Astrid Bussink (born 1975 in

Eibergen Eibergen (Low Saxon: ''Eibarge'') is a town and former Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in Gelderland in the Eastern Netherlands. It is part of the Achterhoek cultural region. The administrative cooperation of about 20 municipalitie ...

Gelderland Gelderland ( , ), also known as Guelders ( ) in English, is a Provinces of the Netherlands, province of the Netherlands, located in the centre-east of the country. With a total area of of which is water, it is the largest province of the Nethe ...

) is a Dutch filmmaker. Her debut film is the documentary ''

The Angelmakers ''The Angelmakers'' is a 2005 documentary, the debut film of filmmaker Astrid Bussink, which provides insight into the epidemic of arsenic murders by women, known as The Angel Makers of Nagyrév, which brought worldwide attention to the area in ...

''. She studied fine art at the Academy of fine Arts, AKI, Enschede (BA) in

the Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

and her Master in film at the

Edinburgh College of Art Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) is one of eleven schools in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. Tracing its history back to 1760, it provides higher education in art and design, architecture, histor ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. During this Master she shot her award-winning documentary ''

'' (First Appearance Award IDFA, Little Stamp award, Best Young Director at

ZagrebDox ZagrebDox is an international documentary film festival launched in 2005 which takes place in Croatia's capital Zagreb every year. The festival showcases creative documentary features from around the world, and also includes workshops for prospect ...

, Best short Documentary, Dokufest, nomination Grierson Award and more). After this she made the short films ''Rückenlage / Upside Down'' (Best Short Experimental film at Vermont International Film Festival, nominated Silver Cub, IDFA 2006), ''The 9 lives of my car'' (a.o. Dutch Filmfestival 2007) and ''I shot the mayor'' (Or: Plan B) (a.o. nominated Silver Cub IDFA 2007, official selection

and HOTDOCS). Bussink lives and works in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

where she made her feature-length documentar
The Lost Colony
(Official Selection International Film Festival Rotterdam, HOTDOCS a.o.), screened in 2008. She made a personal documentary,
Mijn Enschede
', about the

Enschede fireworks disaster The Enschede fireworks disaster was a catastrophic fireworks explosion on 13 May 2000 in Enschede, Netherlands. The explosion killed 23 people including four firefighters and injured 950 others. A total of 400 homes were destroyed and 1,500 bui ...

that happened 13 May 2000, in which 23 people died, nearly 1000 were injured and many houses were destroyed, including Bussink's house. 'My Enschede' premiered at the

International Film Festival Rotterdam International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) is an annual film festival held at the end of January in various locations in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, focused on independent and experimental films. The inaugural festival took place in June 1972, ...

in January 2010. During her artist in residency program in New York she started her photography project Constructions of Happiness, which she showed in galleries in New York, Edinburgh and Amsterdam. In September 2012 her documentar
Poem of Death
premiered at the

Netherlands Film Festival The Netherlands Film Festival () is an annual film festival, held in September and October of each year in the city of Utrecht. During the ten-day festival, Dutch film productions and co-productions are exhibited. Besides feature films, the prog ...

Awards

*At the 2008 ZagrebDox, she won Best Young Director for ''

''. *At the 2012

Edinburgh International Film Festival The Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF), established in 1947, is the world's oldest continually running film festival. EIFF presents both UK and international films (all titles are World, international, European or UK Premieres), in al ...

, she was nominated for ''Best International Short Film'' for ''Mr and Mrs Gunya.'' *At the 2013 Nyon Visions du Réel, she won Special Mention for Medium-Length Film for ''Poule des doods''. *At the 2017

International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) is the world's largest documentary film festival held annually since 1988 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Description IDFA is an independent, international meeting place for audiences ...

, IDFA, she won the Special Juryprize for her documentary ''LISTEN'' about 'De Kindertelefoon'.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bussink, Astrid 1975 births Living people People from Berkelland Dutch film directors Dutch women film directors Alumni of the Edinburgh College of Art