“There was something for everyone” International attendees cheer first NLWave25

The pilot edition of Dutch showcase NLWave25 took place from September 24 to 26 in Utrecht and ended on an upbeat note.

Forty-five Dutch feature projects were presented over two days to an audience of international execs from companies including The Playmaker Munich, Heretic, WTFilms, MPM Premium, MMM Film Sales, Urban Sales, LevelK, LuckyNumber and Urban Sales, as well as festivals reps from Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Sundance, Locarno, Karlovy Vary, Goteborg and Toronto.

The films pitched encompassed arthouse drama, documentary, genre fare, family films and animation.

“There was something for everyone,” said Bérénice Vincent, CEO of Paris-based international sales and production outfit, Totem Films, of first edition of the Dutch industry showcase. She said she was now actively tracking five of the projects presented.

“A very effective way to get an overview of the latest upcoming Dutch projects, with an impressive attendance of strong film teams,” agreed Liselot Verbrugge, CEO of Amsterdam-based doc sales specialist, Film Harbour, who is also in talks with several of the filmmakers over possible collaborations.

One clear sign of the new outward looking perspective of Dutch producers is the number of films being shot in English.

Fresh from winning her Oscar for best short drama, I’m Not A Robot, director Victoria Warmerdam was pitching her feature length adaptation of that short about an art authenticator who discovers she is a robot. Produced by Amsterdam-based Oak Motion Pictures, she is now looking for a UK or US cast.

Yfke van Berckelaer’s horror picture Fosfor, produced by Monique van Kessel’s Make Way Film, is also English language. It will star Lisa Smit as a woman caught in “an infinite nightmare” from which she can never wake up.

“The film will be shot in the Netherlands with a Dutch cast and crew but in English,” van Kassel said of the project which is fully financed and has Gusto on board as Dutch distributor.

Bafta-nominated writer-director Muriel d’Ansembourg’s debut feature Truly Naked Truly, is another English-language, Dutch-made title, made in Devon with UK actors 

Meanwhile, producer Danielle Guirguis of Amsterdam’s Smarthouse has secured UK support through BFI Doc Society for Pink & Green, an English-language hybrid documentary feature from Turner prize nominated artist, Rory Pilgrim. Tyke Films is the UK partner on the film, which Guirguis describes as “a love letter to the isle of Portland”, the area in the English Channel that is known for stone quarries, poverty and prisons. The film shoots in late October and is looking for a sales agent; Cinema Delicatessen will release in The Netherlands.

Another Dutch project with UK backing is Menno Otten’s documentary Still City. Based around Otten’s “obsessive interest in faces and human expressions,” the film, produced by Renko Douze of Een van de jongens, will draw on Amsterdam street footage over the last 125 years to offer an immersive portrait of city life.

Still City is being co-produced by James Gay-Rees and Paul Martin’s London-based Box To Box.

During NLWave, there was a surprise screening of Otten’s recent documentary The Sacrifice, which draws together footage from 100 years of the Olympics, but focuses on the faces and gestures of the athletes and spectators instead of the sports themselves.

Otten is using The Sacrifice, which is in distribution limbo due to rights issues, as a “proof of concept” for Still City, which has Bantam Film abroad as Dutch distributor and Brussels-based Visualantics as the Belgian coproduction partner.

Ten days into shooting his debut feature, rites of passage disability drama, Get Up Stand Up, groundbreaking young director Mari Sanders attended Utrecht with several minutes of footage already cut together by master Greek editor Yorgos Mavropsaridis, best known for his work with Yorgos Lanthimos.

The feature deals with the lives and struggles of young people with disabilities, following a twentysomething woman as she struggles to rebuild her life following a devastating accident that leaves her wheelchair-bound. The film stars Lucia Zemene who lost her leg in an accident four years ago.

“I am very interested in the authenticity of disability because it gives emotional baggage you cannot fake,” said Sanders who is well known on Dutch TV for his documentaries on disability. “Lucia understands the character more than I do. There are films about disability but they’re always through the lens of a director who is able-bodied, or actors [who are able-bodied]. What I’ve missed in the cinema language is the deep poetic experience of being disabled.”

The Netherlands Film Fund has set aside substantial extra financing to make the production fully accessible.

Produced by Ineke Kanters and Lisette Kelder’s The Film Kitchen and Greece’s Neda Film, the €3.1m coproduction also has support from the Netherlands production incentive, CoBO, the Greek Film Centre, Greek tax shelter, Eurimages, Creative Europe MEDIA and broadcaster support. With delivery in spring or early summer 2026, the producers are looking for sales.

Regional focus

One of the industry screenings at NLWave was First Zone, a climate change sci fi drama set in a future Netherlands that is completely under water, directed by rising young talent Thom Lunshof.

The film won the TitraFilm work-in-progress Award at Les Arcs in December 2024, where it was pitched as a cross between Waterworld and Nomadland. The now-completed film is part of a regional movement in Dutch cinema. It is produced by Marrit Greidanus from Makati Productions, an outfit based in Leeuwarden, in the north of the country, close to where the production was filmed, and far from the traditional cinema heartland in Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

Backers include local funds Gemeente Leeuwarden and Provincie Friesland as well as the Netherlands Film Fund. “It so important to make use of your cultural identity,” said producer Greidanus who is now in talks with various sales agents.

 This pilot edition of NL Wave was organised by the Netherlands Film fund with SEE NL and Eye Filmmuseum. Research is now underway into whether it achieved its objectives and how it might evolve. International guests and Dutch professionals will be asked for their responses.

Issues to be addressed include enlarging the venue, including prizes, introducing curated coproduction projects as well as majority Dutch features, and tweaking the dates and locations. Nonetheless, the firm consensus among both local and international attendees was that the first NLWave hit the mark.

Says leading Dutch producer Els Vandevorst: “It is a very good initiative to make Dutch cinema prouder of itself. Holland is changing a little bit and becoming more ambitious. It is showing the world what we have. The talent is growing for sure.”

• Iris Otten, producer of anticipated Dutch title ‘A Family’, on why she is driven by the spirit of ‘Dirty Dancing’