Our Girls

Source: Keplerfilms

‘Our Girls’

Projects by leading Dutch filmmaking talent including Oscar winners Mike Van Diem and Victoria Warmerdam have been lined up for the first edition of showcase event, NLWave25.

NLWave25 takes place in Utrecht from September 24-26 on the eve of the 45th Netherlands Film Festival.

The event’s three strands - project pitches, works in progress, and screenings - include work from both the best-known veterans and the most talented young auteurs working in the Netherlands.

Mike Van Diem, whose 1997 feature Character won the Oscar for best foreign-language film, is screening Our Girls, produced by Keplerfilms, about two couples whose teenage daughters are involved in a shocking accident. The cast includes Thekla Reuten and Fedja van Huêt. Sales are being handled by LevelK.

After being presented to industry delegates at NL Wave, Our Girls will go on to open the Netherlands Film Festival.

Warmerdam is pitching the feature version of her Oscar winning short, I’m Not A Robot, produced through Oak Motion Pictures.

On the documentary front, Luuk Bouwman, who won the IDFA 2024 award for best Dutch film for The Propagandist, is pitching an ambitious feature calledThe Eighth Continent, about humanity’s quest to colonise the moon.

Ena Sendijarević, director of festival hits Take Me Somewhere Nice and Sweet Dreams, will also be at NL Wave to pitch her feature project, The Possessed, about a witch hunt on a remote island. The producer is  Amsterdam-based Studio Ruba, founded in 2019 by producers Layla Meijman and Maarten van der Ven.

Animation pitches will include Jean van de Velde’s Vincent Van Gogh project, Young Vincent, which is being made through Submarine, and there will be a screening of Twinkle Twinkle Little Elephant, directed by Meikeminne Clinckspoor and produced by Olivia van Leeuwen through 100% Film and Photography.

In works in progress, Mascha Halberstad, director of Dutch box-office hit Oink, is presenting material from her latest stop-motion animated feature King, produced by Viking Film.

Also in works in progress, Tallulah Schwab - whose most recent feature Mr K premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2024 - is presenting her new project, The Souls, about a workaholic who has a series of surreal adventures on a weekend hike. The producer is  PRPL.

This year’s Dutch Oscar contender, Reedland, directed by Sven Bresser and produced by Viking Film, is also screening. Sold by the Party Film Sales, the film premiered to strong reviews at Cannes’ Critics’ Week.

In total, 44 titles will be presented over the three-day event which has been put together by the Netherlands Film Fund, in collaboration with SEE NL and Eye Filmmuseum.

A host of international distributors, sales agents, festival programmers and producers are expected in Utrecht. Confirmed attendees include representatives from Cannes, the Berlinale, Sundance, Venice, Toronto, Locarno and Karlovy Vary. Among the sales agents in town will be executives from Lucky Number, MPM Premium, Heretic and LevelK.

Additionally, industry delegates will also be given the opportunity to attend a pre-opening preview tour of the massive new Tilda Swinton exhibition at the EYE Film Museum in Amsterdam, running September 28 -February 8 2026.

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