Film Talents to Cannes 2023

Dutch Film Talents to Cannes is a training and networking program during the Marché du Film of Festival de Cannes, where new film professionals (first five years of their professional career) work in a pressure cooker on specific skills and abilities, expand their national and international network and kickstart concrete projects and ambitions. Not only through an extensive network and training program on location during the festival, but also through an intensive pre- and post-process, special
events such as network dinners and talent drinks and one-on-one meetings with industry professionals specifically tailored to the maker's needs. /organisations, such as funds, streamers and producers.

Before and during Festival de Cannes, CineSud works with numerous national and international partners to ensure that the selected participants receive the best training and networking opportunities. These include the Cannes Court Métrage, German Films, SEE NL, the Netherlands Film Fund and the Netherlands Film Commission, partners from the European Film Commission Network and partners from Screen Talent Europe.

The Selection of New Professionals

The selected filmmakers were announced on March 3, 2023 during the Euregion Film Forum in Maastricht and are:

• Karel Konings, film: Birdcage (Limburg, supported by CineSud)
• Julian Verkerk, film: Jäger (Groningen, supported by New Noardic Wave)
• Sophie van de Pol, film: Late Check-Out (North-Holland, supported by CineSud)
• Angelo Raaijmakers (North-Brabant, supported by Playgrounds)
• Lau Zautsen (Limburg, supported by CineSud)

To find and represent talent throughout the Netherlands, we collaborate with the Screen Talent NL network, New Noardic Wave and Playgrounds.

Collection New Dutch Film Talents

In addition to these participants and their films, CineSud is bringing three more short films to Cannes in the New Dutch Talent collection: HUSOM by Mandula van den Berg and Job van Aken, STRIPPED DOWN by Nathalie Roux and GOUDHAAN by Sem Dingemans. The films will be presented at the SFC Rendez-Vous Industry, featured in the catalogue and online and brought to the attention of broadcasters, streamers, distributors and festivals, among others.

More information about the program and the participants can be found here.

Sophie van de Pol

Sophie van de Pol graduated as a director at the Maastricht Theater Academy. Since 2014 she has worked as a screenwriter and director. Not for theatre, for which she was officially trained, but for film. She has discovered the tragicomic genre and felt how much she likes to find the balance between drama and humour.

Karel Konings

Karel Konings is from Belgian Limburg and made his directorial debut with Charlie Z. In 2022 he made the short film Jägers. The film was shown at the Netherlands Film Festival 2022 and is now distributed by Agence du Court Métrage. Later that year he also made Vogelkooi as part of CineSud ShortsLab, which will now go into distribution. Karel is determined to combine acting, directing and writing to create films that will captivate audiences for generations to come.

Julian Verkerk

Julian Verkerk is a filmmaker from Groningen. He is not only busy in Groningen and the Netherlands, but also in the rest of Europe. His work (and with it 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. This makes his films 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 from fantasy, thriller and horror. He has an international ambition and would like to explore and feel what his place in the world of genre-crossover filmmaking could be.

Lau Zautsen

Lau, née Laurens Zautsen, is a visual artist, performer and filmmaker based in Utrecht. Lau, born in Limburg, subsequently obtained a bachelor's degree in Audiovisual Media at the HKU University of the Arts Utrecht. Their work explores colourful worlds, peoples and emotions. This is often accompanied by a touch of theatrical and a touch of humour, but remains rooted in social realism.
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