There is a light Dutch gloss to this year’s Oscar for Best Film 12 Years a Slave: director Steve McQueen lives in Amsterdam with his Dutch partner.

McQueen, who is a British national, moved to Amsterdam in the late 1990s. He lives with the cultural critic Bianca Stigter and their two children.

He told the Guardian newspaper earlier this year he had opted for Amsterdam because ‘it’s not London, it’s not LA, it’s not New York’.

The director said in an interview with W Magazine he has generated his best ideas when at home cooking or vacuuming and does not hang out with other artists. ‘That’s like if you’re a butcher, hanging out with other butchers. You chop meat this way, and I chop meat that way. What’s there to talk about?’