Denis Vaslin
VOLYA FILMS - established in 2004 - is a Rotterdam based company producing author fiction films and creative documentaries, mainly as international co-productions.
Our recent films include THE NEW SAINT by Allard Detiger (IDFA 2010 Dutch Competition), GRANDE HOTEL by Lotte Stoops (Hot Docs 2011 Intnl Competition – Special Mention), THE LIGHT THIEF (Svet-Ake) by Aktan Arym Kubat (Quinzaine / Director's Fortnight Cannes 2010), PRISONERS OF THE GROUND by Stella van Voorst van Beest (Closing Night Film Netherlands Film Festival; IDFA; BAFICI), LOS VIAJES DEL VIENTO by Ciro Guerra (Cannes - Un Certain Regard Cannes; IFF Rotterdam), and DOUBLE TAKE by Johan Grimonprez (Berlinale Forum Expanded; Middle East IFF Abu Dhabi Award Best Documentary Director; Sundance Film Festival).
Currently, we are developing projects with a.o. Marjoleine Boonstra, André van der Hout, Gülsah Dogan, Marleine van de Werf and Karin Junger.
We are in production with a new film by Stella van Voorst van Beest (HOE LUIDT HET LAND), just finished the first shooting period in Nigeria with Karin Junger for “I’M PROUD TO BE A LADY MECHANIC!”, we are shooting the first fiction film by Meral Uslu this summer in Rotterdam (SNACKBAR ALI), a co-production with Lemming Film, and the first fiction by Uzbek director and Sundance Director’s Lab alumnus Saodat Ismailova (40 DAYS OF SILENCE), shot in Tadjikistan, is currently in post-production.
Volya Films is a member of the EAVE, Eurodoc, Binger and EDN networks. Denis Vaslin is a member of the European Film Academy and the Documentary Producers Netherlands. He created in 2011 Mandra Films with Lucas Rosant and Eric Mabillon in France.
Denis Vaslin graduated from the department of Slavic Culture & Languages of the Institute of Oriental Languages in Paris in 1994. After five years of working as a distributor and then for a production company in France, he moved to The Netherlands. From 1999 until 2004, he worked as a production coordinator/manager and as a line producer.
Denis started Volya Films in 2004 to produce and co-produce author fiction films and creative documentaries. The company develops projects with young directors and more experienced filmmakers mainly in the frame of international co-productions. Denis is a graduate of the Binger Lab in 2004, EAVE 2006 and EURODOC 2007.
Fleur Knopperts is Head of Development at the Rotterdam-based production company Volya Films. She works on the development and international financing of both documentary and fiction projects.
Previously, she was Director of the FORUM for international co-financing of documentaries at IDFA in Amsterdam – the largest and most prestigious international documentary market in the world. She started her career working for International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) and Festival a/d Werf – a festival for experimental theatre. After two years of alternating between these two festivals, she took up a fulltime position at the IDFA where, among other things, she co-organised the yearlong documentary script workshop. From 1998 until 2000, she was co-ordinator of the Jan Vrijman Fund, which gives financial support to documentary filmmakers from developing countries. In 2007 she worked for Doc/Fest in Sheffield where as Industry & Marketplace Director she set up MeetMarket – the new international marketplace in the UK for independent documentary projects in development. She is a graduate of the Eurodoc programme for documentary producers and is a tutor for Doc Station at the Berlinale Talent Campus.