Halina Reijn and Victoria Warmerdam have been invited to join the Academy, the organization that presents the Oscars each year. They are among the over five hundred new members. Other Dutch individuals such as Trent, Nina Gantz, and Margje de Koning have also been selected.
Halina Reijn considers it an honor to have received an invitation to become a member of the Academy. “I am very happy and grateful,” the director and actress told news agency ANP after the new list of Academy members was published on Thursday. These members get to help decide who wins an Oscar.
Reijn calls it a girlhood dream come true. “To be allowed to be part of such an impressive institution is more than I ever dared to hope,” the director said. “I’m having a nice meal with friends in a café in Amsterdam, but I’m still doing a little dance of joy.”
Reijn made a name for herself in Hollywood last year as the director of the films Bodies Bodies Bodies and Babygirl. Warmerdam and her partner and producer Trent won an Oscar in March in the best short film category with I’m Not a Robot. Gantz was nominated in the best short animation category with Wander to Wonder, but did not win. De Koning is a documentary filmmaker and director of the Dutch Movies That Matter Festival.
Warmerdam, Trent, Gantz, and De Koning are not the first Dutch individuals to be admitted to the Academy. Previously, Dutch individuals such as director Paul Verhoeven, cameraman Hoyte van Hoytema, makeup artist Arjen Tuiten, stuntman Willem de Beukelaer, and costume designer Jany Temime have been admitted to the select group.
Among the new members this year are also various celebrities. For example, Ariana Grande, Kieran Culkin, Emma Corrin, Aubrey Plaza, Jason Momoa, and Jeremy Strong have received an invitation.