VAYM productions

Yvonne Sonyaa App and Michael Zimmer are the owners of VAYM Productions. They work together with a big network of creatives in Berlin.

YVONNE SONYAA APP studied modern German literature and Latin American studies at the Free University of Berlin and Humboldt University in Berlin. She gained her first experience as an assistant director in radio drama before completing an internship as a television journalist at the production company autoren(werk). Since then, she has been producing reports and documentaries for broadcasters such as ZDF, ARTE, ARD, and rbb. For her first report as a director—Fünf Freunde—Große Klappe—she was awarded the rbb Media Prize for Diversity AMIKO.

In 2017, she founded the production company VAYM Productions and has since been working as a writer, director, and producer of her own formats. In addition to her journalistic work, she has collaborated with advertising agencies and companies, creating event films, commercials, and branded content.

MICHAEL ZIMMER works as a Director of Photography and editor for German TV stations, publicity campaigns, music videos, and NGOs. He originally studied Cultural Studies, but in the late 1990s turned to filmmaking within the globalization-critical movement. Since then, he has built a diverse career behind the camera.

In 2020, the film Der Engel der Geschichte (dir. E. Esser), which he shot as DoP, won the Flensburger Kurzfilmtage along with numerous other festival awards. In 2021, My Way – Helmut Lachenmann (dir. W. Pöpel), also shot by him as DoP, received the Deutscher Dokumentarfilmpreis.

Passionate about his craft, he sums it up simply: “I love my cam!”