BIOGRAPHY

Sanne Kortooms is an award-winning director and screenwriter. In 2010 she graduated with honors from the Utrecht School of the Arts. Her graduation film De Blauwe Bus was awarded at various festivals in the Netherlands and abroad.

Sanne’s black comedy To Catch a Fly became quite the festival hit. After its premiere at the Nederlands Film Festival, it was showcased at many festivals around the globe between 2018 and 2021. It earned Sanne multiple prizes including 5x the award for “Best Director of a Short Film” (i.e. at North Hollywood CineFest), 4x the win for “Best Short”, and 3x the “Audience Award”.

To Catch A Fly now streams at BitPix an USA streaming service hosted by Oscar Qualifying Film Festival Holly Shorts (where the movie was shown at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood). BitPix choose To Catch a Fly as their ‘Pic of the Week’ in July 2021. The film is also available on Vimeo On Demand.

To Catch a Fly also drew the attention of American producers, so as of the summer of 2023, Sanne is working on her first American-Dutch feature film, a psychological thriller called Clover (working title).

In addition to her own short films, commercials, music videos, museum installations, live shows and theater, Sanne also directs documentaries. In the fall of 2023, her first feature-length documentary, Custaryans (made together with Chiel Christiaans, Timon Moll, and Judith van Vliet), will premiere. Set against the backdrop of the chilly Dutch postwar climate, the film tells stories of items deposited for safekeeping during World War II, their Jewish owners, and their keepers. 

Sanne also made two seasons of the documentary series Dagboek van Onze Helden  (in 2015 and 2017). For this, she traveled several times – only with a cameraman – to conflict zones in Mali and Somalia. The encounters she had only piqued Sanne’s interest in soldiers and their stories. In 2018 and 2019, she directed the Ridderzaal ceremony for Veterans Day. A 60-minute (live) show consisting of film, theater, live speakers, and music. The ceremonies were performed in the presence of King Willem-Alexander and shown on NPO 1. 

In 2021 Your Moral Courage / Not Everything Is What It Seems the short fiction film Sanne made for the renewed museum of the Camp Vught National Memorial, was a winner at the New York Festivals TV & Film in the category: Social Responsibility – Not For profit.

Recent film projects are the 30-minute fiction film and live theater performance REAIM set in the near future when AI takes over weapon systems and begins to play an unpredictable role in global conflicts and wars. The film was made for a major global conference where people came together to reflect on and discuss these scenarios. Tine Joustra (The Hitman’s Bodyguard), Fahd Larhzaoui (El Houb), and Sytske van der Ster (A Small Light) amongst others played lead roles.

Furthermore, together with filmmaker and dancer Feike Santbergen, in response to the war in Ukraine, Sanne made the experimental short L’Ombre Du Doute. The film played at several festivals but it was especially moving that it was screened at the Wiz-Art Festival in Lviv, Ukraine, in December 2022.

Sanne writes (besides film also opinion pieces and articles), directs, interviews, and develops concepts. She does so as a freelancer, for her own productions or on assignments, like for commercial brands such as Philips, ABN AMRO, Kras, and BMW, but also for the government (from Defense to the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the Public Prosecution Service and Justice) and for cultural institutions such as Camp Vught National Memorial.

In all her work, either fiction or documentary, Sanne always tries to focus on people and their personal stories or psyche. She conveys those aspects to the audience with great enthusiasm. It is her goal to let her viewers fully immerse in a world they (might) have never experienced before and make them wonder about themselves and the world we live in.


PERSONAL AWARDS

Wins
– Best Director Short Film – To Catch a Fly – North Hollywood Cinefest, Los Angeles, CA,USA
– Best Fantastic Short – To Catch a Fly – FilmQuest Festival, USA
– Winner Social Responsibility – (your) Moral Courage – New York Festivals Film & TV, USA

– Best Director Short Film – To Catch a Fly – Goldon Short Fest Rome, IT
– Best Dutch Short – To Catch a Fly – New Renaissance Film Festival Amsterdam, NL 
– Director Alumni Award 2020 – International Watersprite Film Festival, Cambridge, UK
– Best Director – To Catch a Fly – Anatomy International Film Festival, Athens GR 
– Best Comedy Short – To Catch a Fly – Falcon Film Festival London, UK
– Audience Award Best Film – To Catch a Fly – Night of the Short Film, Antwerp BE 
– Best Director -To Catch a Fly – Zuidelijk Film Festival, NL
– Audience Award Best Short Film – To Catch a Fly – Short Film Festival Kalmthout, BE
– Best International Short Film chosen by the jury – To Catch a Fly – Short Film Festival Kalmthout, BE
– Best Director – To Catch a Fly – Scorpius Fest, Park City, USA
– Audience Award Best Film – To Catch a Fly – Zuidelijk Film Festival, NL
– Audience Award – De Blauwe Bus – NTR New Arrivals, NL
– Best International Student Film – De Blauwe Bus – Watersprite Cambridge Student Film Festival, UK
– Best Student Film – De Blauwe Bus – Film Front Festival, NL

Nominations
– Best Director – To Catch a Fly – FilmQuest Festival, USA
– Best Film Best – To Catch a Fly – Night of the Short Film, Antwerp BE
– Best Film Best – To Catch a Fly – Zuidelijk Film Festival, NL
– Best Short  – De Blauwe Bus – Krakow Film Festival, PL
– Best Film – De Blauwe Bus – In The Palace International Short Film Festival, HU
– Best Student Film – De Blauwe Bus – Kenya International Film Festival, KE
– Best Director – De Blauwe Bus – Watersprite Cambridge Student Film Festival, UK
– Best Screenplay – De Blauwe Bus – Watersprite Cambridge Student Film Festival, UK
– Best Student Film – De Blauwe Bus – Leiden International Film Festival, NL
– Best Student Film – Mooie Mond en Mijn Ogen Groen – Sehsuchte Student Film Festival Berlin, DE
– Best Weblog Literature – Sannq – Dutch Bloggies, NL