CZAR

ADAM HASHEMI

Adam was born in Copenhagen in 1978. He started his filmmaking career during high school by making small films & art projects. Adam has a significant tone of voice as a filmmaker. It put him on the top shelf of Scandinavian directors in a split second, and within the last year, he reached the top of the UK and US markets as well. This has lead to several acclaimed collaborations with top agencies such as Wieden+Kennedy, and his work was displayed in big arenas such as the Super Bowl. At the moment, Adam is developing a feature film in Los Angeles with screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker (Se7en, Fight Club) through mutual reps Creative Artists Agency. He continues to direct commercials worldwide. Among other awards, Adam won D&AD’s Yellow Pencil for best director in 2011.

ANDREAS NILSSON

Andreas, a director noted for his dark, surreal and playful style, produces a consistently inspiring body of work. Having grown up deep in the Swedish countryside, Andreas moved to Gothenburg to study the noble arts of painting and sculpture. This, combined with his immense interest in music, led him to direct a music video for a friend’s band and he hasn’t stopped ever since.
Andreas has created dazzling videos for major artists ranging from Royksöpp to Kanye West, David Guetta and Robbie Williams.
His latest spot for Volvo Truck “The Epic Split”, featuring Jean-Claude Van Damme, is one of the world’s most successful viral campaigns ever. It won 3 Grand Prix Cannes Lions, launching Andreas to the status of most-awarded director worldwide. In 2016 he won the coveted DGA for Outstanding Achievement in Commercial Direction. Andreas is most known for his visually dynamic sense of humor.

BART TIMMER

During his studies at the Film Academy in Amsterdam, Bart started working as a video assistant to Thed Lenssen. From moving cables, working as a production assistant and doing video assist, Bart quickly proceeded to directing commercials himself. Bart’s professional growth to a leading commercial director went hand in hand with the development of the most talked-about creative teams in The Netherlands. The strength of Bart’s storytelling lies in his extreme attention to detail, his timing and humour. This, combined with a natural talent for directing actors, makes him one of the best directors that The Netherlands have to offer. SHOTS magazine listed Timmer as one of the Top 10 directors worldwide.

BILLY POLS

Billy Pols grew up in South Africa where he spent his early years on a farm making slasher films with his siblings. After moving to The Netherlands he studied to become an art director, but continued to flirt with film. Billy specialized in visual communication. His award winning work is often regarded as photographic with a poetic human touch, underlining his vision of filmmaking that a concept needs to be visualized, not just registered. PLANK, his short documentary, has won multiple international awards and is a perfect example of how this vision creates international success.

FLORIS KINGMA

After completing his study in economics, Floris started as a commercial producer at AT5 (Amsterdam Television Network). Cutting costs -he’s an economist after all- he found the REC-button himself. While his parents considered this as a complete waste of college money, he continued shooting humorous stuff.  Nowadays, Floris directs commercials worldwide via CZAR, giving his parents the feeling of return on investment after all.

HAUKE HILBERG

Born in 1982 in Duisburg, Germany, Hauke began directing at age 12 when he found an old 8mm camcorder and started making stop-motion films. He graduated from the renowned Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg in 2011, and ended up becoming one of the most successful graduates of his year.

In 2010 Hauke had already joined forces with CZAR Germany. Shortly thereafter he landed his first Nike job, and was featured on the cover of Shots Magazine. He has since shot commercials for clients such as Expedia, Cosmopolitan, Mercedes Benz, VW, Sony Ericsson, Toshiba, HEAD and Orange.

He is still interested in finding new techniques (analog, digital, anything) and enjoys maintaining the diversity in his reel. Hilberg believes the quality of digital work in general is being forced to improve. “80 per cent of online campaigns are complete bullshit and users are very fast with their feedback. It’s getting harder to impress them. There are only a few ideas that people say ‘wow’ and tell their friends about. This is the way we have to go, I think, to have such quality in the production that everybody wants to see it.”

JEPPE RØNDE

Jeppe was born in Aarhus, Denmark, and worked as a professional musician until he graduated in Film Science and Art History from the University of Copenhagen. He had his feature debut in 2003 with “Jerusalem My Love”, which won numerous international awards. With his second feature film, “The Swenkas”, he won, among others, Best International Director at Toronto, a Robert (Danish Oscar) and got a European Oscar nomination.
Rønde went on to direct a critically acclaimed TV-series -8 episodes- for the national Danish Broadcasting Union (Danish BBC) called “The Quatraro Mystery”.
Rønde was voted best commercial director of Denmark in 2010, and in 2013 he won two Cannes Lions, a gold and a bronze one for direction and cinematography. Jeppe’s last feature film ‘Bridgend’ premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2015, winning 3 of the 6 main awards.

JEROEN ANNOKKEE

Jeroen Annokkeé (1973) attended The Netherlands Film and Television Academy in 1996 and graduated in 2000 with the films ‘Tinus & Henkie’ (Tuschinski award dutch FIlm Festival 2000) and ‘Unwired’ (Mandela Award, Dublin 2000). Ever since he has been working as a director for commercials, shorts and comedy television series at companies such as Motel Films, IJswater Films, CCCP and CZAR. In 2002 he directed the short film Roadkill (Silver Melies 2003, Grand Prize of European Fantasy Short Film in Silver and was presented a ‘Golden FIlm Award’ at the Dutch Film Festival 2003). For his commercials he won several prices such as the ‘Gouden Loekie 2005’ and multiple ‘ADCN lampen’ (Art Director’s Guild Holland) including the director’s award 2010. Jeroen also directed the short film ‘Sugar’, a collaboration with NTR, LEV pictures and CZAR, which won a lot of international prices. On top of that, Jeroen was awarded with several Golden Loeki’s.

Joe Vanhoutteghem

Joe started out as an animation director of commercials but developed into a very versatile all-round director. In 1999 he joined fellow director Koen Mortier to establish the production company Czar in Brussels which quickly became one of the most creative production companies on the Belgian market.
Joe’s distinguished style and taste for the surreal won him the CCB Film Director Award two consecutive years with the Keytrade Bank spot (2006) and his public announcement commercial ‘Smoking animals’ (2007). The spot T-man for Tiense Suiker (2012) melted everyone’s heart and won a string of awards: a silver CCB award for Direction, an Effie, Topshot Award for Best Belgian TV Commercial and Bronze for Animation at the Cannes Lions.
He directed many remarkable and award winning films for international clients such as Sexual Abuse Awareness ‘Innocence and danger’ (Silver Lion for Direction), Amnesty International, Arte, Randstad, Unicef and Nike.
Joe also has a soft spot for music videos. He directed for Belgian talent like The Hickey Underworld (‘Blond Fire’: Best Video at Camerimage Festival, Best Pop Promo International Short Film Festival Louvain, ‘The Frog’: Best Alternative Music Video UKMVA), Balthazar and Triggerfinger, and for the international band Editors.
In 2010 he released his short film ‘Rivers Return’ which was selected for, among others, the international competition of the prestigious Pardi di Domani section at the Film Festival of Locarno.
His ‘Ice Skating’ film for Ikea won two awards at Eurobest 2018: Silver for Best Film and Bronze for Best Direction.
Under the alias of Lionel Goldstein he directs films together with his friend and fellow director Koen Mortier. Both adepts of the absurd, they are set on constantly pushing the boundaries.

JONAS GOVAERTS

With his award-winning shorts ‘Of Cats & Women’ (Golden Méliès 2008), ‘Abused’ (Best Short and Audience Award at the BIFFF 2010) and ‘Forever’ (Joseph Plateau Prize 2005 for Best Belgian Short), as well as the Flemish cult television series Super8 and Monster!, Jonas Govaerts has been internationally recognized as an exciting new genre director, whose feature-film debut ‘Cub’ was met with a lot of acclaim and the necessary controversy.

Jonathan Herman

Born in London but raised in the Netherlands. He studied jazz guitar for quite some time after high school, but found his real passion within photography. Quickly Jonathan discovered he had a great feeling to films, ultimately choosing to make a living through this.

He started developing an eye for comedy by directing a very successful dutch comedy series before moving into advertising. His films can best be described as humorous and heavily reliant on beautiful art-direction, focusing mainly on making commercials, fiction, and photographs.

His work is well received by not only his audience but by his peers alike as can be seen in the amount of awards Jonathan gathered throughout his career, for instance a Golden and a Bronze Lion, three ADCN Awards, and various other European advertising organisations.

JUDITH VEENENDAAL

A heavy heart in a light body. Judith Veenendaal’s style can best be characterized by simplicity and lightness, in awe of the  mondain and everyday life. Through her cross-medial passion for film, music, photography, dance and theater Judith opens herself up to every new experience that constitutes her creative work. Constantly in development and constantly on the lookout for new ways to share her stories. All this comes together in a totally fresh and relevant collection of films. As a token of her creativity, Judith received a Young Director Award during the Cannes Lions Festival in 2017.

Kenneth Mercken

On his way to becoming a professional cyclist, Kenneth Mercken discovers his body isn’t responding to the illegal, yet generally used performance enhancing drugs. He decides to turn his back on his boyhood dream and on a whim, enrolls in a film school.

In 2011, he graduates from RITCS in Brussels with ‘The Letter’, a short film based on his cycling experiences. It won him the VAF-Wildcard and was screened at numerous international festivals.

His first feature film ‘COUREUR’ will have its international premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. It will be released in cinemas on 13.03.19!

In addition, he recently undertook his first steps in advertising with a commercial for the biggest youth radio station in Belgium, Studio Brussel. The film is immediately picked up by the SHOTS website and he was interviewed for their New Directors section in SHOTS Magazine. Encouraged by these positive reactions, he continues to work hard to develop and refine his craft.

Koen Mortier

After being location hunter and location manager, grip, sound editor, assistant director and many other things in cinema, Koen decided that directing was maybe the most easy job to make a living in the film business. At the age of thirty he started making short films of which “A Hard Days Work” won several international prizes.

In 1999 he established CZAR in Brussels with fellow director Joe Vanhoutteghem. In no time the company was one of the most creative in Europe because the emphasis of CZAR is on the directors. They were, and still are, the driving force behind the company.

Koen directed many remarkable commercials and was chosen best commercial director in several countries, for example Belgium for Orange and TNT, Holland for RVS, Italy for Leroy Merlin and Germany for Hornbach. He won numerous international awards. His TNT commercial ‘Push To Add Drama’ even reeled in more than 50 countries.

Meanwhile Koen started to direct feature films of which his first, ‘Ex Drummer’ (2007) premiered at the Rotterdam and the Toronto International Film Festivals. The film won awards at Fantasia Film Festival, Raindance and the Warsaw International Film Festival. His next film ’22nd of May’ premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and won awards at the Leeds, Mexico and Baghdad International Film Festivals. His latest feature film ‘Un Ange’ (2018) premiered recently at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Under the alias Lionel Goldstein, he directs absurd films with his friend and fellow director Joe Vanhoutteghem. They were awarded many times for their work and won at least eight Lions at Cannes.

Kristoffer Borgli

A skateboard and a video camera. These two items dominated Kristoffer Borgli’s Norwegian youth before he went on to study film at film school.
His music videos have been screened at festivals all over the world, earning him several prizes from the Canadian International Film Festival Award to the Norwegian Grammy (Spellemann), to name just a few.
Furthermore, ‘Syndromes’, his short film collaboration with The Golden Filter is screening at this year’s SXSW short film competition. Kristoffer’s work is a combination of amazing visual poetry and daring storytelling.

LIeven Van Baelen

His first steps in advertising were as a telecine operator and he quickly became one of Belgium’s leading colour graders. Later on he started working as a director of photography on commercials and music videos, which he occasionally still does on his own projects. In 1999 he directed his first short film ‘The Thread’. Subsequently he won several international directing awards. Early on, in 2006, he won a Eurobest Award and a Gold CCB (Creative Club Belgium) Award for the Dexia ‘Club Brugge’ commercial. He continued to develop his craft and has directed for major international brands such as Heineken, Grolsch, Canon, Coca-Cola, Nissan, Renault, Citroën & Ikea. In 2014 he directed the music video ‘Ta Fête’ for amazingly popular artist Stromae. The clip was a hit and won best video at the Music Industry Awards and the Red Bull Elektropedia Awards.

At this moment Lieven is developing his first feature film ‘True Biker’, which will be produced by CZAR.

Lionel Goldstein

Lionel Goldstein is the alias of Belgian directing team Koen Mortier and Joe Vanhoutteghem, co-founders of CZAR Brussels.
In 2001, Koen and Joe decided to have Lionel follow a path that was different from the directing careers they had established individually. With the absurd, near documentary style Lionel adopted, he almost immediately won international acclaim. There were several Golden Lions at Cannes and a BAFTA for Best Director.
Lionel’s world is absurd, sad and funny but believable and relevant at the same time. Based on the original concept, he usually rewrites the script, adding forementioned elements to emotional situations and characters the viewers empathise with. Over the years Lionel’s reel has come to encompass a wide range of sharp and witty films that certainly bring some extra flavour to the international advertising landscape.

Luc Schurgers

Determined to be a ‘70’s kid, Luc was born in 1979, in Berg. He spent his early childhood in the countryside before moving to the big smoke when he was 18 where he discovered a whole new world of technology and media. He studied at Amsterdam’s Fashion Institute, completing a BA in Visual Marketing and then on to The National Centre for Computer Animation in Bournemouth where he did an MA in Animation and VFX. In 2005 Luc set up the award winning animation studio in Amsterdam Minivegas (now Pet Gorilla). Their award haul includes gold, silver and bronze Lions at Cannes including one gold, one silver and two bronze in 2012, and many high profile directing awards. Clients include GQ, Adidas, Ray Ban, Levis, Converse, Dior, Vogue and Intel Curiosity. He also runs The Vegas Gallery in Bethnal Green with his sister.

Marc & Emma

The director’s duo Marc & Emma are masters in animation and cute puppetery. Their films convey any message in the most adorable way possible.

Marc James Roels was born in Johannesburg and studied Animation at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent, Belgium. He directed a few live action short films -’Mumbler’ (2008), ‘A Gentle Creature’ (2010)- which have each garnered several international awards and nominations, including the Berlin Film Festival and Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival. He also directs life action commercials at CZAR.BE. Emma De Swaef studied Documentary Filmmaking at the Sint-Lukas Academy in Brussels. She decided to put her knitting and craft skills to use in her graduation film, ‘Soft Plants’. The short introduces the character of chubby office-worker Willy. She works as a modelmaker on commercials.

‘Oh Willy’ was their first collaboration, premiering at the prestigious Clermont Ferrand Film Festival and garnering more than 80 international awards. Additionally, they used this technique for commercials for Belgian public transport company De Lijn with immense success.

Martin De Thurah

Martin hails from Denmark where he graduated from the National Film School in Copenhagen.
In 2007 he directed the 25min short ‘We Who Stayed Behind’ and the 45min ‘Young Man Falling’. The latter was selected for the Critics Week in Cannes. His commercial for IKEA won ‘Best Direction’ at the Creative Circle Awards in 2008 and he has since won numerous awards for his poetic and dynamic work, including ‘Best Director’ at the 2009 MVA´s and several D&AD Pencils. Most recently his ‘Baptism’ film for Ubisoft won numerous awards at Ciclope Festival and Eurobest.

Martin Werner

Martin Werner is one of Scandinavia’s most awarded and highly sought after directors. He started his career in film as a 1st AD, moving into directing in 1994. In no time he became one of the most respected and loved directors in Denmark.
After setting up the now world-renowned Bacon Films in 2001, he started to shoot more international work, picking up awards in the US and across Europe. He has won Grand Prix at the New York Film Festivals, Eurobest and Epica. Awarded work includes commercials for Coca Cola, Audi, Carlsberg, Café Noir and more recently his Jack & Jones campaign starring Christopher Walken.
He’s not only founder of Bacon Copenhagen, he is also co-founder of Bacon Oslo, Bacon Stockholm and Bacon de CZAR.

Mattias Schut

Mattias Schut is very well known as a director and television producer. Mattias was already walking around with a camera at the age of 12, and is now one of the chiefs at Holy Fools. Good at funny films – ones that really make you laugh. In his own distinctive style. So that people say, “Ah, that must be a Mattias Schut.” His true talent? Mattias never makes a mountain out of a molehill, unless that’s what the job calls for.

Moon Blaisse

Moon Blaisse, born in Amsterdam in 1985, is a Brussels-based documentary and fiction filmmaker. In 2011 she graduated from the RITCS School of Arts with the fiction film Sometime Later. She won a.o. the VAF wildcard (a newcomers prize that provides the budget for an entire new film), two awards at Guanojuato International Short-film Festival, the Reflect d’Or in Geneva and was selected for many other international film festivals. In 2013 she directed the television documentary Maarten van Severen: addicted to every possibility that got his premiere at the International Film Festival in Gent and was selected for the Golden Calf Competition in the Netherlands. In December, her new short GUEST opened the International Film Festival Leuven, where it won the price of the Union of Film Critics.
At the moment she is developing, together with theatre director Thomas Bellinck, a documentary series on the global European problems which come together in the Spanish region of Almeria, and she is writing her first feature film.

PAUL GEUSEBROEK

With a distinct cinematic and tenacious visual stamp, his atmospheric films are driven by a fast-paced, dynamic and energetic vision. Paul’s need to push the borders of the craft can be seen in his technical approach, always looking to apply innovating techniques and tools.

His career kicked off at his home-turf in the Netherlands with a Nike x Patta spot that attracted eye-balls globally and earned him a Young Directors Award. His major international breakthrough in the commercial world shortly followed with a global campaign for Diesel, Super Bowl ad Pokémon ‘Train On’ and Nike ‘Goutte d’Or’. He entered the international arena of culturally relevant director’s with “Panda” for American rapper Desiigner, which was nominated for a MTV Music Video Awards in 2016.

Across his commercial work and music videos alike, one thing stays constant. Whether it’s for a global campaign or a local artist, Paul is driven by bringing to life ambitious concepts.

RAF WATHION

Director Raf Wathion (°1966) studied animation at the SHIVKV in Genk, Belgium. He started out making eye catching and original idents (both as an animator and director) for Belgian TV shows and channels. In 1988 he took his first steps directing commercials and quickly became a valued member of the Belgian commercial scene. From the very beginning he chose to focus on graphically strong, visual work, winning him a CCB silver award for his remarkable public service film ‘Sleeping Pills’. In 2000, Raf combined this passion for music and visuals, and went on directing pop promo’s. He, very soon, found himself working for major Belgian Bands and labels (Millionaire, Praga Khan, Hooverphonic, Ozark Henry, Zita Swoon, Buscemi Massis,,… ).

In 2005, after taking a year out to make a trip around the world, he was launched on the US market and has since worked for several international clients, delivering high standard visual work. In 2008, he decided to join Czar. The stunning stop motion commercial he did for Electrabel won him the APPE award for best European spot and the Best Direction award at the 2009 CCB awards (Creative Club of Belgium). In 2011 Raf won another CCB award for Best Direction with the ‘Crash’ campaign for Samsonite. In 2013 he directed an animated short DAY_6001 which premiered at Leuven International Short Film Festival. Right after ‘Milk a force of Nature’, a CGI animated spot won on several awards in 2014.

His no-nonsense and down-to-earth attitude, combined with his experience and always keeping an open mind to new ideas and techniques, makes Raf a more than valued Belgian director.

ROGIER VAN DER PLOEG

Rogier van der Ploeg (1961) studied at the Dutch Film Academy. In 1990 he founded CZAR. At first to produce videoclips, but later on to the focus moved to producing commercials, with success. In 1996 he won a Grand Prix in Cannes for the world famous Rolo film. You know, the one with the elephant. Rogier directed over 600 films in over 15 countries, but is still as enthusiastic to shoot a small videoclip with his digital Bolex and a one man crew.

SALSA

This Brazilian directing duo is based in both Brussels and Rio. It’s composed by artist Diego, in Brussels, and former creative Guto, in Rio.
Their collaboration dates back to Advertising School in Rio de Janeiro and their friendship led them to join forces and become SALSA. “Heaven”, a powerful narrative-driven awareness film against Human Trafficking, grabbed the 1st prize at the Young Director Award in Cannes.
Their film for the Belgian Kids’ Fund was picked up by SHOTS, who called it “almost unbearably moving”.

TOBIAS PEKELHARING

Tobias is a widely interested ball of energy who loves to travel the world. Started out as an airline pilot, became a cinematographer and now combines the best of both worlds. Once forgot to bring a camera to the set. Is involved in everything from the script to the closing credits and dares to say no when things don’t feel right. Tobias wants to make films that grab you by the throat, so that you have to keep watching.

TOON AERTS

Toon is not just a director, he’s also a photographer and a musician, and constantly gets involved in various artistic projects. His work is characterised by a strong visual style. It clearly refers to elements of popular culture like horror movies, sci-fi, 70’s exploitation and television series. He likes images that are loud, colourful and  larger than life.
Toon’s career takes a flying start directing for the most creative agencies in Belgium and The Netherlands. In 2002 he receives the Young Directors Awards and in 2005 his Asics commercial wins Bronze and Silver at the Cannes Lions. December 2012 saw the release of “Perfect Drug”, his latest short. It was an instant hit and has been touring the international film festival scene ever since. Among others, it was selected for Clermont-Ferrand, Imagine and Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival where it was awarded a prestigious Méliès d’Argent. And at the Brussels International Film Festival it took home the Grand Prize.

WILLEM GERRITSEN

Willem Gerritsen started his career whilst studying philosophy at the university. He started doing music videos and later won his first silver ADCN lamp for an online campaign for L.A.A.F. fireworks. The campaign also won 2x gold and 1 silver award at the Spin Awards – and in Cannes Willem won the Young Directors award for a Pedigree spot. Under his alter ego Gerrit Willemsen, the director has also created a number of highly successful viral videos for clients such as TomTom.