The Rotterdam Film Fund's first development prize has been awarded to Eugenie Jansen (director of last year's Tussenland) and producer Stienette Bosklopper for their feature film project Calimucho which was presented at this year's Netherlands Production Platform in Utrecht at the weekend.

Calimucho, which is a Romeo and Juliet-type story set against the background of travelling circuses, will use real people as opposed to professional actors to play the characters in the film.

All of the ten Dutch film projects being pitched at the Platform were eligible to compete for the Eu10,000 cash prize which is to be invested in the development of the winning project.

Held this year for the fourth time as part of the Netherlands Film Festival's "Holland Film Meeting", the Production Platform included two Belgian and two German planned features in addition to the ten Dutch projects.

Among the foreign and Dutch professionals invited to hear the pitches and have one-to-one meetings were the Film Council's JJ Lousberg, the Dutch Film Fund's Toine Berbers, Studio Berlin's Doris Zander, ACE's Simon Perry and producers Michael Cowan, Jonathan Olsberg, Cedomir Kolar, Thomas Springer, and Jim Stark.