Spoetnik - Noelloozen

Short Film, 2015, 10 min, Netherlands

Seventeen-year-old Sam crashes his moped near the Dutch-Belgian border and ends up stranded in a kind of no-man’s-land. He’s taken in by Gilles, who runs an old-fashioned food truck and is at risk of losing his license. Meanwhile, Sam finds himself falling for Zola, a girl who works at the brothel across the street.

Director: Noël Loozen
Screenplay: Noël Loozen
Producer: Halal (Gijs Kerbosch, Roel Oude Nijhuis, Gijs Determeijer)
Line Producer: Bo Polak
Cinematography: Tim Kerbosch
Sound: Lennert Hunfeld
Editor: Mieneke Kramer
Music: Sjam Sjamsoedin
Production Design: Sanne Schat
Costume Design: Minke Lunter
Color: Joppo in de Grot
Title Design: Sander Brouwer

Cast:
Jiri Loozen as Sam
Romy Gevers as Zola
Michel van Dousselaere as Gilles
Michiel Kerbosch as Ambtenaar
Marcel Zwoferink as Pooier

Awards:
NTR Go Short Award for Best Fiction, Go Short (NL, 2016); Young Jury Award, Concorto Film Festival (Italy, 2016); Grand Jury Prize, Quebec City Film Festival (Canada, 2016); Audience Award, Festival du Premier Court-Métrage (France, 2016); Prix de France Télévision, Court Métrange (France, 2016); Young Jury & Professional Jury Best Short Film for Youth, Kinodiseea International Children’s Film Festival (Romania, 2016); Special Mention, Cinema in Sneakers Film Festival (Poland, 2016)

Festivals (selection):
Nederlands Film Festival (Gouden Kalf Competition), Berlinale (Generation 14Plus), Edinburgh International Film Festival, Palm Springs International ShortFest, Busan International Short Film Festival, Huesca International Film Festival, Guanajuato International Film Festival, REGARD Saguenay International Short Film Festival, Sehsüchte International Film Festival, Milwaukee Film Festival, Vilnius International Film Festival, Brest European Short Film Festival, ZubrOFFka International Short Film Festival, and 25+ more festivals across Europe, North America, and beyond between 2015 and 2019

Noël Loozen trained as a photographer at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie and went on to complete an MA in Film at the Netherlands Film Academy. Photography and film have remained closely intertwined in his work ever since. Based in Amsterdam, he works across fiction, television, installations and commercials.

His short films SPOETNIK (2015) and BOTANICA (2018) marked the start of his career, with SPOETNIK selected for Generation 14plus at the Berlinale. For television, he created MOONRIDERS, a children’s series about art that received two Cinekid Award nominations. His installations OBSTACLE COURSE 2.0 (2018) and DE DIJK (2025) have been presented in public spaces, including Schiphol Airport.

In 2026, his feature debut TOUTES DIRECTIONS, produced by 100% Scripted, closes the Netherlands Film Festival and is released in Dutch cinemas on 1 October by Paradiso Filmed Entertainment. In 2027, he will direct the youth series METROPIA for VPRO, produced by NL Film. He is also developing his second feature, THE ISLAND OF NOSE (Dutch title: TOM TIPPELAAR), with Studio Ruba and screenwriter Saar Ponsioen.

For fiction, I’m represented by Connie Pingen at Solidbase Management (NL).

Commercially, I work in the Netherlands and abroad, represented by:

Sanctuary (US).

100% (NL),

Simon und Paul (DE),

Kaiserschnitt Film (AT)