The Netherlands Film Festival () is an annual film festival, held in September and October of each year in the city of Utrecht.
During the ten-day festival, Dutch film productions and co-productions are exhibited. Besides feature films, the program also consists of short subjects, documentary films, and television productions. On the closing evening of the festival, the Golden Calves are awarded to the best films, directors, and actors.
Together with the Netherlands Film Fund, the festival also recognises box office results of Dutch film productions during the year with the Crystal Film (10,000 visitors of documentary films), Golden Film (100,000 visitors), Platinum Film (400,000 visitors), and Diamond Film (1,000,000 visitors).
History
The Netherlands Film Festival was founded in 1981 by the Dutch film maker Jos Stelling, who called it the "Netherlands Film Days" (). Initially, the festival was oriented towards film makers only, but it gradually reached a broader audience.
The 36th edition of the festival, in 2016, attracted more than 150,000 visitors.
Canon of Dutch cinema In 2007, the festival presented their Canon of Dutch Cinema, (), containing sixteen monumental films in Dutch film history. The list included the following films: The Misadventure of a French Gentleman Without Pants at the Zandvoort Beach (Willy Mullens and Alberts Frères, 1905) A Carmen of the North (Maurits Binger, 1919) Rain (Joris Ivens, 1929) The Tars (Jaap Speyer, 1934) (Herman van der Horst, 1952) Fanfare (Bert Haanstra, 1958) Like Two Drops of Water (Fons Rademakers, 1963) Blind Kind (Johan van der Keuken, 1964) (Adriaan Ditvoorst, 1965) Living (Frans Zwartjes, 1971) Turkish Delight (Paul Verhoeven, 1973) Flodder (Dick Maas, 1986) The Northerners (Alex van Warmerdam, 1992) The Pocket-knife (Ben Sombogaart, 1992) (Jos de Putter, 1993) Father and Daughter (Michaël Dudok de Wit, 2000)
Special guests Since 1992, the festival organisation invites a special guest, usually a respected director or actor in the Dutch film business.
1992: Paul Schrader 1993: Krzysztof Zanussi 1994: Rutger Hauer 1995: Nouchka van Brakel 1996: Jan de Hartog 1997: Monique van de Ven 1998: First Floor Features 1999: ? 2000: Heddy Honigmann 2001: Renée Soutendijk 2002: Pieter Verhoeff 2003: Jan Decleir 2004: Jean van de Velde 2005: Jos Stelling 2006: Johanna ter Steege 2007: Burny Bos 2008: Monic Hendrickx 2009: Jack Wouterse 2010: Anneke Blok 2011: Frans van Gestel 2012: Jeroen Willems 2013: Paula van der Oest 2014: Fons Merkies 2016: Willem de Beukelaer
Awards Besides the Golden Calves the Festival also has its own special awards.
Dutch Film Critics award Award of the city Utrecht Tuschinski Award (former Cannon City Prize) Talent & Pro Student Award NPS Award for best short film Teen Award Cinema.nl Film Poster Award (former Skrien Afficheprijs) Grolsch Film Award
Opening films 1981 The Girl with the Red Hair 1982 1983 Giovanni 1984 1985 1986 The Pointsman 1987 A Month Later 1988 Shadow Man 1989 Blueberry Hill 1990 Vigour 1991 The Province 1992 The Three Best Things in Life 1993 Unknown Time 1994 1000 Roses 1995 Antonia's Line 1996 1997 Tropic of Emerald 1998 1999 Under the Palms 2000 Wild Mussels 2001 2002 Ramses 2003 Phileine Says Sorry 2004 Simon 2005 Life! 2006 Waiter 2007 Duska 2008 In Real Life 2009 Tramontana 2010 Tirza 2011 The Gang of Oss 2012 The Zigzag Kid 2013 The Price of Sugar 2014 Reckless 2015 J. Kessels 2016 2017 Tulipani, Love, Honour and a Bicycle 2018 Open Seas 2019 Instinct 2020 Buladó 2021 My Father Is an Airplane 2023 Sweet Dreams
See also Cinema of the Netherlands Documentary film of the Netherlands
References
External links Official website Netherlands Film Festival at the Internet Movie Database