Klaartje Quirijns (1967) grew up in the Netherlands and, after graduating with a law degree from the University of Amsterdam, has been working as a journalist and director since 1992. Klaartje Quirijns moved to New York City in 1998 where she lived until 2007. Since 2007 she has been living with her family in London.

Award winning Filmmaker Klaartje Quirijns (she was the first one to win the prestigious documentary 50.000 euro stipend from the Prince Bernard Cultural Fund, she was nominated for the European Academy Award, other prizes include the Prix Italia 2012, Jury prize Festival International du Film des Droits de l'Homme, Paris, 2008, Special mention of the jury of IDFA 2007, Special mention of the jury of Movies that Matter 2007, Best documentary at Film Noir Festival, Courmayeur, 2007) started out her career as a TV journalist, producing reports for Dutch television's most important investigative program.

In 2005 she directed The Brooklyn Connection, a study of gun-running in the US which explored the thin line between being a freedom fighter and a terrorist and in 2007 The Dictator Hunter (2007), which focused on the struggle to get dictators prosecuted. Quirijns received particular praise in 2012 for her film Peace vs Justice (2012), a critical look at The Criminal Court in the Hague, which examined the moral dilemmas that arise in the pursuit of Western ideals of justice. Her documentary, Anton Corbijn Inside Out (2012), was a portrait of the renowned Dutch photographer and filmmaker and the complex forces that drive him. (After premiering at the Berlinale, it had a theatrical release in the UK).

She has just finished, Your Mum and Dad (2019), an essayistic film, drawing on psychoanalysis, about the roles we play, scripted by our family and how we might break through these patterns by understanding them. (produced by Pieter van Huystee/Eyeswidefilms)

Her films premiered at Tribeca Film Festival, IDFA, Toronto International Film Festival, Berlinale and International Film Festival Rotterdam.

In 2013, Quirijns began to direct fiction films. Her first work was Speelman (2013), a story of a marriage, which premiered to great acclaim at the Dutch Film Festival in the Netherlands. The short version View On A Marriage was acquired by Shorts International.

Klaartje Quirijns is working on two new films: The Dictator Hunters, a fiction film based on her documentary (2007 The Dictator Hunter). (produced by Anne Carey). The Detour, a full-length fiction film based on a book by Gerbrand Bakker, winner of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2013 (written by Bastiaan Kroeger/ Gareth Humphreys produced by Jeroen Beker/Submarine/Savage film/Patrick Cassavetti).

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Klaartje Quirijns

Director

Writer

Producer

Cinematographer

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