LARRY WILSON is a screenwriter, director and producer whose feature film credits include BEETLEJUICE, THE ADDAMS FAMILY, and THE LITTLE VAMPIRE. Larry’s television credits include TALES FROM THE CRYPT, THE YEAR WITHOUT A SANTA CLAUS, and ALIENS FOR BREAKFAST. He is currently writing AINBO – an animated feature that is now in production with much for the animation being done here in Amsterdam. Larry was a Creative Executive at Paramount Pictures, working directly with Jeff Katzenberg, the former president of Disney Pictures and founder of DreamWorks. He has worked with great writer/directors like James Cameron, Kathryn Bigelow and Tim Burton. He also worked as a story analyst for Columbia, Warner Bros., Paramount, and Universal.

PAUL MILLER’s credits include THE BIRDER’S GUIDE TO EVERYTHING, starring Ben Kingsley, the documentary POOR CONSUELO CONQUERS THE WORLD for ARTE, SNOW ANGELS, directed by David Gordon Green and starring Kate Beckinsale and the Golden Globe nominated, A LOVE SONG FOR BOBBY LONG starring John Travolta and Scarlett Johansson, PROZAC NATION, directed by Erik Skjoldbjærg and starring Christina Ricci, Jessica Lange and Michelle Williams, and John Sayles’ Golden Globe nominated MEN WITH GUNS, the Academy Award nominated LONE STAR and The SECRET OF ROAN INISH.

Miller executive produced the documentary THE WORKER’S CUP which premiered at Sundance 2017 and is currently in post-production on SCALES directed by Shahad Ameen and HOW I GOT DIRECTED by Zeyad Al Husaini.

Paul is a partner at Amsterdam based The Foundry, which supports producers to package and finance their projects and United Arab Emirates based, Film Solutions, which develops and produces Arabic and English language content for the international market. Previously, Miller was Director of Film Financing at the the Doha Film Institute in Qatar and Head of Film Production at New York based Crossroads Films, under a first look deal with United Artists/MGM.

ERWIN OLAF emerged onto the international art scene with his series CHESSMEN, which won the Young European Photographer of the Year award in 1988. Starting his career as a photojournalist documenting the nightlife of the 1980s, Olaf increasingly sought and defined his own subjects, often explored in series of works in black and white (SQUARES, CHESSMEN, and BLACKS) and color (Mind of Their Own, Rain, Hope, Grief, Dusk, and Dawn). In recent years he has developed his themes through the form of monumental tableaux, for which he adopts the role of director as well as photographer.

His most recent work sees the conclusion of the three-part project Shifting Metropolises (working title), a series of artworks looking at internationally renowned cities undergoing seismic change in the modern world. Rather than fabricating a controlled studio environment, in this trilogy Olaf has shot on location for the first time, retaining his characteristic cinematic associations to produce a body of work wrought with the genuine emotions and neuroses of these places and their inhabitants.

Olaf’s bold approach to his work has earned a number of commissions from institutions, including Louis Vuitton, Vogue, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, and the Rijksmuseum. He has been awarded Photographer of the Year in the International Color Awards 2006 and Kunstbeeld magazine’s Dutch Artist of the Year 2014, as well as the Netherlands’ prestigious Johannes Vermeer Award in 2011. Additional international awards include the Silver Lion at the Cannes Advertising Festival and a Lucie Award for achievement in advertising, both in 2008.

Olaf has screened video work at the Centre Pompidou, Paris; Museum at FIT, New York; and Nuit Blanche Toronto, with a live score commissioned for his series Waiting. He has also projected his thirty-channel video installation L’Éveil onto the Hôtel de Ville for Nuit Blanche in Paris, curated by Jean de Loisy (Director, Palais de Tokyo). In March 2018, the Museu da Imagem e do Som in São Paulo hosted a retrospective of his work.

In 2018, the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, acquired five hundred key artworks from Olaf’s forty-year oeuvre for their collection. This followed official portraits Olaf made for the Dutch royal family in 2018 and his designing the new euro coin for King Willem Alexander in 2013. Rutger Pontzen, art critic for Dutch newspaper the Volkskrant, said, “Controversial or not, Erwin Olaf does give a picture of the Netherlands . . . and that makes him distinctive in Dutch photography. . . . In other words, his oeuvre belongs to the cultural heritage.” Now internationally renowned, Erwin Olaf’s photography remains an essential part of Dutch culture. Taco Dibbits, Rijksmuseum director, says, “His work is deeply rooted in the visual traditions of Dutch art,” and consequently Olaf is “one of the most important photographers of the final quarter of the twentieth century.”

In 2019, the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag and Fotomuseum Den Haag will host a joint anniversary solo exhibition for Erwin Olaf to commemorate his sixtieth birthday and celebrate his forty years of photography. The Shanghai Center of Photography will also host a solo exhibition that year, and the Rijksmuseum will host an exhibition with a selection of works acquired from Olaf in 2018.

RENÉE SOUTENDIJK achieved her star status in PASTORALE 1943 (1978, Wim Verstappen). In SPETTERS (1980, Paul Verhoeven) her name was finally established with the general public. A year later she played resistance fighter Hannie Schaft in THE GIRL WITH THE RED HAIR (1981, Ben Verbong). In 1982, Soutendijk played her first foreign role in the American television production INSIDE THE THIRD REICH (1982, Marvin J. Chomsky). One year after she played in THE FOURTH MAN (1983, Paul Verhoeven). In 1985 she received an honorary Golden Calf for her career.

In 1991 Renée played the leading role in a major Hollywood production: EVE OF DESTRUCTION (1991, Duncan Gibbins) and she played in the German television film DER MANN AUS DER PFALZ.

Renée Soutendijk was also featured in OP AFPETALING (1992, Frans Weisz), WITNESS (1994, Paul Ruven), the thriller DE FLAT (1996 Ben Verbong) and THE YEAR OF THE PROGRAM (1997, Frans Weisz), WITH BIG BLIJDSCHAP (2001, Lodewijk Crijns).

In 1998, 1999 and 2000 she played in German television productions such as HAUPTSACHE LEBEN (1998, Connie Walter), the trio series ALPHAMAN (1999, Thomas Jauch), DAS DELPHINWUNDER (1999, Christoph Schrewe) and episodes of the Krimi's SCHIMANSKI and TATORT. For her German television work she received the Adolf Grimme Preis in 1999.

Latelly she can be seen in Luca Guadagnino’s SUSPIRIA alongside Dakota Johnson, Tilda Swinton, among others.

JAN HARLAN joined Stanley Kubrick in 1969 for a film on Napoleon, which was unfortunately abandoned.

He later was executive producer for all Kubrick films such as THE SHINING, FULL METAL JACKET, EYES WIDE SHUT, BARRY LYNDON and worked on other unrealised projects with Stanley Kubrick.

After Kubrick’s death in 1999 he worked with Steven Spielberg on “A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE” and made documentaries on Stanley Kubrick and the actor Malcolm McDowell for Warner Bros.

SACHA POLAK is an award winning director and writer. She graduated from the Dutch Film and Television Academy in 2006. Her graduation project, the movie TEER, was selected for a number of international movie festivals.

Shortly after her project, TEER, the short movies EL MOURABBI (2007), DRANG(2008), ONDER DE TAFEL (2008) and BROER (2011) followed.

With her first feature film HEMEL (2011) she received great critical acclaim from the international press. The project was also part of the selection of many international film festivals, including the Berlinale Forum where it won the FIPRESCI award. (International Federation of Film Critics Award).

Two years after the success of HEMEL, Sacha came back, this time with the documentary NEW BOOBS (2013). The documentary revolves around the options woman have if they are carrying the genetically transmitted breast cancer gene. With this documentary Sacha got her second slew of International Film Festival selections, to great critical acclaim.

Her second feature film ZURICH (2014) got many positive reviews, and it als got selected for the Berlinale where it won the International Confederation of Art Cinema Award (C.I.C.E.A award) ,which is a jury price, for Best Film of FORUM.

Sacha's first English language feature DIRTY GOD (2019), which she directed and co-wrote, is the first Dutch film ever to have been selected for the Sundance main competition, and the opening movie of IFFR International Film Festival Rotterdam.

ORWA NYRABIA is the Artistic Director at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA). Nyrabia was born in Syria and made a name for himself in the documentary world as a film producer, curator and programmer – as well as a mentor, an activist and a lobbyist. 

 Nyrabia worked as an actor in theatre and film and as a journalist before, in 2004, he started to produce independent documentary films. His filmography includes succesful titles like Dolls, A Woman from Damascus (2008), Return to Homs (2013) and Silvered Water, Syria Self-Portrait (2014).  

 In 2008, Nyrabia and his partner Diana el-Jeiroudi set up the first documentary festival in Syria, DOX BOX, bringing renowned filmmakers such as D. A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, Patricio Guzmán and Nicolas Philibert to Damascus. To focus attention on the violation of human rights in his country, in March 2012 and 2013 he co-organised a Global Day for Syria, with Syrian films being screened in cities around the world. In 2012, Nyrabia was arrested in Damascus for his political activism. Prominent figures from the film world, including Robert Redford, Robert DeNiro, Juliette Binoche, Jeremy Irons, Mike Leigh and Danny Boyle, protested his arrest by the Syrian regime. Following release he fled the country, going on to work as a producer in Egypt and Berlin. He co-founded Proaction Film and later No Nation Films GmbH, to continue producing uncompromising documentaries and international co-productions. 

 Nyrabia is a member of the Academy for Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, the Deutsche Filmakademie, the International Documentary Association (IDA) and the European Documentary Network (EDN). He has received several awards and distinctions during his career, including the George Polk Award for Documentary Film and a European Documentary Network Award. He was appointed Artistic Director at IDFA in January 2018.

Co-host

ELS VANDEVORST booked tremendous success as a student when her film ALASKA (directed by Mike van Diem) won the Best Foreign Student Academy Award in 1990.

Later in the 90 ́s, Vandevorst and her former husband Wilfried Depeweg founded Isabella Films, named after their daughter. Isabella Films is a company that focuses on the production of feature films that appeal to an international audience.

Vandevorst (co)produced movies for acclaimed directors such as Lars von Trier, Alexander Sokurov, Thomas Vinterberg, Ágnes Kocsis and Christophe van Rompaey.

After the artistic success of THE SOUTH and WINTER IN WARTIME, Vandevorst founded N279 Entertainment with director Martin Koolhoven. Their first collaboration in N279 Entertainment was the film BRIMSTONE, but Vandevorst also aims to work with other talented directors. N279 has produced award-winning films, such as FRANCOFONIA by Alexander Sokurov, THE SURPRISE by Mike van Diem, IT’S ALL SO QUIET by Nanouk Leopold.

Upcoming films include DOMINO by Brian De Palma and EDEN by Ágnes Kocsis. N279 will co-produce the second feature film of Claudia Pinto and the new promising feature of Jasmila Žbanić.

From Isabella Films, Vandevorst, together with Isabella Depeweg, will produce two debuts of Muriel d’ Ansembourg and the promising Austrian director Constantin Hatz.

At twenty, RENÉ MIOCH went to the Cannes Film Festival for the first time and on radio spoke to film stars like Jack Nicholson, Mel Gibson and Nastassja Kinski.

René Mioch has been known as “Mr. Film” for more than thirty years and is considered “A star among stars.”

He was one of the founders in 2005 of FCCE, a company engaged in the production, distribution and exploitation of film-related content. FCCE also produces a daily newsfeed that goes to more than 49 countries. Thirty people work at the company headquarters in Amsterdam. The company has offices in Los Angeles and Beijing as well.

Mioch is also the initiator of the Rembrandt Award, the only online People’s Choice Film Award in the Netherlands.

He won an Emmy Award in 2013 with his business partner Justus Verkerk for The Entertainment Experience, a user-generated concept in collaboration with Paul Verhoeven.

FRANS WEISZ (born 23 July 1938) has directed 22 films since 1964. He made his first feature film in 1966, HET GANGSTERMEISJE, based on Remco Campert's same-named book.

His 1975 film RED SIEN was entered into the 9th Moscow International Film Festival. His film HAVINCK was screened in the Un Certain Regard section the 1988 Cannes Film Festival.

Frans also directed the film LEEDVERMAAK based on the play written by Judith Herzberg, which received 3 Golden Calves (Best Director, Best Actor and Best Actress).

The TV series BIJ NADER INZIEN were also awarded with 3 Golden Calves (Best Director, Best Actor and Best Actress).

In 1993 his film THE BETRAYED has entered into the 43rd Berlin International Film Festival.

In 2014 Frans directed FINN, a story of a boy who would rather play violin than football, was nominated for a Crystal Bear at Berlin International Film Festival.

His latest movie HET LEVEN IS VURRUKKULLUK, a feel-good movie about love and longing counts with Reinout Scholten van Aschat, Willeke van Ammelrooy, Geza Weisz among many others.

GÉZA WEISZ has started his career quite at an early age in series like ZOOP, IC, KEYSER & DE BOER ADVOCATEN, VERLIEFD OP IBIZA, and had major roles in movies like TIMBOEKTOE (film version of the book by Carry Slee), STERKE VERHALEN, and HAPPY END. Géza also lent his voice to the Dutch version of DESPICABLE ME 2, and, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2.

His breakthrough was in 2012 with his leading role as ‘David’ for the ALLEEN MAAR NETTE MENSEN movie.

In September 2014, the new series BLUF launched on Dutch television. Géza has one of the leading roles, together with Jan Kooijman, Javier Guzman, Najib Amhali and Yolanthe Cabau van Kasberen. In the same period, Géza played the leading role in the family film WIPLALA (screen version of the book by Annie MG Schmidt). ‘Wiplala’ was the biggest Dutch movie of the year, with a budget of around 7 million euros. The movie won a lot of national and international prizes.

In mid-2015, Géza appeared in a Dutch series called BAGELS & BUBBLES, again, as one of the leading roles. Also, he was seen in the second season of ‘BLUF’, and in ‘ALL-IN KITCHEN. Géza also in HET LEVEN IS VURRUKKULLUK, directed by his father Frans Weisz.

HOUSE OF VINEYARD "Put your drama in your dance and leave it on the floor". The Pioneering House of Vineyard, founded by Mother Amber Vineyard, has created platforms for the LGBTQI community what is now known as the Dutch Ballroom Scene. Together with Father Elly Vineyard, House of Vineyard spreads empowerment and safe spaces for those who don't fit into societies expectations of beauty, gender and sexual expression.

DJ MAFFIA aka HUGO METSERS: In the nineties, he became a well-known actor and participated in Dutch and foreign films (Little Sister, Casque Bleu, Wasted!, Siberia, Band of Brothers). He made his come-back as well-known actor on television in The Netherlands in Holland’s most popular soap opera Good Times, Bad Times. 
Also, he starred in the international Dream Works production Band Of Brothers as the leader of the Dutch resistance. He met Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, acted back to back with Damien Lewis and was directed by Phil Norton (X-files). From that time on he continued actively in acting, coaching and directing.

In 2012 his first feature ‘Raw’ was produced (‘The Devil’s Double’) and released at the Film by the Sea film festival and it was shown at different film festivals and is highly appreciated by established producers and colleagues.
In the same period, he raises schooling for film actors, an up till than non-existing form of education in the Netherlands. His foundation, faaam (film actors academy and masterclasses: www.faaam.nl) still initiates the now well-known education in The Netherlands.

Here he directed three features with his actor students: Arjuna, Estafette d’ Amour and Raw, all screened at the film festival Film by the Sea in 2012, 2013 and 2015. Also, he produced many features for the school, such as Free Game, Broken, Lust, Capsule, Me You He She, Project Fear, No Future, Where the Devil sleeps and Swipe me.

In his spare time, he’s also known as dj maffia.