Martijn Smits is 27 years old and has graduated last year from the Utrecht School of Arts in the Netherlands, Europe. He graduated in directing. During his study he made several short films in different genres, from comedy to horror. He is a great horror fan and his influences are films like 'Repulsion' (Polanski), 'The Shining' (Kubrick), 'Silence of the Lambs' (Demme) and 'The Thing' (Carpenter). “The Wretched” was his final examination film and was the first horror film being made at his School. “The Wretched” has been shown on several film festivals in Europe and has won two prizes.

Martijn is now working as a freelance director in the Netherlands. After his study he directed a music video, 3 commercials and has written a short black comedy. He wants to direct this short movie this year and hopefully make a feature horror film in the future. A genre which is not very popular in the Netherlands, so that’s a real challenge. He sees his fellow Dutchman director Paul Verhoeven ('Robocop', 'Starship Troopers') as an example for his future career.