Dutch documentary producer Olivia Sophie van Leeuwen has been selected to represent the Netherlands as Producer on the Move at Cannes 2026. Producers on the Move is European Film Promotion’s (EFP) long-standing programme to promote promising producers and foster international co-productions. On the Croisette, van Leeuwen will be presenting director Willemiek Kluijfhout’s new doc project The Woman Who Made Van Gogh Famous.
Van Leeuwen is a producer and partner at 100% Film & Photography since 2015 and has been MD since 2023. “By producing character-driven, narrative documentaries that are told in an engaging, compelling and cinematic way, she aims to reach an international audience and challenge the norm,” writes Dutch promotion body SEE NL.
Van Leeuwen is also an EAVE and EURODOC graduate, and holds a Media Studies master’s degree from the University of Amsterdam and the New York University Tisch School of the Arts.
Over the past decade, Van Leeuwen’s work has premiered and toured globally at A-list festivals and has been selected for prestigious international competitions. Key productions include Genderblend and King of the Cruise (directed by Sophie Dros), Independent Boy, Drama Girl, and Future Me (the Vincent Boy Kars trilogy), as well as House of Hope (Marjolein Busstra). In 2015, The Taste of Desire, her previous collaboration with Willemiek Kuijfhout, won the Best Pitch Award at DOK Leipzig and premiered at Hot Docs. Grace, the project that she pitched at IDFA Forum of 2022, is currently in post-production. “As one of the producers of this year’s Berlinale entry, Two Mountains Weighing Down My Chest (Viv Li), she has established a distinctive voice in documentary filmmaking, SEE NL writes.
Producers on the Move is European Film Promotion’s (EFP) long-standing programme to promote promising producers and foster international co-productions. Olivia Sophie van Leeuwen is one of the 20 European producers who have been selected for the programme from all of the nominations submitted by the EFP member organisations and will be presenting their current projects during speed meetings and roundtable sessions. SEE NL is the member organisation for The Netherlands.
Previous Producers on the Move from the Netherlands include Erik Glijnis of Lemming Film (2023), Derk-Jan Warrink of Keplerfilm (2022), Iris Otten of Juliet (Pupkin, 2021), Joram Willink of BIND Film (2019), Frank Hoeve of BALDR (2018), Julius Ponten of New Amsterdam Film Company (2017), Janneke Doolaard of Doxy Films (2016), Ellen Havenith of PRPL (2015), Harro van Staverden of Phanta Basta (2014), Marleen Slot of Viking Film (2013) and Trent of Oak Motion Pictures (2012).
