Elène Zuidmeer received a grant for My Voicenote, a short film about postpartum depression, friendship, and the distance that can arise between someone’s inner world and the people around them. In the film, the viewer follows Ada, a new mother silently struggling with postpartum depression as she tries to survive a pitch-black night with her baby. While an intimate voice-over seems to articulate her darkest thoughts, it slowly becomes clear that this is not Ada’s own voice, but a voice note from her best friend, trying to reach her. My Voicenote is a personal and urgent film about what it means to stand beside someone for a while, without ever fully understanding them.Elène is a writer and director from Zwolle. In 2020, she co-founded the production company DE VANDALEN with producer Joeri van Spijk, where she wrote and directed the web series Toen wij de tijd hadden. The series was selected for the debut competition at the Netherlands Film Festival and received rave reviews. Afterward, she created the documentary podcast Alles wordt beter for VPRO DOCS, for which she was nominated for the Most Remarkable Directing Achievement award at the DDG Awards. She also won the Dutch Directors Guild’s award for Emerging Directing Talent. Following this, she made the documentary series MAMA about motherhood for OPEN Rotterdam, which premiered at the end of 2023. In 2025, she was selected by VPRO DORST as a promising maker from Zwolle. That same year, she wrote and directed the short film EXIT MAMA, starring Malou Gorter, a co-production between DE VANDALEN and Labyrint Film.