Sophie van de Pol

Dutch Film Talents to Cannes project | Uitchecktijd (Late Check-Out)

Sophie van de Pol graduated as a director from the Toneelacademie Maastricht in 2014. Despite her training in theater she started working as a screenwriter and director in cinema instead. She thrives through the tragicomic genre and finds her inspiration in balancing between drama and humor.

Karel Konings

Dutch Film Talents to Cannes project | Vogelkooi (Birdcage)

Karel Konings comes from Belgian Limburg and he made his directorial debut with Charlie Z (2020). In 2022, his short film Jagers was screened at the Nederlands Film Festival 2022 and is now being distributed by Agence du Court Métrage. Later that same year Karel was selecected into the CineSud ShortsLab development program where he developed his short film Vogelkooi which release in March 2023.

Julian Verkerk

Dutch Film Talents to Cannes project | Jäger

Julian Verkerk is a filmmaker from Groningen. He is not only busy with his position as a maker in Groningen and the Netherlands, but also in Europe. His work (and thus his fictional world of Klethoven) consists of an enormous composition of various elements from the film and design history of Scandinavia, France, Germany, the Czech Republic, Italy, Belgium and England. As a result, his films are accessible to a wide European audience.

Angelo Raaijmakers

Angelo Raaijmakers is a filmmaker who lives and works in Rotterdam. He makes genre-crossover films, in which he tries to make psychological issues and themes physical, by using elements of fantasy, thriller and body horror. He has an international ambition and would love to investigate and feel what his place in the world of genre-crossover filmmaking could be.

Lau Zautsen

Lau, née Laurens Zautsen, is a visual artist and filmmaker from Utrecht. They obtained a Bachelor's degree in Audiovisual Media from HKU and are currently pursuing a Master's degree in Lens-Based Media at the Piet Zwart Institute Rotterdam. Their graduation film won the Filmfonds Wildcard. Their work explores colorful worlds and emotions, often from a queer perspective. Lau's work includes short fiction, documentary, performance art, and immersive media.

Nathalie Roux

Dutch Film Talents to Cannes project | Stripped Down

Nathalie Roux is a filmmaker from Groningen, the Netherlands. She graduated from the Maastricht Theater Academy as an actress, but she always had making her own movies in mind. With her background as an actress and her love for film she started writing and doing more than acting in this industry, Stripped Down is her first official short film. The story of Stripped Down arose from something very personal, in which she mainly focus on how skewed the relationship sometimes is between women and men.

Uitchecktijd (Late Check-Out)

Directed by Sophie van de Pol

13' | 2023 | Tragicomedy | The Netherlands

Produced by Ijswater Films

Synopsis

Ans (63) and Jaap (65) go for a week's vacation to their regular, all-inclusive hotel in Zeeland together with their son Harry (29) . When Ans notices Harry falling in love there, she realises that her son has indeed grown up and that it might be time to let him go.

Vogelkooi (Birdcage)

Directed by Karel Konings

15’ | 2023 | Thriller | The Netherlands

Produced by Karel Konings | CineSud ShortsLab 2022

Synopsis

Nurse Marielle watches in horror as the doctor injects poison in a ten-year-old boy with supernatural powers; a measure that seemed necessary after the death of one of their staff. After the doctor informs Marielle that Patient 76 will also be put to ‘sleep’, she rushes off to save him.

Jäger

Directed by Julian Verkerk

13’ | 2022 | Drama | The Netherlands

Produced by Cinedrama

Synopsis

When the sexual tension between police detectives Bert and Frank is pointed out by the German man in the trunk of their car, they first need to overcome their own masculinity before they can proceed with the mission.

Stripped Down

Directed by Nathalie Roux

10’ | 2023 | Experimental | The Netherlands

Produced by DotInk Cinema | CineSud ShortsLab 2022

Synopsis

A woman is done adjusting, shrinking, sacrificing space, laughing the offences off, being called too sensitive or hysterical. In order to become who she wants to be, she will bid her farewell to who and what she was.

Husom

Directed by Job van Aken en Mandula van den Berg

8’ | 2023 | Drama | The Netherlands

Produced by Job van Aken

Synopsis

A 82-year old Hungarian called Abigél lives in a small house in a Dutch suburb. Her life is completely consumed by habit and the outside world barely reaches her. The highlights of her day are the daily phone calls she gets, where she can explain everything that’s happened to her.

Goudhaan

Directed by Sem Dingemans

21’ | 2022 | Drama | The Netherlands

Produced by Sem Dingemans & Faculty of Arts, Utrecht

Synopsis

Easygoing Dennis runs an almost bankrupt carwash with his authoritarian father, Theo, whom he keeps trying to prove himself to in an unhealthy way. When Theo starts a relationship with his new young girlfriend, problems and tensions between father and son increase.