ATE DE JONG, The Fantasporto’2017 Career Award

Recently a journalist asked Ate de Jong if film should reflect what happens in our world today. According to Mr de Jong every film is a political film, even a simple, intimate love story, as well as an over-the-top Special Effects extravaganza. As a film director Ate de Jong focuses on characters with personal dilemma’s living in a society full of traditional rules. Examples are: The yearning of a young actress for immortality in All Men Are Mortal based on Simone de Beauvoir’s novel: The emotional escape from childhood abuse via an imaginary friend in Drop Dead Fred: The choice between worldly ambition and personal intimacy in Highway to Hell: The liberation of a young woman from her submissive position as a wife in Deadly Virtues: The fight of young lovers to shed the culture of their parents in Love is Thicker than Water.

Politics are an extension of moral beliefs in Ate de Jong’s pictures.  ‘A summary of moral beliefs,’ according to Mr de Jong, ‘always trivialises, but we live in the age of 140 characters, sound bites and snapchats. Therefore here are my highlights. I believe in a horizontal society where different expressions exist next to each other, as opposed to a vertical society where only the best, the biggest, the most, the ultimate counts. I don’t believe all people are equal, but I do believe in equality. I do believe in essential differences between men and women, even races, but not in superiority of any. I believe in acceptance and forgiveness towards others and mostly towards ourselves. I admire people who can live with no fear, no envy and no meanness. I believe in a society with total freedom based on different opinions, not on respect and hope for a society without the need of laws. We have an awful long way to go before we achieve any of that, if ever. Perhaps films can help while travelling.’

Ate de Jong was born in 1953 in a tiny village at the Dutch-Belgium border. He studied at the Filmacademy of Amsterdam from 1970 to 1974. He also studied philosophy. From 1976 to 1986 he directed 6 feature films in The Netherlands including A Flight of Rainbirds, Burning Love and Shadow of Victory. He also wrote numerous articles about film and published weekly columns in several newspapers and magazines.

Not wanting to be trapped in a small subsidy driven film industry Ate de Jong left all his success behind in 1986 and moved to Hollywood. His first directing assignment was an episode of Miami Vice (starring Don Johnson, Philip Michael Thomas, James Brown and Chris Rock) He directed two US feature films: Highway to Hell (starring Chad Lowe, Kristy Swanson, Gilbert Gotfried and Ben Stiller) and Drop Dead Fred (starring Rik Mayall, Phoebe Cates, Carrie Fisher, Marsha Mason and Bridget Fonda).  National Public Radio (NPR) broadcast nation wide his comedic take on Hollywood which gathered a huge following. Since 1994 he has been working out of London. Most notably he directed the European co-production All Men Are Mortal (starring Stephen Rea, Irene Jacob, Chiara Mastroianni and Marianne Saegebrecht) based on the book of Simone de Beauvoir and the sexy thriller Fogbound (starring Luke Perry and Ben Daniels). He produced international pictures Left Luggage (Isabella Rossellini and Maximilian Schell) and The Discovery Of Heaven  (Stephen Fry). His films were shown and laurelled at a wide variety of festivals, and he was a sought after member of international panels and film juries. As of 2008 Ate de Jong lives in Amsterdam again. He became Intendant at the Dutch Filmfund and acting director of The Binger Filmlab. From sept 2010 onwards Ate returned to producing and directing, and made several features since amongst them the UK films Deadly Virtues (Fantasporto 2015) and Love is Thicker than Water (in competition in 2017). Ate de Jong has four children and is very proud of a book he wrote with 52 children’s games, all of which he designed for the parties of his children.

Fantasporto 2017 Career Award deserves more than a simple matter of fact biography.  He is a gentleman whose intelligence and kindness we, at Fantasporto, had the good fortune to witness and also a man of culture with a good heart. His presence in Fantasporto 2016 as a jury member is certainly to be remembered and the friends he made in Oporto all share these feelings. Thank You, Mr de Jong.  We wish you all the best.