Buoyed by a box-office arthouse boom at home, Dutch distributors are in Cannes looking for fresh acquisitions
The country’s independent cinemas are doing significantly better business than those in many of their European neighbours. Recent hits include Triangle of Sadness ($3.4m), Aftersun ($1.3m), Babygirl ($5m), The Salt Path ($4.2m) and Maria ($1.3m).
Eyeing these results, Belgian distributors O’Brother and Lumiere have opened new offices across the border in the Netherlands in recent months, and former Belga head Patrick Vandenbosch is now running operations out of Amsterdam under the thriving Independent Films, following the collapse of its Belgian parent company, Belga Films.
“We have invested heavily in good arthouse cinemas in the Netherlands,” said veteran exhibitor/distributor Pim Hermeling of September Films. “The quality of these cinemas is very good. They offer a place where you can come together, have a glass of wine, grab a bite to eat, and talk about the film you have just seen.”
The Cineville subscription model is also boosting cinemagoing. Launched in 2009 by four friends at student-run cinema Kriterion to make cinemagoing more accessible to young people, the membership scheme now has 118,000 Dutch members and generated 2.5 million cinema admissions in the Netherlands in 2025.
A €24 monthly membership gives access to an unlimited number of films in participating Dutch cinemas. Figures show the average Dutch person goes to the cinema an estimated 1.6 times a year, but the average Cineville cardholder attends 25 times.
“It’s this community feeling that has enabled us to expand over the years,” says Samir Azrioual. The programme is now active in 81 venues in the Netherlands, including in rural areas.
It is attracting both old and young crowds: Around 45% of the Dutch Cineville audience is aged under 35, meaning 55% of the audience is skewing older.
New arthouse venues are opening, including the Pulse in Amsterdam and the Flora Film Theatre in the Hague, and the Cineville model has been exported to Belgium, Austria, Germany and Sweden, with other countries pending.
Lemming’s Hermeling believes the success in the Netherlands can be attributed to the combination of the Cineville programme and enticing venues in which to watch the films.
“What we do see is that there is an increase in audiences for arthouse films in arthouse cinemas. The same film hardly attracts any audience in mainstream cinemas. It doesn’t just depend on a good film, but rather on the right combination that determines a film’s success.”
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