All articles by Thessa Mooij

  • News

    Dutch fest fetes low budget and tax scheme titles

    2001-10-01T19:09:00Z

    The 21st edition of the Dutch Film Festival has ended with awards both for high profile tax scheme funded titles, and low-budget debuts. Holland's private investors can congratulate themselves on increasing budgets - and quality - for titles like the Frisian biopic Nynke, already a box office hit, and the ...

  • News

    Dutch film tax scheme changed again

    2001-09-25T00:19:00Z

    The Dutch government has announced an additional tranche of funding worth Euros 7m, to subsidise mid-range projects' marketing campaigns, as well as production support. At the same time, however, changes to the Dutch tax incentive scheme, mean that producers must now secure 50% of a film's budget (up from 30%) ...

  • News

    Dutch film fest is launch pad for new initiatives

    2001-09-23T19:46:00Z

    Holland's film season has kicked off with the 21st edition of the Dutch Film Festival in Utrecht (19-28 September) - opening with the tax-scheme funded feature The Cave, which had its world premiere at the World Cinema sidebar in Montreal. This year, the festival serves not only as a platform ...

  • News

    Film By The Sea honours The Weight Of Water

    2001-09-18T00:58:00Z

    At the third edition of Film by the Sea (10-16 Sept) in the Dutch seaside town of Flushing, Katherine Bigelow's The Weight Of The Water picked up the Silver Mermaid award worth Euros 10,000. The festival's main competition has a theme of literary adaptations, and The Weight Of The Water ...

  • News

    Dutch Film By The Sea announces line-up

    2001-09-05T02:26:00Z

    The Dutch film season kicks off next week (10-16 October) with the third edition of the Film By The Sea international film festival in Flushing, Holland. Announcing the literary-themed line-up which opens with Captain Correlli's Mandolin, festival director Leo Hannewijk, said "Adapting novels for the big screen is extremely tough, ...

  • News

    Dutch industry decries foreign use of tax breaks

    2001-08-28T20:25:00Z

    Just one week after the European Commission approved Holland's new tax break system (valid until 2003), the Federation of Film Interests - a union made up of screenwriters, directors, producers, actors and other professionals - has called for a regulation of the system. The federation is talking to policymakers and ...

  • News

    Flanders TV signs for Warner Bros. output

    2001-08-14T20:55:00Z

    Flanders' largest commercial TV company Vlaamse Media Maatschappij has signed a four-year output deal with Warner Bros. International Television Distribution. Its two TV stations VTM and Kanaal 2 will have the right to broadcast new features (1999-2002) - such as Eyes Wide Shut, The Perfect Storm and Harry Potter And ...

  • News

    Dutch dozen to feature at Netherlands project mart

    2001-08-01T20:08:00Z

    Twelve Dutch projects are to be showcased at the Netherlands Production Platform, the high profile production sidebar of the Dutch Film Festival (19-28 Sept). Now in its third year, the platform presents Dutch feature projects to possible co-production partners, financiers and sales agents and has a good track record of ...

  • News

    The Cave opens Utrecht on young, local note

    2001-06-19T16:36:00Z

    Martin Koolhoven's The Cave (De Grot) is to open this year's Dutch Film Festival in Utrecht.This is the second year running that the festival, this year celebrating its 21st edition, has chosen a film by a young local director to kick off proceedings. Last time out, the festival opened with ...

  • News

    Netherlands proposes overhaul for tax incentives

    2001-06-15T18:35:00Z

    After months of uncertainty surrounding the future of the Dutch tax incentive scheme, policy-makers from the three government ministries involved have sent a proposal to parliament recommending the current film-friendly climate be preserved with the establishment of a new scheme offering even more generous incentives, but tempered by much tighter ...

  • News

    Dutch bureaucracy floors film funds

    2001-06-07T18:16:00Z

    Policy makers from the Dutch ministries of finance and economic affairs have been quick to blame the slow bureaucratic machinery in Brussels, but when Labour politician and former documentary maker Hillie Molenaar started asking questions in parliament, it transpired that the Dutch bureaucrats had not even sent off its proposal ...

  • News

    New top dogs give added bark to Dutch industry

    2001-04-17T17:18:00Z

    The complexion of the Dutch film industry could be set for dramatic change following the appointment of new chiefs at all three of The Netherlands' major film institutions: the Dutch Film Fund, the Filmmuseum and the Maurits Binger Institute.After months of speculation it was announced that broadsheet journalist Toine ...

  • News

    RCV's Buying Spree at AFM

    2001-03-14T16:05:00Z

    RCV Entertainment's Dirk de Lille returned from the AFM with a full shopping basket, bolstering his move to buy more mainstream U.S. fare than RCV was previously known for before he came on board last year. Most notably, De Lille is buying into the Crouching Tiger effect - having acquired ...

  • News

    Belgian fund boosts World Cinema

    2001-03-08T18:26:00Z

    After five years of lobbying, the organisers of the Bruges-based Cinema Novo fest for world cinema have secured commitment from the Belgian state to back the funding of films from the South (Africa, Asia, Latin America). On the back of Bruges' status as 2002 European capital, Cinema Novo will issue ...

  • News

    Ocean Warrior turns into beached whale

    2001-03-07T16:59:00Z

    Failure to secure a completion bond has grounded the biggest production in the history of Dutch cinema. With a $60 million budget, Ocean Warrior (a biopic of Greenpeace founder Paul Watson) was to be directed by John Badham, with starring roles for Aidan Quinn and Billy Bob Thornton. When financiers ...

  • News

    Battle Royale joins Rotterdam line-up

    2000-12-19T16:17:00Z

    Japanese gore fest Battle Royale, which is currently whipping up both public outrage and box office receipts in its home territory, is to make its international premiere at January's International Film Festival Rotterdam.Kinji Fukasaku's futuristic tale of teens on a desert island who are forced to kill each other until ...

  • News

    Ukrainian film industry to receive boost from AVIC

    2000-12-12T16:23:00Z

    A group of Ukrainian film professionals have launched a privately funded, non-profit organisation, called AVIC (Audiovisual Information Centre), to act as a link between local film-makers and the international industry.Still smarting from the 1998 rouble crisis, which badly affected the local hryvnia currency, the ailing Ukrainian film industry is far ...

  • News

    Rienstra quits Dutch Film Fund after seven years

    2000-12-08T18:49:00Z

    Dutch Film Fund director Ryclef Rienstra is resigning after seven years in the post to head up a non-profit fund, the Van den Ende Foundation, launched by retired Endemol co-founder Joop van den Ende.The foundation aims to support theatre, music, multimedia and other projects which for one reason or another ...

  • News

    Sea That Thinks takes top prize at Dutch doc fest

    2000-12-06T18:03:00Z

    Dutch film-maker Gert de Graaf picked up the main prize at the International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam (Nov 21-29), for The Sea That Thinks. The film is the dramatised tale of a screenwriter trying to unravel his own plot. The Special Jury Award went to David Shapiro and Laurie Gwen Shapiro ...

  • News

    Amsterdam doc fest to honour van der Keuken

    2000-11-24T17:04:00Z

    Dutch documentary film-maker Johan van der Keuken will be presented with the Bert Haanstra award in recognition of his life-time's work at the International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam (November 21-29).The Dutch Film Fund, which will present the award, described van der Keuken as a "cinematic poet whose international acclaim is impressive". ...