Olivier van der Zee is a versatile television and film director, editor and cameraman, who speaks five languages (Dutch, French, German, English and Spanish). He has studied directing documentaries at the Dutch Film and Television Academy in Amsterdam (1996) and after having received several grants he completed his masters in directing at the prestigious American Film Institute (1999) in Los Angeles. Since the year 2000 he has been working professionally as a director, cameraman and editor.

 

After having directed and shot several 30-minute reportages for the Dutch television network the VPRO, Olivier van der Zee moved to the north of Spain (2003), to San Sebastian where he continued his professional career as a filmmaker. Over the years he has directed, edited and shot numerous television and feature length documentaries that have aired on television across Europe, been screened in cinemas and won prizes at festivals. Two of his last documentaries; 778-La Chanson de Roland (2011) and The Last Tycoon (2012), were well-budgeted international co-productions that enjoyed a theatrical release and did well on the international festival tour.
 

From 2011 to 2013 Olivier directed, wrote and edited stereoscopic programs for the production company D4D from Pamplona, that have been sold and shown across the world, culminating in the critically acclaimed documentary in 3D about the men who run with the bulls in Pamplona, Encierro 3D – Bull Running in Pamplona (2013), that has brought the Spanish audience to edge of their seats in over 30 screens during the summer of 2013, becoming the most watched Spanish documentary in Spain in 2013. Furthermore, Encierro 3D was successfully distributed in the Benelux by the renowned Dutch film distributor Wild Bunch.

 

Since the end of 2014 Olivier is back in Amsterdam where he regularly edits for amongst others the VPRO, BNNVARA, NEP and Blazhoffski Productions. In 2016 he directed the feature length docucumentary Infernal Pain, produced by CobosFilms and in 2017 Arte al Agua, The Cod Fishermen of Newfoundland, that ran for over 12 weeks in the Spanish theatres. In 2019 Olivier produced, directed and shot his documentary Our Beer, which was broadcast on national television on the 13th of April 2020.

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