In her films, de Jong mainly addressed issues concerning women and society.
Aswan International Women Film Festival will honour Dutch director, screenwriter and producer Mijke de Jong at its seventh edition, which will take place from March 5-10, 2023, in Aswan.
AIWFF aims to recognise female achievement in filmmaking and to teach the craft to youth through workshops and screenings.
De Jong is one of the Netherlands’ most praised and honoured writers/directors, with a unique cinematic voice and humanistic choice of subjects.
She is known for creating films such as Bluebird (2004), Frailer (2014), Layla M. (2016) and God Only Knows (2019). Layla M. was selected as the 2018 Dutch entry for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.
The themes in the films that De Jong directs relate to everyday life in society. Her work centres on topics including bullying, family problems, feeling as though you do not belong, and death. She portrays emotions that accompany these struggles. Her filming techniques are seemingly similar to the filming of a documentary.
Scriptwriter Mohamed Abdelkhalek, Head of Aswan International Women Film Festival, said: “In honouring De Jong, we celebrate a filmmaker who has delved into the unknown with a vision that isn’t burdened by the complexities of filmmaking.”
Abdelkhalek added that De Jong is a director who makes you feel while watching her films that you are sitting with her characters. Her cinematic language is simple and doesn’t need a translation.
De Jong directs television dramas, features, short films, documentaries, and plays.
