Harald Swinkels is a Dutch writer-director and founder of Exosphere. His films examine the surface traits that allow audiences to forgive the unforgivable, and the moment that forgiveness curdles into complicity.

His debut short Drawback (2024), starring Claes Bang, won 44 international awards. A dialogue-free ode to the visual arts, and a playful rebuke of film convention, it established his register: controlled, unsentimental, and unafraid.

In 2025, Swinkels produced Beyond Silence, directed by Marnie Blok. The film won at Tribeca and Palm Springs and was shortlisted for the 2026 Academy Awards in the Best Live Action Short category. Working on a film about intergenerational trauma shaped his own practice as a director.

Odessa (2026) is his third film and his first shot on 35mm anamorphic. A period piece set in the final days of the Second World War, it turns his interest in moral complicity on the audience itself.

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Harald Swinkels

Director

Writer

Producer

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