Boudewijn Koole

Boudewijn Koole (born 1965) is a Dutch director and producer. He is mostly known for his drama film Kauwboy (2012). Koole was born in Leiden in 1965 and spent his childhood in Nuenen, North Brabant. He studied at Delft University of Technology, where he earned a master’s degree in industrial design. As a self-taught filmmaker, he began his career making documentaries for the Dutch television program Villa Achterwerk, broadcast by the VPRO. Some of his most notable documentary works include Tommie (2000), In Belfast is a Wall (2001), Zooey (2004), and Gilliard (1996), which was nominated for an International Emmy Award. After several years of producing and directing documentaries, Koole expanded his repertoire to include fiction films. In 2012, he made his fiction feature debut with Kauwboy, which was a national and international success, was selected as the Dutch entry for the Academy Awards, and won the Best First Feature Award at the Berlin International Film Festival. In 2016 he won the Dutch Award for Best Direction for Beyond Sleep (2016), and the following year his film Disappearance (2017) received the Cineuropa Award at the Les Arcs European Film Festival The characters in his fiction films often explore existential and universal themes such as loss, fear, and death. In an interview with CineSud, Koole stated that he is particularly interested in the parent-child relationship and the interplay between what originates from the individual and what is shaped by the environment.