BIOGRAPHY

DIRECTOR - ESTER GOULD

Ester Gould is co-owner of The Other Room and one of the Netherlands' most prominent directors. After her master's degree in film and television studies (University of Amsterdam/Tisch School of the Arts, New York), she learned documentary practice from Heddy Honigmann and worked as her researcher, first assistant and line producer for many years. She was also the (co-)scriptwriter of various documentaries. In 2015 she won the IDFA Award for Best Dutch Documentary with her feature-length documentary A Strange Love Affair With Ego and received the Documentary Stipend from the Prince Bernard Culture Fund. In 2016 she co-directed and co-produced the festival hit Strike a Pose (screened worldwide at festivals and by Netflix) and was named one of Europe's “Female Filmmakers to Watch” by Variety. Together with Sarah Sylbing she directed and produced a diptych about Dutch poverty (50 Cents and Cathleen’s Turn) and stood at the cradle of the award-winning documentary series Debt Society (winner a.o. of the Silver Nipkow disk, Journalist of the Year) and the TV hit series Class, for which they developed their own production model. She also produced several successful impact productions through the partnership Sylbing & Gould. Ester has considerable experience in teaching and coaching documentary makers (e.g., IDFAcademy & NPO Fund Workshop, Kids & Docs Workshop, St. Joost Academy of Art and Design, Dutch Film Academy).

SELECT FESTIVALS

BERLINALE 2016〡TRIBECA 2016〡HOT DOCS 2016〡ATHENS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2016〡CPH:DOX 2016〡BAFICI 2016〡JEONJU 2016〡DOCAVIV 2016〡SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL 2016〡BIOGRAFILM 2016〡FRAMELINE FILM FESTIVAL 2016〡HELSINKI INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2016〡FESTIVAL DO RIO 2016〡MILLENNIUM DOCS AGAINST GRAVITY 2016