FILMMAKER
Harald Swinkels is a passionate filmmaker with a meticulous attention to story, music, sound and light. His debut film - written and directed by Harald - is currently in post-production and will be released as soon as the COVID-19 measures on cinemas around the world have been levied.
Until the summer of 2021, Harald will be predominantly engaged in co-writing a screenplay for his first feature film, a symbiosis between coming of age and psychological thriller.
Being an entrepreneurial filmmaker, Harald has founded two production companies: NFM, that acts as executive producer, and he has co-founded
Exosphere Entertainment, that produces his films.
ADVISOR
With entrepreneurial and executive experience spanning over two decades, Harald Swinkels provides (boardroom) advisory services to entrepreneurial companies, ambitious entrepreneurs and organizations with social and environmental impact.
Harald is convinced he is a better entrepreneur than an investor. So, if you seek funding for your start-up or scale-up please refer to Harald’s business partner Pieter Schoen, through investment company
Shoe Investments.
BIOGRAPHY
Harald Swinkels is a filmmaker with a true entrepreneurial spirit. From a tender age, his dream and ambition has been to screen write for and direct a major, international feature film. Harald was however fully aware of the fact that his country of birth – the Netherlands – was not blessed with a significant international film tradition. So instead of enrolling at a film academy, he made – at the age of 11 – a pact with one of his two older brothers (with whom he shares his passion for film): Harald would firstly focus on a business career to generate capital for a future in film, while his brother would already pursue a career in the film industry to pave the way.
During his time at university as a marketing student, Harald started his first enterprise together with business partner Pieter Schoen: a publishing company. This marked the beginning of 20 years of turbulent entrepreneurial adventures with Pieter, culminating in the successful sale of his company ‘Nederlandse Energie Maatschappij’ (NLE) in 2018. Founded in 2005, NLE evolved into the largest independent energy and telecom player in the Netherlands with a turnover of almost half a billion euros. The take-over of his company by a private equity company in 2018, gave Harald the opportunity (and resources) to stop being ‘CEO in energy’ and completely focus on fulfilling his childhood filmmaking dreams. In the meantime, his brother had carved out an extraordinarily successful career in the film industry.
Together with producer and co-writer Caroline Bevaart, who was responsible for the successful marketing and communication strategy at NLE, Harald now leads a film production company, Exosphere Entertainment. He acts as screenwriter as well as director for unconventional high-end films.
