Emily Ansenk will become director of Amsterdam’s Eye Filmmuseum in February 2027.
The 56-year-old art historian succeeds interim director John Middelweerd, a financial advisor who took over after Bregtje van der Haak stepped down in April 2023. Ansenk, currently director of the Holland Festival, was previously director of the Kunsthal Rotterdam from 2008 to 2019 and the Scheringa Museum for Realism from 1996 to 2008. The Eye supervisory board called her “thoroughly versed in the metropolitan, national and international cultural field” and “a worthy figurehead for Eye” .
Ansenk’s appointment follows a period of financial and organizational turmoil at Eye. The museum’s general reserve shrank by €1 million over three years, and it posted a €3.2 million loss in 2025, over 13 percent of its €24 million budget. To cut costs, Eye laid off 11 of its 150 staff last year and reduced its exhibition program to two shows per year. It also closed its loss-making museum shop and outsourced its in-house catering .
Staff morale suffered as well. In 2024, sickness absence reached 11.4 percent, and employees criticized the leadership in a letter to Het Parool, citing a “leadership crisis” and a “micromanaging” style. Eye later reported that absence had fallen to 4.36 percent .
The museum’s announcement on Monday framed Ansenk’s arrival as the start of “a sparkling new period.” It noted recent success with Christopher Nolan’s *The Odyssey*, which sold 36,900 tickets in Eye’s 70mm screenings, making it the most successful film run in the museum’s history .
