Thessa Meijer
director
Thessa Meijer is an award-winning director whose work is characterised by dreamy magical realism with a humorous undertone. Her commercial-debut with Ace & Tate won the first ever Young Director Award at the 2020 ADCN awards – perhaps not surprising to anyone familiar with her successes in the world of fiction. When graduating in 2015 from the HKU University of Arts, she was immediately awarded the Netherlands Film Festival’s Dioraphte Award and a Wildcard from the Netherlands Film Fund. What followed was a mid-length television film, ‘The Day My House Fell’, which screened at several international festivals and got selected for the Debut competition at the Netherlands Film Festival. Her music video ‘Mind Dear’ premiered on Nowness, was shown at SXSW Film Festival and got nominated for a 3FM Award Best Video. SXSW also picked her project ‘HEAT’, a short romantic comedy horror film featuring the acting debut of Dutch influencer Famke Louise, for their 2020 edition.
Her first collaboration with HALAL, a project leading to signing the talented director to its commercial roster, was the short film ‘The Walking Fish’. The fantastical tale wowed the 2019 Young Director’s Award jury and earned her the Special Jury Prize and a Gold Screen. It was also awarded the prestigious Grand Prix at the 2019 Ciclope awards. The film was the 2020 Oscars submissions for the Netherlands in the Short Film category and was nominated for a Golden Calf award (Dutch Oscars) to mention some. The film wrapped up an astonishing festival run by releasing online as Vimeo Staff Pick. Most recently Thessa was hand-picked for a prestigious Cinéfondation Festival de Cannes residency, where she began the process of writing her debut feature, VOLCANO GIRL.