Robert Stokvis

I was born 1965 in Vienna to a Dutch father and a German-Polish mother. I spent my early childhood in Italy and pursued academic studies in Vienna (Doctorate, University of Economics), Rotterdam (Diploma in European Studies, Erasmus University) and Cambridge (MBA, MIT Sloan School of Management).

In the 1990s I worked as a business consultant in Berlin and was part of the effort to privatize the former East German economy. From there I joined the Board of Directors of a mining company and later became an industrial entrepreneur producing insulating refractory bricks in Saxony (Germany).

I moved to London in 2001 and set up Concept Films to produce films that challenge traditional filmmaking. In 2011 I moved to Austria where I continue to develop new film projects.

Robert Cambrinus

In 2002 I graduated from East 15 Acting School, Essex University, where I took the Media Course. My first job was an acting role in a BBC production. Soon afterwards I started to develop my own film projects, in which I explore aspects of subjective cinema, the destruction of illusion and the perceptive process.

Okto TV screened a retrospective of my short films in 2018. An interview discussing my work is still available online (in German).

I held a scholarship at the Drehbuchwerkstatt Munich (at the HFF) where I developed a feature film script, which came second in the Script Talent Award (unrealised). Mentor: Dieter Pochlatko.

In 2023 I attended the Schreibwerkstatt Waldviertel. Tutor: Michael Köhlmeier.

Sonic Interstices

In her article film scholar Laura Rascaroli discusses aspects of essayistic voiceovers on the basis of my short film Commentary. Published in Media Fields Journal (University of California, Santa Barbara) 09/2011 - available online or as pdf.

In the cinema

In this article I develop some ideas about the integrity of the film viewing experience and the nature of the receptive process. It is available as pdf in English and German and was published in OnCurating.org, Issue 23: The Future of Short Film. Available as print magazine from Amazon.de or Amazon.co.uk

Austrian Film Museum special issue stamp

Austrian Post Office (Österreichische Post AG) has published a special issue stamp in honour of the Austrian Film Museum featuring its historic logo. The stamp also shows the silhouette of Robert Cambrinus with a Super 8mm reel. The image is based on a still taken from his first film “Illegal”.

Stamp designer: Anita Kern Edition: 200 000

The special postmark, which was issued only on the first day of the stamp's publication (31/03/2022), features a quote by Amos Vogel: “Filme sehen ist eine Art zu denken.”

Seeing films is a way of thinking.

The Austrian Film Museum offers various film postcards featuring the special issue stamp with the special postmark.

Limited edition