Three Windows on South West

Mariia Ponomarova | Documentaire, War | The Netherlands, 2023, 8 min

Three windows face south-west and a balcony faces south-east. It’s Mariia’s apartment in Kyiv. Through three phone calls, Mariia tries to reclaim home, and its image.

Samenspraak

Douglas Alan Robson, Sandra Kornips | Documentaire, Social | The Netherlands, 2025, 16 min

Local volunteer Francine helps Nimra to learn Dutch and to experience the Netherlands through her own unique perspective. Together, they work on building Nimra’s future in the Netherlands and we see two apparent opposites become close friends.

Crushed

Camille Vigny | Documentaire, Social | Belgium, 2023, 12 min

Summer is the season for stock cars. The cars get ready for a long day of racing that will end in their total demolition. While observing these metallic wrecks, Camille reminisces about that violent summer when she was 18.

Brainbeats

Silke de Vos | Documentaire, Youth | Belgium, 2025, 16 min

Boris (10) notices that his grandfather Jan (73) is forgetting more and more. He doesn't even know how to set the table or tie his shoelaces anymore. Yet there is something that will always connect them: their passion for music! Boris takes Grandpa to his DJ lessons, where they decide to create a song together; a memory that will remain. As Grandpa's world gets murkier and murkier, Boris doubts they can make their dream come true: will they ever get on the radio with their own brainbeats?

A Long-Standing Story

Anna Lozinska, Daria Mutsaieva | Documentaire, War | Germany, 2023, 8 min

Vika and Anna, two Ukrainian women displaced abroad, decide to join the volunteer center "Blue-Yellow Cross" in Cologne to provide humanitarian aid to their home country. While packing medical backpacks, they discuss their personal motivations and the importance of their work. 

Still by my side

Jasper van Leeningen | Documentaire, Human Interest | the Netherlands, 2025, 7 min

In this documentary, people share why they choose to have their deceased pets preserved through taxidermy. While the taxidermist uses foam, clay, and glass eyes to try to bring back the animal’s soul, the owners reveal what drives them: a longing for something to hold onto, for comfort, and for keeping alive a bond too precious to let go.

IMMATURE

Eddy Wu | Documentaire, LGBTQ+ | the Netherland, 2024, 6 min

An animated documentary that explores the fluidity and complexity of gender identity through the lens of body imagery. The film delves into the evolving experiences of a transgender gay man, capturing the nuances of his self-exploration. By highlighting the beauty in the ongoing process of becoming, challenging societal norms and conventional gender frameworks.

Bart Hölscher

Bart Hölscher (1963) is a self-taught filmmaker. He develops and directs documentaries, documentary series, and commissioned films. With the arrival of regional television in 1995, he made his first TV programs and series. He now has more than twenty-five titles to his name. His first international project was the documentary series 'Hemelse spijzen', followed by the series 'langs 's Heeren wegen'. His most successful documentary, 'Het zijn maar Duitsers', reached over a million viewers and won him several awards.

Eugenie Jansen

Eugenie Jansen is a Dutch director of documentary films and fiction features and a combination between both genres. She graduated in 1991 at the Netherlands Film Academy. Her debut film ‘Tussenland’ (2002) won a Tiger Award at the Rotterdam Film Festival, ‘Calimucho’ (2008) premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, just like  ‘Above Us All’ (2014), a conceptual 3D film about mourning set against the backdrop of the Great War Heritage industry in Ypres, Belgium.

(bron: website lecturers MASTER OF FILM | artistic research in and through cinema)

Gert-Jan van Stiphout

Gert-Jan is co-founder of Kool Cult and Coördinator of ZOZ Academy Limburg. He is a multidisciplinary creative professional with a background in concept development and project management. Gert-Jan also has years of experience in coaching and teaching.

Nina Landau

Nina Landau (b. 1986) holds a Master's degree in Criminology (2008) and a Bachelor's degree in International Politics (2010) from the Free University of Brussels (VUB). She started her career in the media and film industry in 2012 as a journalist at the Flemish Radio and Television Broadcasting Association. 

Between 2013 and 2017, she worked for production companies Motionmakers and Sputnik Media and produced audiovisual content for the public sector and NGOs. However, she missed the social involvement of her previous journalistic work and after a Postgraduate in International Research Journalism at Thomas More University in 2017 she decided to focus on documentary film production. She started working as a creative producer at Associate Directors, an Antwerp-based production company specializing in auteur- driven documentary films for the Belgian and international markets. Since 2025 she is a partner in the company, next to Mark Daems, Bram Crols and Jan Lapeire.

Martijn Blekendaal

Martijn Blekendaal is a versatile director, programme maker and researcher with a keen eye for touching and relatable stories. In 2018 he released the highly acclaimed youth documentary The man who looked behind the horizon which won the IDFA Special Jury Award for Children's Documentary that same year. In 2024 he was back to IDFA once more with his documentary The Invisible Ones which premiered during the festival. He is currently working with Omroep Zwart on the NPO series, Ondergrondse Sporen.

Martijn often operates as a script and directing coach for documentaries as well as a guest lecturer for the Nederlandse Filmacademie. Since 2010 Martijn has been the director of the visual art gallery Studio BOEF.

Safirah Dijkstra

Safirah Dijkstra is a dramatist at VPRO‑HUMAN. Since 2019, she has also been working for De Ontmoeting as a project manager.

Safirah studied Theatre, Film, and Television Studies at Utrecht University and earned her master’s degree in Arts, Culture, and Politics from the University of Amsterdam. Previously, she worked as Marketing & PR Manager for distributors Cinema Delicatessen and Amstelfilm.

Louisa Vergozisi

Louisa Vergozisi (1998 / Volos, Greece) is a visual artist, photographer, filmmaker, and curator based between Venlo and Athens. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Maastricht Institute of Arts (2020). Since graduating, she has worked in both fine art and journalistic photography for various publications, and has also taught photography in schools, with a focus on storytelling through images. Vergozisi is a member of the FLUJAS Collective, which supports the professional development of artists and promotes interdisciplinary collaboration.
 

John Appel

John Appel studied Classical Literature at the University of Amsterdam and graduated from the Netherlands Film Academy in 1987. He has since directed more than 40 documentaries, many of which have won (inter)national awards. His film André Hazes - Zij gelooft in mij (1999) was awarded the IDFA Joris Ivens Award while his next project The Last Victory (2003) was nominated Best European Documentary and awarded two Golden Calfs. Among others reward and selection, his documentary The Player (2009) was notably awarded the IDFA Award for Best Dutch Documentary. His latest film Sprekend Nederland (2018) was nominated for the Prize of Film Criticism at the NFF. John often produces in collaboration with filmmaker Heddy Honigmann (VOF Appel&Honigmann).

John mentors at international workshops such as Aristotle Workshop (Romania), Close Up (Middle East), EDN (Portugal), DocLab (the Netherlands) among others and is a regular guest lecturer in documentary at the University of Cluj (Romania). He also served as juror at major festivals such as IDFA, Karlovy Vary, Visions du Réel, Guangzhou… etc.

Astrid Bussink

Astrid Bussink studied film at Edinburgh University in Scotland. Her debut The Angelmakers (2005) won the First Appearance Award at IDFA and many other international awards.  After this, she continued her filmmaking prowess with Behind the Tower (2013, Golden Calf), Giovanni and the Water Ballet (2014, Generation jury prize at Berlinale) and LISTEN (2017, IDFA Special Jury Award Children's Documentary). Astrid worked as Youth Editor-in-Chief at the VPRO and now works as an advisor on documentaries for the NPO Fund, as dramaturge & coach for several directors and is a documentary directing teacher at the Dutch Film Academy. 

Astrid is currently working on a new documentary series.

Kelly van den Goor

Aliens Who Hurt Themselves

Kelly is a graduate from the Fontys Academy for the Creative Economy. She makes poetic documentaries about human and non-human intimacy. Her work often explores themes such as sexuality and queerness, such as the project she will develop within the framework of DOCvillage.

Annika van den Born

De wereld is niet roazn'd, moar de minse!

Annika holds a master in Visual Anthropology from the University of Amsterdam. She focuses on human and social issues particularly interested in the complexity of social and cultural structure. She has been a Junior assistant producer for Witfilm since 2021.

Matthias Hoekman

Maker in beweging

Matthias Hoekman is a versatile Dutch filmmaker with over a decade of experience in editing, directing, and producing documentaries, TV programs, and short films. He co-founded Hoekman Brothers and has collaborated with Omroep Zeeland and DPG Media. His work includes award-winning films like The Peeker and the acclaimed documentary Eindelienge.

Maria Cristhin Kuiper

All Under One Name

Maria graduated from the University of Maastricht with a bachelor in Media Culture. She went on to continue her studies in Honk Hong where she received a master in Journalism. There she also worked as a reporter for the AFP News Agency for 2 years. With All Under One Name she focuses on family dynamics and short comings of upbringing and asks the question: What is a Mother that hasn't raised you?

Ivo Kraan

Meer ku'j d'r niet van maek'n

Ivo graduted from Hanzehogeschool Groningen. His documentary Ik ben ook iemand (2021) on the Noorderkroon Award for Best Short Documentary. Ivo likes to focus on social themas and stories from his environment, through observation and truly listening. His approach is careful and engaged with an emphasis on mutual trust and doing justice to the story.

Maren Køgel Mandt

My fathers daugther

Maren holds a bachelor degree in TV and Documentary directing from the Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences.  She worked for many televised projects and notably tv series Logger (2022-2024) Farmen (2023-204). Her current project My Father's Daughter sets focus on an intimate portrayal, including meta-elements as the filmmaking process will be part of the final narrative.

Karen Andersen

Letters from Hell

With a degree in Natural and Cultural Heritage Management, Karen likes to experiment with archives and memories. During DOCvillage she will work on her current project, a film that aim to link hers and her former classmates former selves and their nowadays selves.

Iia Seleznova

Train 104

Iya is documentary director from the Ukrainian Catholic University. She has been active for few years in film, commercial and music video production. She aims to capture meaningful stories that go beyond personal experience, but talk about bigger issues. Her current project looks at the current situation in our home country, between war zones and safe space.

Oleksandra Pleteneska

I Remember

Oleksandra Pletenetska is a Ukrainian director and cinematographer whose award-winning work explores themes of trauma, memory, and the subconscious. A graduate of Kyiv’s Karpenko-Kary University, she has participated in residencies across Europe, including with Béla Tarr. Her films, such as When Will The Warmth Come?, blur the line between reality and perception.

Viktoriia "Nika" Saravas

The Diver

Graduate of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv with a degree in Business and Economics, Viktoriia “Nika” is a journalist as well as a documentary maker. On top of her researches, investigations and film career, she works for NGO the Federation of Greek Societies of Ukraine. She is also a member of the Youth Council at the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications of Ukraine as the head the cultural heritage department.

Viktoriia Ivanova

When the Silence Grows

Viktoriia is an aspiring animation director and documentary filmmaker based in Kharkiv. She currently studies art histories at the Kharkiv Karazin University. She likes to work with stop-motion animation, dedicating her films to legends and local narratives of Kharviv with an humorous undertone; their non conformist nature often pushes the audience to unpack and discover the layers of her stories,

Nicole Jachmann

The Forgotten Years

Nicole Jachmann is a Dutch writer and director based in Berlin, known for her poetic and intimate films exploring absence, time, and connection. Her short film Funkele premiered at Berlinale 2022 and won multiple awards, while her debut feature The Part of the Day When You Are Not Here is in development. She studied Journalism and Liberal Arts & Sciences, and her work has received support from the Dutch Film Fund, Limburg Film Fund, and international talent labs.