Bram Schouw (1979) was born and raised in The Hague. He wanted to be a professional soccer player. Lucky for us, he wasn’t very good. Our insatiable Puer Aeternus didn’t make architect, psychiatrist, or philosopher king either.  Instead, he cut his teeth as an actor and singer in Les Miserables, read 1,000 books, travelled the globe, and met 1,000,000 people. All with his camera.

Bram’s disparate loves collided. And landed him at HKU University of the Arts in Utrecht. Where he studied film for four years. And lived Remco Campert’s line, ‘You don't have to go away to see the world.’ Right here in NL, he made worlds from the world around him. The play of light. The magic of the moment. His obsession with how sparkling and strange human beings are. The bundling of different talents and spirits that is every film set. In other words, ‘Gesamtkunstwerk.’ Pure and true. Bram graduated with honours. And his graduation film, Marriage, turned up as the official opening film at Curta Cinema Rio de Janeiro 2005. Other films followed - collaborations with Marcel Roijaards, Backspace and Impasse, the TV film Nina Santana, an episode of the highly acclaimed television series Van God Loss.  The list goes on. All winning awards worldwide. His short, Sevilla, in 2014 and first feature, Broers in 2017. 

Bram trained his eye on commercials too. Working on strong ideas with Triodos Bank, Sensoor, others. In 2015, his Warchild spot scored him the Best Director award at the ADCN.

In 2016 he signed with Bonkers United. Where he’s only sharpened his eye for magic, beauty, and truth with one gorgeous spot after another. ABNAMRO bank, Brand beer, Triodos bank, a single-taker with Morgan Freeman for Swinckels beer, a film for Fonds Gehandicapten Sport that caught a Lion in Cannes. He recently directed Childhood Dreams, an original series (by Marnie Blok & Bram Schouw) had its world premiere during latest Cannes series 2023 and got nominated for both the Prix Europe and Prix Italia 2023. The 9×50 minutes and widely acclaimed family saga begins in the tumultuous 1960s, and follows the bittersweet journey of a family as they navigate through love, loss, and life over several generations. 

We could go on and on and while Bram might still be bummed he’s no Cristiano Ronaldo, we’re not. We reckon one man’s reverse step-over is another’s Gesamtkunstwerken.