Tom Fassaert
Filmmaker Tom Fassaert (Naarden, 1979) grew up in the Netherlands and partly in South Africa. These different worlds already opened his eyes at a young age. Yet it was his dad's obsession with making home movies that undoubtedly sparked Fassaert's passion for film.
Tom Fassaert debuted with his feature length documentary An Angel in Doel about a Belgian village threatened with demolition. A tragic comic observation - filmed in black and white - of a community dealing with its own inevitable demise. The film premiered at the Berlinale, screened at +50 festivals worldwide and won several international awards. Fassaert's second feature length documentary is A Family Affair. A film focussing on his flamboyant grandmother and depicting the destructive patterns that are handed down generation after generation. It was the Opening Film of IDFA 2015 where Fassaert also received the prestigious Prins Bernhard Cultuur Fonds Documentary Award and the Special Jury Award. It made a journey to many international festivals and received numerous awards. Amongst others the Gouden Kalf (Dutch Academy Award) for best long documentary, and a nomination for Best European Documentary on the European Film Awards 2016. The film was also acquired by Netflix globally. Variety named Fassaert ‘One of the Ten Docu-makers to Watch'. Currently Tom is working on three new feature length documentaries alongside each other. All three are very personal stories, touching intimate subjects yet address universal themes. Read more on these film @ Work.
Parallel to his passion for filmmaking Tom Fassaert also teaches and coaches at (international) film schools and workshops like IDFA project space.
While much of Tom's professional work focusses on film, composing and performing as a musician also plays a key role in Tom's life. Fragments of this work will appear on this site sometime in the future.