Samuel Van Grinsven is a New Zealand writer and director based in Sydney. His upcoming second feature film Went up the Hill stars Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread, Corsage) and Dacre Montgomery (Stranger Things) and is a New Zealand/Australian co-production produced by Causeway Films (Talk to Me, of an Age) and POP Film, (Savage, Pike River).
His debut feature film Sequin In A Blue Room had its world premiere at the 2019 Sydney Film Festival where it won the Audience Award for Best Feature Film. It soon became a festival hit screening globally at Palm Springs, TIFF Next Wave, BFI Flare and Melbourne International Film Festival. The film was nominated for an Australian Academy
Award (AACTA), Australian Directors Guild (ADG) Award and German Independence Award, and screened theatrically in Australia, Germany and the UK. In 2020, the film was released as an Amazon Exclusive on Prime Video in Australia followed by streaming releases worldwide.
Samuel completed a Masters of Directing at the Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS) with a research area focused on the New Queer Cinema movement of the 90s and the work of Gus Van Sant, Gregg Araki and Derek Jarman. He was the first Masters student to graduate with a feature, Sequin In A Blue Room. His previous short films have been selected for international and domestic film festivals.
