Rotterdam Films



Dirk Rijneke & Mildred van Leeuwaarden

Provenierssingel 33 | 3033 EG Rotterdam
info@rotterdamfilms.nl | +31 104658565
Company website


Rotterdam Films is an independent production company founded in 1980 by Dirk Rijneke and Mildred van Leeuwaarden. It produced and co-produced more than 45 documentaries and fiction films mainly for cinematic release.

They worked with directors from all over the world like Krzysztof Kieslowski, Béla Tarr, Mrinal Sen, Carlos Reichenbach, Alejandro Agresti, Balint Kenyeres, Bathasar Kormarkur, Ása Helga Hjörleifsdóttir and Ricky Rijneke.

Their films were selected for numerous film festivals worldwide such as Berlin, Rotterdam, Toronto, Cannes, Venice, Locarno, Sarajevo, Hong Kong, Sao Paulo, Montréal, New York.

Their core-business is to support directors; emerging talent as well experienced filmmakers, whose perspective and approach don’t result in a middle-of-the-road film but will be a proof of original and interesting auteur cinema intended for an international audience.


CURRENT PROJECTS

A Letter from Helga

Director: Ása Helga Hjörleifsdóttir. 
Screenwriters: Ása Helga Hjörleifsdóttir, Bergsveinn Birgisson, Ottó G. Borg. 
Cast: Hera Hilmar, Thorvaldur Kristjansson, Anita Briem, Bjorn Thors. 
Country: IS/NL. Produced by Zik Zak Filmworks and Vintage Pictures IS. 
Co producer: Rotterdam Films. 
Status: Completed.
Sort: Feature-length film.
Duration: 112 min. 
Genre: Drama. 
Language: Icelandic. 
Sales: Icelandic Film Center.

In an isolated community in Iceland, among wondrously beautiful mountains, In an isolated community in Iceland, among wondrously beautiful mountains, valleys, and rocky shores, passionate and forbidden love is pitted against fidelity, inheritance, and obligation.

A Letter from Helga
released in Iceland by Sena Film was five times nominated for the Edda Award 2023 and won two Edda’s for best supporting actress and actor.

Worldpremiere Tallinn Black Night 2022, Göteborg FF 2023, Seattle IFF 2023.

Trailer A Letter from Helga

Ása Hjörleifsdóttir is an Icelandic writer and director, born in 1984. She graduated from the Columbia University Film MFA program with her thesis film Ástarsaga (“Love Story”), a 2013 finalist for the Student Academy Awards. After her critically acclaimed first feature film The Swan (premiere TIFF 2017).
A Letter from Helga is Ása’s second film, an adaptation of the novel Reply to a Letter From Helga by Bergsveinn Birgisson.

The Hunter

Director/ screenwriter: Ricky Rijneke.
Cast: Jeroen Perceval, Zélie Rixhon, Jan Bijvoet, Yoann Zimmer, Kristien De Proost. 
Country: NL/IS/PL/BE.
Co producers: Vintage Pictures (IS), Balapolis (PL), A Private View (BE).
Status: Post-production.
Duration: 100 min.
Genre: Drama, Nordic noir.
Language: French / English.

In winter, when the snow blurs all the contours in the landscape, the girl Yuri becomes 14 years old. Her father Lorenzo decides that she is now old enough to carry the rifle that is passed down for generations. Yuri is allowed to shoot her first deer. Lorenzo, Yuri and her uncle Ivan drive deep inland into the mountains for a hunting trip. But this celebration and almost ritual initiation, Yuri’s ‘rite de passage’, takes a disastrous and fatal turn.

Second feature by critically acclaimed and multi-award-winning director Ricky Rijneke was selected for the Torino Film Lab Script & Pitch, The Sam Spiegel International Film Lab and the TIFF Talent Lab of the Toronto International Film Festival. The Hunter was presented at the Venice Gap-Financing Market of the Venice Film Festival.

Ricky Rijneke is a film director, scriptwriter and editor. Her first short Wing, the fish that talked back premiered at the Locarno Film Festival and was nominated for the Golden Leopard for young talent. This award-winning film gained international acclaim at more than 50 international film festivals. 

Her first feature film Silent Ones premiered in competition at the 42nd International Film Festival Rotterdam nominated for the Tiger Award.

It won eleven awards out of fifteen nominations, among others Best Film in New York, Berlin, Los Angeles and Toronto (Best Female Director).

Trailer Silent Ones

(Image: still from The Hunter)