Sean van Leijenhorst

Seán René van Leijenhorst is a Netherlands/Czech Republic-based film director and screenwriter. He was born in Wijk Bij Duurstede on the 21st of August, 1990. The first recollections of his love for storytelling are from when he wrote, directed and starred in a few stage plays in primary school based on various movies. His first filmmaking experience came in secondary school when he realized he could graduate in a few subjects by presenting the final papers in the form of comedic short-form fiction. He studied and graduated from the Prague Film School in 2015, winning the school's annual "Best Director" award. During his time there he wrote and directed the award-winning short horror films Banshee (2014) and Woods (2015), both picking up several awards during their festival runs. He spent the next few years honing his craft and building his portfolio by writing and directing several short films, and working on professional sets like Amsterdam Heavy (2011) and Stuk (2011) in the production department. Sean received critical acclaim for his short film/live-action trailer Paradox: A Rusty Lake Film (2018) made in collaboration with Dutch video game distributor Rusty Lake. The film has been watched over 4,000,000 times and has received near universal appraise for its dense atmosphere, cinematography and respect for the source material.