About

Palermofilm consists of:

MISHA WESSEL - After graduating cum laude for her Bachelor’s degree (Dutch Language and Culture), Misha Wessel went on to receive her Master’s in Journalism at the University of Amsterdam. She then started off as a researcher and reporter for the biggest broadcasters on Dutch national television. Her work included reporting on the Tour de France, Olympics and several investigative sports documentaries. In 2013 she researched and co-directed a multi-part political documentary series on Dutch former prime ministers Ruud Lubbers and Wim Kok. Together with Thomas Blom, she also directed ‘The Rules of Cees Priem’, in which they revealed who was behind the 1998 doping transport that landed cycling team manager Cees Priem in prison during the Tour de France. The documentary was nominated for the Dutch national journalism award ‘de Tegel’. They also did exclusive interviews with former cycling boss Hein Verbruggen and former doping doctor Peter Janssen (who accused multiple Olympic champion Leontien van Moorsel of EPO use). The latter one was nominated for best interview at the Dutch journalism awards. In 2018 Blom & Wessel made the feature documentary ‘The World of Thinking’. A film on five brilliant scientists, located at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, searching for a revolutionary breakthrough. It was selected for the Dutch Film Festival, Silbersalz film festival, AFO Czech Republic, Seoul International filmfestival, Imagine filmfestival New York and Paris Science and it was nominated as best European science documentary. In 2020 ‘The Hunt for Gaddafi’s billions’ came out, co-produced by VPRO, Brook Lapping, BBC and ZDF/ARTE It was broadcasted in over 40 countries and won a prestigious Rockie Award at the BANFF World Media festival. It was also nominated for an international news Emmy. The three part series 'Free at Last' a re-telling of the Apartheid era, was broadcasted in South-Africa and in Europe in 2025 and has won the prestigious Prix Italia (Global South) and The National Arts and Culture Award in South-Africa.

THOMAS BLOM - Graduated with honors from the St. Joost academy for Audio Visual arts. As a freelance director, he made 'Moscow Stadium Disaster' for ESPN Europe, which exposed the greatest football disaster in history, and two episodes for the 'Deported' series about immigrant children, which was awarded the Clara Meijer Wichmann medal for human rights.

Since then, Blom has made documentaries for Dutch national broadcasters VPRO, BNNVARA and NTR and regularly writes for De Volkskrant. Well-known reports are 'Dirty oil from Shell', which led to a hearing in parliament, and together with co-director Misha Wessel, the acclaimed portraits of prime-ministers Wim Kok and Ruud Lubbers. Blom won an award for investigative reporting for 'Hostage in Almelo' and the Herman Kuiphof award, the prize for the best sports documentary for 'The mystery Foekje Dillema', in which a DNA test showed that runner Foekje Dillema really was a woman.

There were nominations for Dutch Journalism award de Tegel, for the doping revelations of sports doctor Peter Janssen in De Volkskrant, for 'The Rules of Cees Priem' watched by over 1.5 million viewers and for the four-part series about Saudi Arabia which was also nominated for the ‘Zilveren Nipkow- for outstanding Dutch television. The series was sold to ZDF info and Discovery Asia. Blom co-directed the international feature documentary 'The World of Thinking', about the Institute for Advanced Study (nominated for Best European Feature documentary - Silbersaltz Science Festival) and 'The Hunt for Gaddafi's Billions' about the lost billions of dictator Muammar Gaddafi for VPRO, BBC Storyville and ZDF (Banff Rockie Award winner and International Emmy Award nomination 2021). The film has been broadcasted in over 40 countries. The series Searching for Paradise with Sinan Can, about hope in the war torn region along the Euphrates, was shown in 2023 on Channel One in The Netherlands to high acclaim. The three part international series 'Free at Last' a re-telling of the Apartheid era, was broadcasted in South-Africa and in Europe in 2025 and has won the prestigious Prix Italia (Global South) and The National Arts and Culture Award in South-Africa.