ABOUT ME

“Nobody wants to see a commercial. What people do want to see is something that moves them, makes them laugh or cry. For that reason I approach every project as a short story.”

That’s the vision of Jos van Meerveld (1991), a Dutch film and commercial director. Since graduating from the Dutch Film Academy in 2017 as a fiction director, he’s worked for commercial clients like Duracell, Greenchoice, PostNL, and the Dutch government, earning multiple awards for his films. Jos’s work is marked by a dynamic and human approach, often using real people instead of actors, with a personal love for comedy. For his first TV commercial for Medtronic, he was nominated for a ‘gouden Loeki’.

For Studio Roosegaarde, Jos directed the first film in the DreamScapes series, ‘Grow,’ and the fourth, ‘Spark Bilbao,’ both winning multiple awards and featured on BBC, Al Jazeera, and the World Economic Forum, commissioned by MediaMonks.

During his time at the film academy in Amsterdam, he started to form a love for comedy combined with drama. His stories often put social matters and human behavior in a different light. Like his film Skinache, one of his graduation films.

This is an absurd dark comedy of a man whose skin is starting to peel off because he has a lack of physical contact. He wanted to remind people about basic human needs in a digital world. This film was shown during festivals in Germany and Poland and won the award for the best student film at the Bucharest short film festival. His other graduation film, Our very own defects, is an ambitious ensemble film about normal civilians who keep their immoral side secret to the outside world. This was based on true crime stories that took place in the Netherlands. This film premiered at the Dutch film festival and was shown at festivals like the Asiana short film festival in South Korea.

In 2021, he challenged himself with the short film Luw, featuring a seven-year-old lead, about the secret life of a married man living in the Bible belt. This film had its premiere at the Dutch film festival. At this moment, Jos is in post-production for his latest short film Scrap. A short comedy exploring humanity and AI, set to hit the festival circuit soon.

Jos is currently developing a new TV show concept while writing yet another short film, consistently driven by the stories close to his heart.