Acclaimed Dutch filmmaker has passed away on 4th December.<\/p>\n
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Gerrit van Dijk, Dutch author of animated films, has passed away on 4th December 2012. In 2008 we had a pleasure to host him at our Festival, He was a member of the International Competition Jury.<\/strong><\/p>\n He was born in 1938 in Uden in the Netherlands. After studies at the Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture in Tilburg he presented his paintings and watercolours at many international exhibitions. In cooperation with various artists he launched many multi\u2011disciplinary artistic projects. Since 1971 he has been involved in the animated film, which is an expansion of his interests in painting. His films include "Haast een hand" (1983), "Pas á deux" (1989) and "Ik beweeg, dus ik besta" (1998). The latter two have been awarded with the Golden Bear, the highest laurels of the Berlin Film Festival. Since mid 1980s his political comic strips have appeared in ‘Haarlems’ weekly. In 1994 he launched the first in Holland animation course at the Academy voor Beeldende Vorming in Tilburg. In the early 1990s, together with his wife Cilia, he established the Animated People Foundation. In 1993 the Foundation was transformed into the Netherlands Institute for Animation Film (NIAF).<\/p>\n "Gerrit is known as an animator but was, in fact, a very versatile artist. He used his inexhaustible source of creativity to enliven ‘his’ city of Haarlem, to comment on everyday life around him, to set up firework displays, to perform as an actor or to record his visits to the ‘smallest room in the house’ as a fascinating photo project. But, of course, his heart was in animation, in which he could bring to life reality as he saw it as a visual artist. By giving subjects a creative twist, he constantly succeeded in confronting society with ‘the other side of reality’. The audience saw that side only when Gerrit showed it to them."<\/em><\/p>\n Rutger van Dijk<\/p>\n <\/p>\n