The Netherlands Film Fund has launched a new system of financial rewards for local filmmakers, based around both commercial success and artistic reach, as part of its 2025-2028 policy plan.
The production teams of the top five Dutch films at the local box office in a calendar year will now each receive €300,000 to invest in their next project.
Additionally, a €20,000 ‘special success incentive’ has been created for Dutch directors, writers and producers who have achieved exceptional artistic and/or audience success with a previously released production.
“Most important is that we support fewer but better films with more money,” said Sandra den Hamer, CEO of the Fund. “We want to have more creative freedom for filmmakers and more of a guarantee that they have the time, space and money to make the films they want to make.”
For feature films, including animation and documentaries, the director, screenwriter and producer of a film will each receive €20,000 via the special success incentive. The recipients will be free to work freely, jointly or independently, on a next project or to invest in professional development.
Selection to a major film festival or securing international awards recognition qualifies filmmakers for the incentive. Sven Bresser’s Cannes Critics’ Week entry Reedland, is one of the first Dutch films from this year set to benefit. It is produced by local outfit Viking Film and sold by France’s The Party Sales.
“The idea is to give [filmmakers] the time and space to develop the projects to their best,” den Hamer said. “It is also to make it more interesting for other partners to invest in them [Dutch films],”
Other recipients of the “special success incentive” include director Tallulah Schwab, whose Mr. K, produced by Film Kitchen, screened in TIFF last year, and Jan-Willem van Ewijk whose Alpha, produced by BALDR Film, was in Venice last September.
Meanwhile, among the titles to receive funding because of their local box office success are Tummy Tom 2 - A New Friend For Tummy Tom, produced by Phanta Film, Memory Lane, produced by Hazaza Pictures,, and Loving Bali (produced by Johan Nijenhuis & Co.
The incentives are part of a concerted attempt on behalf of the Fund to boost the international profile of Dutch film. The Fund has introduced slate funding of €400,000 a year or some of its most high- profile production outfits, among them Lemming, Kepler and Millstreet.
There is also €10,000 available for directors, producers and writers who have achieved exceptional success in the fields of short film and research & experiment, including immersive projects.
The selection of Dutch movies in Sundance and Cannes and the recent Oscar win for Victoria Warmerdam’s I’m Not A Robot suggest the policy is beginning to work.
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