Esmée van Loon (1996) is a documentary director and researcher from Rotterdam. Looking beyond the surface, observation, involvement and humanity are important parts of her process and makership. She reflects on stories that often revolve around socially relevant themes close to herself.

In 2016 she made her first documentary during her Audiovisual Design and Cultural Diversity studies at the Willem de Kooning Academy, with the short film about 'Ma'MaQueen', which won best film at the Rotterdam Open Screen and has been broadcasted by 2DOC. She graduated from the academy in 2018 with her personal documentary “Double Lucky”, about growing up with two lesbian mothers, which was broadcasted on Dutch television by HUMAN/NPO2. Her documentaries have been screened at several national and international festivals and VOD platforms, including the International Film Festival Rotterdam, ShortCutz, Sheffield Docfest, Canal+ and the Dutch Film Festival.

In recent years, Esmée also worked as an editor and researcher for BNNVARA, she has been a jury member twice for the Giornate Degli Autori section of the Venice Film Festival, she set up a foundation to promote inclusive and social film projects, worked on a number of TV series (Warner Bros) and has written new stories.

In late 2022 two new films appeared at festivals and television. A short documentary “Coming In” (VPRO) and her 55’ minute debut documentary “Mama” (HUMAN), which both premiered at the Dutch Film Festival. Both did their round on international festivals. In 2023 she participated in the CICAE Arthouse Cinema Training Berlin and completed and episode for VPRO Backlight. In 2024 she made the short documentary Boxing Against the Binary as part of Rotterdam Pride.

Furthermore, Esmée has been appointed as a member of the Culture Advisory Committee of the municipality of Rotterdam, where she evaluates grant applications for films.

She currently works as Film Programmer for arthouse cinema LantarenVenster and is writing a new documentary. She also works as a moderator for film screenings.

Esmée is based in Rotterdam, but also works in international context.