Paul Trijbits

Paul Trijbits is a Dutch born film and television producer living in London, with his wife Patricia Kruijer and children Jakob and Lea.

Career

Before joining the UK Film Council, Paul Trijbits produced and executive produced a number of feature films with both first-time and established directors. His credits during this time include Paul Hills’ Boston Kickout, Richard Stanley’s Hardware, Danny Cannon’s The Young Americans, William Brookfield’s Milk, Dom Rotheroe’s My Brother Tom, Paul Weiland’s Roseanna's Grave, John Duigan’s Paranoid, Philippa Cousins’ Happy Now and Menhaj Huda’s Is Harry On The Boat?.^[1]

Trijbits was a founder member and former co-chair of the New Producers Alliance (NPA).^[2] The NPA was set up in 1993 to provide support and training to members of the British film industry.^[3]

He is currently partner and managing director at Ruby Films.

UK Film Council (2000-2006)

In 2000, Paul Trijbits was appointed Head of the New Cinema Fund at the UK Film Council, which at its inception had £5 million a year^[4] to support talent and encourage innovation, backing lower-budget pictures and shorts.^[5]

During his six-year tenure,^[6] Trijbits established key initiatives such as the digital shorts programme and backed films that won prestigious awards (e.g. Bloody Sunday, The Magdalene Sisters), showcased new talent (e.g. Bullet Boy) and broke new ground (e.g. This Is Not a Love Song).^[7]

As his time at the UK Film Council drew to a close, Trijbits celebrated a double win at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival for Ken Loach's The Wind That Shakes the Barley and Andrea Arnold's Red Road. As Trijbits commented at the time: "To have two British Lottery funded films in Competition in Cannes was in itself a tremendous achievement, but now to have one film win the Palme d’Or and the other win the Prix du Jury is an outstanding testament to the talent, creativity and vision of Ken Loach and Andrea Arnold."^[8]

Ruby Films (2007-Present)

In 2007, Trijbits joined Alison Owen's London-based production company Ruby Films (established in 1999) as a partner^[9] where he has continued to produce and executive produce outstanding independent films and television films and serials.^[7] Commenting at the time, Trijbits explained: "The reason I am here is that it is a terrific company, an exciting place to be, with one of the greatest development and production line-up that you could wish a UK company to have".^[10] Trijbits had previously established a close working relationship with Owen when they both produced Roseanna's Grave and The Young Americans.^[9]

Recent producer credits at Ruby include Jane Eyre, directed by Cary Fukunaga and starring Mia Wasikowska, Michael Fassbender, Jamie Bell and Judi Dench, which Universal/Focus successfully launched in the US in March 2011 to critical acclaim and box office success; Tamara Drewe (Official Selection - 2010 Cannes Film Festival, Out of Competition), directed by Stephen Frears with funding from WestEnd Films, BBC Films and Sony Pictures Classics, starring Gemma Arterton; Chatroom (Official Selection - 2010 Cannes Film Festival, Un Certain Regard) directed by Hideo Nakata for Film4 and WestEnd, starring Aaron Johnson; and Toast, a single film for the BBC based on the book by Nigel Slater, starring Freddie Highmore, Ken Stott and Helena Bonham Carter, which had its gala premiere at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival and was released theatrically in the UK, as well as airing on BBC One where it attracted 6.2 million viewers^[11] and won praise from the critics.

Trijbits also executive produced Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank, which competed in Official Competition at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, Oliver Hirschbiegel’s Five Minutes of Heaven, winner of Best Director and Best Screenplay at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, and the International Emmy award winning Small Island, based on the novel by Andrea Levy, starring Naomie Harris, David Oyelowo, Benedict Cumberbatch and Ruth Wilson.^[12]

With Anthony Bregman’s Likely Story, Trijbits most recently produced Lay the Favorite, directed by Stephen Frears, starring Bruce Willis, Rebecca Hall and Catherine Zeta-Jones, which is due for release in 2012.^[13]

Filmography

Feature films

Short Films

Television

References

External links

• Paul Trijbits at the Internet Movie Database
• Paul Trijbits at the British Film Institute
• Ruby Film and Television