Gamila Ylstra
CEOGamila Ylstra joined Binger Filmlab in 2010 as Chief Executive Officer in charge of the overall artistic direction and management of the institute. She is responsible for the institute's mission, vision and strategy, and acts as chairman of the selection committee.
Prior to her work at Binger Filmlab, Gamila was Head of the Film Department of the Ministry of Culture (1990-1997). Here she was responsible (a.o) for setting up the Netherlands Film Fund and establishing Binger Filmlab as an international center of excellence in filmmaking. In 1998 she was appointed Film Project Manager at the Ministry of Economic Affairs on a one year assignment to develop new financial instruments to support Dutch filmmaking. In 1999 she became founding Managing Director of Film Investors Netherlands (Fine BV), executing a tax scheme to support filmmaking in The Netherlands. Fine BV financed and invested in over thirty Dutch feature films, including Minoes, Phileine Says Sorry, Zus And Zo (Oscar Nominee), Love To Love and Shouf Shouf Habibi. In 2004 she was appointed Director of TV Programmes of national broadcaster NPS. In 2009 Gamila was commissioned by the EYE Film Institute to design a plan for the nationwide digitization of Dutch Cinema. The roll out was completed in 2012.
Presently Gamila is board member of the Dutch Cultural Media Fund, distributor Cinema Delicatessen, The Indian Film Festival The Hague and Living Media Art (LIMA). She is member of the Advisory Board of The Netherlands Film Festival.
Gamila holds an MA in Cultural Anthropology and Non-Western Sociology from the University of Amsterdam. She studied Philosophy at SUNY New Platz (USA) and the Paris IV (Sorbonne, France). She was granted a MONBUSHO Scholarship to study documentary filmmaking at the Film Academy in Tokyo, Japan.