsaw, Mumbai, Melbourne, Cannes, Toronto, Kopenhagen, Tromso or Teheran. Recently they got a scriptwriting grant to develop their narrative debut feature film in German and Tamil, BRIDE WITHOUT DOWRY. Franziska and Jay share their time between Munich and Pondycherry. Both love fiction but also reality.