After completing a master in the audivisual arts (Documentaire Hogeshool Sint-Lukas, Brussel), An van Dienderen stayed at the University of California Berkeley as a visiting scholar. In 2004 she completed her PhD in Comparative Cultural Sciences at Ghent University. Together with Didier Volckaert she made several (inter)nationally awarded documentaries, among which Tu ne verras pas Verapaz (2002) and Patrasche, a dog of Flanders - Made in Japan (2008).