Anna van der Heide
Born in Rotterdam in 1978, she studieddirecting at The Maastricht Theatre Academy, and Communication Science at University of Amsterdam. Director and screenwriter she worked for TV and cinema.  Assistant Director and Second Unit Director from 2003 to 2006, in 2006 she directed the commercial “Onderhandelen”, followed by the short films MissiePoo16 (2007), RUN! (2008) featured and awarded in several festival. In 2008 she directed the episode “Zweven” for the Tv series Roes. In 2011 she directed her first feature film Fidgety Bram and the year after the short film MAN IN SUIT (2012), both of them screened and awarded at several film festivals all over the world. Among her television productions there are the fictional television news program Sinterklaasjournaal (2013) and the TV series MERRY CHRISTMAS (2014).

Director's statement
“Paul van Loon's Mr. Frog is a well-written page-turner and really gets one's imagination going. The fact that something very unusual (a teacher turning into a frog) happens in the ‘normal’ world rather than a colorful fantasy world where anything is possible, is an original starting point. A world is created that children are familiar with including Year 5 and the pet shop on the corner–and in which something happens that turns everything upside down. In that sense Mr. Frog reminds me of Roald Dahl’s short stories. Even as a child, I found these stories extremely exciting, in the way they combined reality and fantasy to create a magical atmosphere. Of course you knew that little boys can’t do magic, that dream factories don’t exist, and that teachers do not turn into frogs. But the stories were told so convincingly, that it was quite difficult not to believe in them. Because it would be just wonderful if it were all true”.