Ester Gould (1975, Peterculter) is a Scottish-born documentary filmmaker who lives and works in Amsterdam. She studied Film and Journalism in Amsterdam and New York and began her career as a researcher and scriptwriter for acclaimed director Heddy Honigmann. Since 2005 she has been directing her films and series. Together with Sabine Lubbe Bakker, Gould directed Shout (2010) for which they were nominated for an Amnesty Award at CPH: DOX. In 2014 together with Reijer Zwaan, Gould founded The Other Room, an independent production company. A Strange Love Affair with Ego – her second documentary feature – won the 2015 IDFA Award for Best Dutch Documentary and the Dutch Film Critics Award in 2016. Strike a Pose – co-directed by Reijer Zwaan – premiered at the Berlinale in 2016, was released theatrically in The Netherlands, Belgium, and the USA, and was acquired by Netflix. That year, Variety named her one of ten European ‘Female Filmmakers to Watch’.
Gould co-directed the six-part documentary series Debt Society (2016) with Sarah Sylbing. The popular series sparked public debate about the debt problem and won several television awards, including the Silver Nipkow Disk and a Dutch Directors Guild Award in 2017. For the seven-part documentary series Class, Sylbing and Gould worked together again, this time to take a closer look at the growing inequality in Dutch classrooms. The series received the Amsterdam Prize of the Arts (2021) and won a Dutch Directors Guild Award and a special mention at Prix Europa 2021. Besides directing and co-producing with Reijer Zwaan (Niemand die het ziet), she also works as a script coach and tutor for workshops such as IDFA Project Space.
For the Vrijplaats Hybride, Ester will be the co-curator and mentor.
Photocredit: Jean Counet