The director leaves in close consultation with Eye’s supervisory board, which praises her commitment and leadership. Lex ter Braak, ai chairman: ‘Sandra den Hamer has made Eye an international exemplary film institute, in which the contemporary and the historical go hand in hand and the maker always comes first.’
Before joining the Filmmuseum in 2007, Den Hamer was director of the International Film Festival Rotterdam. She was put in charge of a museum that was housed in the too cramped Vondelpark pavilion, with two small, outdated cinemas. The plans for the new museum building to be built on the IJ in Amsterdam-North were already there at the time.
Under Den Hamer, the new institute, now called Eye, was occupied in 2012, a stylish and futuristic building with a generous exhibition space and brand new rooms with high-quality projection. Modern storage areas were also built for the unique and gigantic Dutch film collection. Den Hamer was able to attract large numbers of visitors from the start with exhibitions about the oeuvres and lives of great filmmakers such as Stanley Kubrick and Federico Fellini. The exhibitions on the interface between film and art also occupy a unique place within the Dutch cultural offer, such as: L’histoire kaputt by Alex van Warmerdam ( 2018) and Master of Light† about the work of the Dutch cameraman Robby Müller (2016).
Den Hamer will leave Eye in September 2022, exactly the month in which she took office as director fifteen years ago. It is not yet known who will succeed Den Hamer, the supervisory board will shortly start a procedure.