Matchmaking

During her time at the Utrecht School of the Arts, Fé Baan (2002, The Netherlands), experimented with film while pushing the boundaries of her educational projects. her first film ‘vannacht logeerde ik in mijzelf en vanochtend besloot ik er te blijven wonen’ was part of the official selection of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) 2026. Besides being a filmmaker, she is an activist who wants to explore how she can use her films as activism in the broadest sense. She not only makes films for the cinema but has also exposed her work in installation contexts.

Pirke Bergsma is the founder of Pirke Productions BV, an Amsterdam-based full-service creative boutique production company specializing in high-end video and photo content. With over 20 years of experience, he has worked with national and international brands such as Samsung, Nike, Adidas, Coca-Cola, Nissan, Grolsch, and Eneco, as well as leading advertising agencies. In addition, he works as a creative agency producer and music producer.

Growing up in the Tel Sell era, Joey always wanted to become an inventor. But after failing to invent the next Quick ’n Brite or Boogy Bass, he guided his creativity elsewhere: Advertising. Joey aims to do advertising like Dennis Bergkamp did football. Because solving problems makes people content, but solving problems in a creative and surprising way makes people happy.

Heather Cook is a sync music executive, producer, singer-songwriter, director, and author with 20+ years in the music industry. She holds degrees in Music Business from Belmont University (B.A.) and Berklee College of Music (M.A.). She founded Cookin’ Up Music and later spent a decade as a sync ad creative at peermusic, plus roles at Eternal Music Group, Nashville Film Festival, and Founding President of Nashville In Sync. She now leads Freedom Music Group, securing placements with Target, the Super Bowl, Grey’s Anatomy, UFC, NHL, Love Island, and more. As an artist (Brewster Bee), manager (Tabitha Meeks), and author of Music for Marketing & Brands, she bridges creativity + artist advocacy.

After graduating from the Film Academy in 2016, Maarten Ernest began working as an editor, gaining experience across short films, fiction and documentary series, commercials, music videos, and feature films. Since January 2024, he has been based at the Piet Heinkade in Amsterdam, where he shares a studio with Fatih, alongside sound designer Regard Ibrahim and editor Yamal Stitou. Notable projects include feature films such as Dit Is Geen Kerstfilm (2024), Straf (2025), Vakkenvullers XL (2026), Melk (2024), and documentaries such as Boef (2020), What’s Left (2022), and Goldband: Tot We Breken (2025).

Jazon Eugenio, also known as Jay Prince, is a London-based artist, producer and Founder & Creative Director of Quasi & Kin, a creative music house crafting music and sound worlds for advertising, film, fashion, sport and global brand campaigns. As an artist and creative, Jazon has built an international career collaborating with Tyler, The Creator, Estelle, Yussef Dayes, Jay Electronica, Paul Epworth and more, with his work taking him to Coachella and headline shows across Europe, the US and Asia. Through Quasi & Kin, he brings together composers, producers, sound designers, artists and catalogue partners, with recent work for Arsenal, Chivas Regal, L’Oréal and Guinness.

Tom Fekkes (1992) graduated from the Breda University of Applied Sciences, during his studies, International Media and Entertainment Management, he spent half a year in Kouvola, Finland to study design at the Xamp university of Applied Sciences. After his studies he worked as a freelance editor on fiction productions as well as doing commercial work. In late 2022 Tom changed roles to post supervisor, currently working in house at Pupkin Film in Amsterdam.

César García is a multidisciplinary creative problem solver with over 15 years of experience. Born in Spain and raised in a family of hardware enthusiasts, he developed an early knack for MacGyver-style thinking and a passion for making things work in unexpected ways.

After a brief stint in football and early explorations in art and marketing, he found his true calling in creativity. He has worked across a variety of agencies, creating campaigns for global brands such as adidas Football, Philips, Porsche, KitKat, Apple, and Volkswagen. Today, Cesar works as an independent Creative Director, collaborating with agencies and brands on projects that demand top-tier creative thinking.

Olivier S. Garcia is a documentary filmmaker who graduated from the Netherlands Film Academy in 2016. His youth documentary Skip & the Rhythm Rangers (Witfilm/NTR) was selected for the IDFA Youth Competition. He later directed Torso (Tangerine Tree/EO) for Teledoc Campus, premiering at the NFF. Garcia also created the record-breaking Videoland series Gewoon Boef. His work often explores identity, masculinity, and social issues, including Een Gat in Mijn Hart (Omroep Zwart), In Between These Mountains (KRO/NCRV), Feis Forever (2025), and Goldband: Tot We Breken.

Laury Hooghuis (1993) is a filmmaker and director based in Amsterdam. She creates films that evoke a sensory and embodied cinematic experience. Sound plays an essential role in her work, shaping the consciousness of her characters. Her short film Policed Mind (2025) had its world premiere at the International Sound & Film Music Festival in Croatia and has been nominated for multiple awards both nationally and internationally. Her earlier work Under Reconstruction (2020) was featured by de Volkskrant as “Artwork of the Week.”

Hyo Soon Kaag is a writer and director. After making several short films, she is now working on her feature film debut – an autofictional story that offers a personal perspective on identity and adoption. Until 2025, she was also active as a policy officer for the Dutch Academy for Film (DAFF), various professional associations, and organizations in the film and television sector, and since 2026 she has been a board member at Kunstoord.

Shanice Kamminga is a director and screenwriter with a passion for genre storytelling. She earned a degree in Psychology and began her film career as an actress. She was one of the winners of the Netflix New Voices script competition as well as a semi-finalist in the Nicholl Fellowship. Her short Always & Forever was bought by Disney+ and screened before Sentimental Value and Bruce Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere in film theaters across the Netherlands. Her short film Other was nominated for a Méliès d’Argent at Imagine Film Festival. her short The Malthus Law is in post production. She also directs commercials.

Mira Mendel graduated from the University of Amsterdam with a Film and Television degree. Afterwards she attended New York Film Academy for a film making course. During her studies she worked for advertising company 180 Amsterdam, an international advertising agency with many international clients. After returning from New York City she started working at Interakt as a producer and CEO for documentaries, series and features. As core activity Interakt aims for primarily high-quality, in addition to realizing artistic, socially relevant, historical, literary, musical, accessible and intellectual, also educational documentary films and later drama productions.

Nafiss Nia is a (screen)writer, director, poet, literary translator and public speaker. She makes feature films and documentaries and has published three collections of poetry. Since January 2026, she has been writing the weekly column ‘In één woord’ (In one word) for the daily newspaper Het Parool about the first language experiences of new Amsterdammers. As founder and director of the Granate Foundation, she creates and produces cultural and artistic programs and activities that combine poetry with film, dance, calligraphy, and other art forms.

Anneliek is a dedicated film editor, driven by creativity and guided by a human-centered approach. She has a keen sense of rhythm and narrative. Her work spans the spectrum between fiction and documentary, with a particular interest in hybrid forms and a love for experimentation.

She sees film as a gesamtkunstwerk and believes that close collaboration between different departments elevates the final result. She enjoys working intensively with other creators. Her collaboration with director and screenwriter Tjeerd Dam even led to her involvement as a directing assistant on the film ‘Ketchup’, in addition to editing.

In 2023, Anneliek graduated from the Netherlands Film Academy with the films ‘Cinder’, ‘Merhamet’, and ‘On the Edge of Life, I Saw a Film’, for which she received the Filmmore Editing Award at the Keep An Eye Film Academy Festival. Since then, she has worked on a range of different projects showcased at various film festivals. In her work, she continually seeks the tension between form and content, and explores ways to make a story not only told, but felt.

Nicky Onstenk has been working as a producer at IJswater Films in Amsterdam since 2019. She graduated from the Netherlands Film Academy and has since produced award-winning short films and documentaries, including Spotless (winner of the Berlinale Crystal Bear, 2022), Magma (Berlinale Generation, 2023), Dunya (2021) and Luc (2022). In 2024, the Telefilm Pariah premiered internationally at the Fantaspoa International Fantastic Film Festival, and the preschool series Little Goat Squad was recently broadcast on NPO Zapp. Several film projects are currently in (post-)production and development.

Jade is an Executive and Creative Producer at Mathematic Studio. With a background in CGI, animation, motion design, VFX, production and art direction she leads projects ranging from luxury campaigns to video game trailers. She started her career in the electronic music scene as a digital marketing manager at a record label, an influence she now brings into her trailer work. Former Head of Production at a CGI studio, she worked on Love, Death & Robots and Secret Level, and produced high-end CGI films while developing a photogrammetry studio collaborating with fashion brands, game publishers, and film productions. Her credits include as well sonic 2, Terminator: Dark Fate, the substance…

Charlotte has worked throughout different aspects of the music industry for the last 15 years, with a detour through book publishing. With a background in rights management and creative sync & licensing, she has been responsible for the exploitation of commercial and production music catalogues through film, series, advertising, games and other moving media. In 2024 she joined the Bell Music Supervision team as music supervisor working exclusively on films and series. She’s worked on feature films like Hardcore Never Dies, Joe Speedboot, Treat Her Like A Lady, Bad Boa’s, Boomers, and Netflix series Roosters S1, S2 & S3 and Football Parents S1 & S2.

Biserka Šuran (Koper, Yugoslavia, 1989) is a Dutch-Croatian film director. Her debut film Scenes with My Father premiered at the IDFA festival in the Envision Competition in 2022. Scenes with My Father has won the award for ‘Best Documentary’ at the Trieste Film Festival in Italy and the ‘FIPRESCI Award’ at Beyond Borders festival in Greece. In 2024, she was one of the selected 3Package Deal talents: the talent development program of the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts.