---
name: "Ian Bonhôte"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/ian-bonhote"
fi1m_id: "ian-bonhote"
imdb_id: "nm0094524"
tmdb_id: 1642118
wikidata_id: "Q57735256"
roles: ["Producer","Director"]
born: "1 June 1977"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 1
average_as: "producer"
average_over: 0
updated: "2026-09-25T01:40:36.638889+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Ian Bonhôte

## Identity

Ian Bonhôte

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/ian-bonhote
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** ian-bonhote
- **IMDb ID:** nm0094524
- **TMDB ID:** 1642118
- **Wikidata ID:** Q57735256
- **Same entity:** https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q57735256, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0094524/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1642118

Producer and director. Born 1 June 1977 in Genève, Switzerland.

## Details

- **Work:** Producer, Director
- **Born:** 1 June 1977, Genève, Switzerland
- **Also known as:** Иэн Бонот
- **Elsewhere:** https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q57735256, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0094524/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1642118

## Streaming the US now

- **Netflix:** [*Rising Phoenix*](https://film.one/film/rising-phoenix.md) (74)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Ian Bonhôte

> As a producer and director, Ian Bonhôte favours polished documentaries with plenty of ceremony. We like his attention to what people can do, though *Rising Phoenix* shows how readily distinct lives become the same encouraging story.

In *Rising Phoenix* (2020), athletes are posed like classical statues. Ian Bonhôte produces the film and co-directs with Peter Ettedgui, giving Paralympic sport a grand, carefully arranged presentation. He wants us to look closely at what these athletes can do, and he makes that a pleasure. It is an affecting introduction to the sport, worth seeing despite a tendency to make different lives resemble the same encouraging story. Bonhôte takes his subjects seriously; the trouble comes when he makes admiration feel like the only permitted response.

His early work in music videos and commercials was followed by *Alleycats* (2016), an action thriller set among London's underground bike racers. The turn to documentary came with *McQueen* (2018), co-directed with Ettedgui and structured around Alexander McQueen's runway shows. Personal archives and interviews supply material, but the work provides the way through the life. The pair continued from *Rising Phoenix* to *Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story* (2024), drawing on family archives. Across these documentaries, Bonhôte favours chapters and carefully presented interviews over an unobtrusive, observational approach.

We were moved by the competition footage in *Rising Phoenix*, because the athletes' skill gives us a clear reason to care. The insistent music is less helpful. It keeps reinforcing an admiration the images have already earned, while the crowded storytelling reduces the time available for each person to emerge separately. His use of strong close-ups and wide shots shows an interest in both personality and setting. That visual care works better than the pressure to find the same uplift in everyone.

His production partnerships include Andee Ryder, with whom he co-founded Misfits Entertainment; Ettedgui remains the recurring co-director on the documentaries. Their shared authorship matters when assessing both the thoughtful presentation and the heavy emphasis. We would welcome less musical prompting and more room for the individual stories, not a wholesale change of approach. Start with *Rising Phoenix* for the athletes and the competition, and be prepared for the soundtrack to offer more encouragement than either needs.

## Biography

Ian Bonhôte is a Swiss documentary filmmaker, director and producer. Born in June 1977 in Geneva, he has worked on several feature documentaries.

His credits include directing *McQueen* (2018), *Rising Phoenix* (2020), on which he also served as producer, *Alleycats* (2016) and *Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story* (2024). He has received BAFTA nominations for his work.

*Sources: imdb.com, themoviedb.org, cinecanon.com.*

## On Fi1m (1)

- *Rising Phoenix* (2020), Fi1m 74, Director, Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/rising-phoenix.md)

## Complete filmography (17)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Jaripeo* (2026), Executive Producer
- *Black Is Beautiful: The Kwame Brathwaite Story* (2025), Producer
- *Love & Rage: Munroe Bergdorf* (2025), Executive Producer
- *Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story* (2024), Director, Producer, Co-Writer
- *I'm Still Here* (2023), Executive Producer
- *The Contestant* (2023), Producer
- *Donna* (2022), Executive Producer
- *The Road of Excess* (2021), Executive Producer
- *Rising Phoenix* (2020), Director, Producer — Fi1m 74, [page](https://film.one/film/rising-phoenix.md)
- *Viking Destiny* (2018), Executive Producer
- *McQueen* (2018), Director, Producer
- *The Recall* (2017), Associate Producer
- *Alleycats* (2016), Director, Story, Executive Producer
- *Alleycats* (2013), Director, Writer, Executive Producer, Producer
- *In the Blackout* (2009), Director, Writer, Editor, Executive Producer, Producer
- *CIVA*, Director, Producer
- *Girl Next Door*, Executive Producer

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/ian-bonhote