Halina Reijn

Halina Reijn’s got this wild, electric energy that just spills into every project she touches, whether she’s directing, acting, or scribbling out her next book. She’s stacked up a bunch of awards—Golden Calf for Best Actress, the Theo D’Or, Colombina, and even the Courbois pearl, which is basically a lifetime achievement nod for Dutch actors. And yeah, she snagged the Theo Mann-Bouwmeester Ring too, so Dutch theatre pretty much has her face on a medal somewhere by now. Her first shot at directing features, INSTINCT, seriously blew up—Carice van Houten and Marwan Kenzari in the leads, lots of tense, edgy stuff, and it just kept getting snatched up by film festivals all over the place: Locarno, Toronto, London, Gent, Chicago, you name it. Even got tapped as the Dutch Oscar pick for Best International Feature. That film was also the first launch for MAN UP, the production company she started with Carice, aiming for stories that aren’t afraid to get a little dark and messy, especially from a woman’s point of view. Halina’s acting resumé is nuts—trained at Maastricht, hit the stage as Ophelia, tackled everything from Shopping & Fucking to Hedda Gabler and even did a play with Jude Law. Films? She’s starred in Oscar-nominated ZUS & ZO, Paul Verhoeven’s BLACK BOOK, and even played opposite Tom Cruise in VALKYRIE. She’s also an author with several books, a columnist, and a regular face on Dutch TV. Basically, she doesn’t sit still.