Halina Reijn
Birthdate: November 10, 1975 (50 Years Old)
Birthplace: Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands
Halina Reijn is the rare case of a Dutch female actor who has successfully expanded her film portfolio as a director/writer/producer. Reijn’s debut as director/co-writer/producer was the drama, Instinct (2019), starring Carice van Houten and Marsan Kenzari, which premiered at the Locarno Film Festival (where it won two prizes) and was released in the US by A24 and submitted by the Netherlands as the official entry in the Oscars International Feature Film competition.
Reijn’s second filmmaking project (after making a short film, For the Birds, in 2021) was as director of Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022), her first movie in English and with American backing and cast, including Amandla Stenberg, Maria Bakalova, Myha’la Herrold, Chase Sui Wonders, Rachel Sennott, Lee Pace, and Pete Davidson, and was released in the US by A24 and abroad by Sony Pictures Releasing International after premiering at the South by Southwest Film Festival. Reijn was director/writer/producer of the erotic drama starring Nicole Kidman, Babygirl (2024), with Harris Dickinson, Sophie Wilde, and Antonio Banderas, premiering in competition at the Venice Film Festival (where Kidman won the best actress Volpi Cup) and released again by A24, which also co-produced.
Halina Reijn’s career before filmmaking included a lengthy run as an actor on screen, TV, and stage, most notably in the films Zus & Zo (2001), directed and written by Paula der Oest; director Alex van Warmerdam’s Grimm (2003); Paul Verhoeven’s stunning WW2 drama, Black Book (2006); the Bryan Singer-directed Nazi-themed thriller, Valkyrie, starring Tom Cruise; and filmmaker Peter Greenaway’s historical Dutch drama, Goltzius and the Pelican Company (2012), with Ramsay Nasr, F. Murray Abraham and Giulia Berruti, and which premiered at the Netherlands Film Festival.
Personal life
Halina Reijn was born in Amsterdam and raised in Wildervank and Groningen, Netherlands, by parents Frank Reijn and Fleur ten Kate (both artists). Reijn has two sisters, Leonora and Esther. Reijn’s unusual childhood included the fact that her father Frank was gay, although he was in a marriage with her mother which produced three offspring; that her parents were adherents of the Indonesian interfaith movement known as Subud and the anthroposophy spiritual movement founded by Rudolf Steiner; and that her family lived in an artists’ village without television or cinema, while making up plays in a theater room that her father built from scratch.
Reijn’s parents separated when she was nine years old, and her father died when she was ten. Reijn joined the theater collective De Voorziening also at age ten, and then a year later attended the acting academy at Vooropleiding Theatre in Groningen, where she studied acting. Reijn later studied theater at the Maastricht Academy of Dramatic Arts, from which she graduated. Reijn’s height is 5’ 8½ ”.
Awards
Winner, EFP Shooting Star Award, Berlin Film Festival (2007); Nominee, European Discovery, European Film Awards (2020); Nominee, Best Feature, Gotham Independent Film Awards (2024); Nominee, Best Director, Independent Spirit Awards (2023); Two-time Winner, Variety Piazza Grande Award/Swatch Art Peace Hotel Award—Special Mention, Locarno Film Festival Awards (2019); Winner, Directors to Watch, Palm Springs Film Festival Awards (2025);
Halina Reijn Movies
Actor
Director
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Previous (2)
- 2024 |
- 2022 |
Bodies Bodies Bodies
When a group of rich 20-somethings plan a hurricane party at a remote family mansion, a party game turns deadly.
Facts About Halina Reijn
Art Life: Halina Reijn adopted the name of Hamida for her spatial and two-dimensional artwork with textile and wood, which has been exhibited in Groningen, Netherlands. Reijn was also an art therapist.
Theater Life: Reijn has enjoyed a highly acclaimed stage career, debuting as Ophelia in a production of Hamlet directed by Theu Boermans, and appearing in productions at International Theatre Amsterdam.
Woman of Many Trades: Halina Reijn is not only a renowned Dutch actor and filmmaker, but she has been a columnist for Dutch and Belgian newspapers and magazines, has co-hosted daily news programs on Dutch television, and has published four novels, starting in 2005.
