Amsterdam-based producer Olivia Sophie van Leeuwen, co-owner of 100% Film, has been selected as this year’s Dutch participant in the European Film Promotion’s Producers on the Move initiative in Cannes. She has built a strong profile in documentary filmmaking including King of the Cruise by Sophie Dros, Drama Girl by Vincent Boy Kars and Two Mountains Weighing Down My Chest by Viv Li (which premiered at Berlinale this year). We spoke to her about the power of documentary storytelling, festival positioning and sustaining creative ambition in a shifting market.

Cineuropa: What initially drew you to non-fiction storytelling and what keeps you committed to the form today?
Olivia Sophie van Leeuwen: What drew me to documentary fillmaking was the sense that real life is often stranger, more emotional and more unexpected than fiction. I have always been fascinated by people, by contradictions and by what we hide from each other and from ourselves. Documentary gives access to something raw that cannot be scripted. From the start, I wanted to make documentaries that felt cinematic and visually ambitious; I never understood why they were approached in a more restrained or traditional visual way. I wanted to make films that could move an audience in the same way fiction does, while carrying the weight and urgency of reality. That ambition still drives me today. What keeps me committed is that documentaries can shift perspectives. They allow us to enter worlds we would not otherwise encounter. I am always searching for stories that say something larger about the world we live in, but through deeply personal experiences. I’m especially interested in films that live in complexity. Stories where there is no simple hero or villain, where people are struggling with moral ambiguity, identity, loneliness or systems larger than themselves. Those are the stories that stay with me.

How do you approach positioning documentaries within major festivals, where they often compete with fiction for visibility?
I do not think documentaries should position themselves as somehow lesser than fiction. The strongest documentaries today are just as artistically daring and emotionally layered. At the same time, audiences are increasingly drawn to documentaries because they offer something rare: a connection to real life. In a time shaped by AI, manipulation and endless streams of content, there is a growing hunger for stories that feel authentic. The documentary industry operates differently, often with less financing and more urgency-driven storytelling. Perhaps that is also why the field has historically created more space for female voices and perspectives. When positioning a documentary for a major festival, it is important to understand what makes it culturally urgent, emotionally universal and formally distinctive all at once. Festivals are also looking for cinematic experiences. The festival landscape has become more competitive, especially for documentaries. You can carefully plan strategy and positioning, but there is always an unpredictable element. Sometimes you make all the right decisions and still do not get selected. After premiering at International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, our film House of Hope recently won the Best International Documentary Award at Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in Toronto. That feels incredibly rewarding in such a crowded documentary landscape and gives the film a longer life. But it is also incredibly frightening. We are about to enter the festival circuit with Grace, a very special documentary we have been working on for more than ten years. We have enormous hopes for the film and we believe deeply in it, but of course there is also fear. If it were not selected by a major A-list festival, that would honestly be heartbreaking.

You’ve worked on a range of internationally oriented projects. What defines a documentary capable of travelling across borders today?
The documentaries that travel best are usually stories that touch on something universal through a very particular experience. Even when a story is deeply rooted in a specific culture, audiences need to recognise something of themselves in it. Form is also becoming increasingly important. Festivals and audiences respond to films that experiment with structure, perspective, archives, hybrid storytelling or cinematic language. We are particularly interested in documentaries that push the boundaries of the medium while remaining emotionally accessible.

The documentary field has become increasingly competitive in terms of financing and visibility. How do you navigate the balance between creative ambition and market realities when developing your projects?
It has become more challenging. Financing structures are under pressure, broadcasters are more cautious, streamers have shifted their strategies and there is more competition than ever. As a producer, you are constantly balancing artistic ambition with practical realities. For me, the starting point always has to be the creative vision. If you begin purely from the market, the work quickly becomes interchangeable. The films that truly stand out are usually the ones with a strong and authentic voice. I do not believe that voice belongs solely to the director. Producers can also be deeply creative. At 100% Film, we develop projects in a highly collaborative way, and some of our films are strongly producer-driven from the very beginning. I think producing is not only about financing and logistics; it is also about storytelling, intuition and creative strategy. At the same time, I am also very pragmatic. I run 100% Film together with my partner and co-managing director, Sander Koolwijk, and we also share the responsibility of keeping the company healthy and sustainable. We are also very fortunate to have a brilliant Head of Documentary, Ruby Deelen, who has brought enormous energy and ambition to our documentary slate.

As one of EFP’s Producers on the Move, what are you hoping to develop or strengthen during Cannes?
For me, Cannes is about building long-term international relationships. Documentary producing is becoming increasingly international, both creatively and financially. I am looking to connect with collaborators who share a similar vision of cinematic storytelling. I will also be presenting new projects, including The Woman Who Made Van Gogh Famous, which I am co-producing with Ruby Deelen and which tells the story of Jo van Gogh-Bonger, who preserved and shaped Vincent van Gogh’s legacy yet was herself largely erased from history. The project reflects many of the themes I am drawn to, such as hidden histories, identity and perspective. Director Willemiek Kluijfhout is approaching it in a very contemporary way, combining historical material with a reimagined visual language. I will also be discussing our fiction feature Peperclip by Jaime Levinas. More broadly, I hope to further position 100% Film internationally as a company that moves between documentary and fiction while maintaining a strong focus on distinctive voices and cinematic storytelling. I will be there alongside one of my partners, Gijs Kerbosch, who also has several fiction projects in development. Filmmaking can be quite intense at times, so being surrounded by other producers who are equally passionate — and equally crazy enough to work in this field — feels very inspiring.