Cycle

Sophie Olga de Jong grew up in Bergen (NH) a small village in The Netherlands. As the daughter of an Illustrator, somewhat surprisingly she started drawing from an early age. She wanted to become a comic artist, but had trouble drawing the same character several times. Whilst attending St Joost Art school in Breda, she became very fond of animation, and discovered that somehow she had no problem drawing the same character 24 times for every second of film. Sophie produced her first hand-drawn film: For the Time Being (2010). Since graduating she has been working as a freelancer on a variety of projects for tv shows, exhibitions, music video’s and animations for museums and theatre. She finished the independent short animation film Cycle (2018) together with Sytske Kok, with whom she is now developing a film plan for another animated film.

Sytske Kok (1970) graduated from the Netherlands Film Academy and the Binger Filmlab as a writer and director. Among other shorts she directed the internationally acclaimed short The Chinese Wall that won Clermont-Ferrand and Interfilm Berlin. She wrote the script for the TV film Tunnel Vision directed by Stefano Odoardi. Tunnel Vision has been selected and awarded on several international film festivals. She has written and co-directed the short animation film Cycle that has been released in Pathé theaters in 2018. Together with Stefano Odoardi she is currently developing two live action feature film projects. One of those projects Dark Matter has been developed during an Artist in Residence in Rome for which a stipend was granted by the Dutch Academy of the Arts. The other project LIVE! has received script development money from the Dutch Film fund. Besides writing herself Sytske teaches scriptwriting at the Schrijversvakschool, the Amsterdam Film School and at the animation department of the Art Academy St. Joost. Sytske is treasurer at the board of the Contractenbureau (Contract Agency) & De Auteursbond Netwerk scenarioschrijvers (Dutch Writers Guild). Member of the international jury of the Uppsala Shortfilmfestival 2014. Chair of the Jury for the Louis Hartlooper Award 2017. Advisor at the Media fund till 2016.

A small round story about a girl who learns to cycle from her grandfather and discovers that where the road ends, real adventure begins

This film screens as part of the programAthleticus and other animations.