The platform for the Dutch film
“Dutch Cinema sparkles, entertains, fascinates, is food for thought, draws full houses, reaps praise and (inter)national appreciation. Hence, the Netherlands Film Festival proudly presents the Dutch film in all its diversity to a large audience. The NFF is the platform for Dutch cinema, where audiences and professionals assemble to watch, discuss and experience films.” Willemien van Aalst, NFF director
Every year in early autumn, the Netherlands Film Festival (NFF) takes place. For ten days, Utrecht is the cinema capital of the Netherlands, where the Dutch film gets the victory stand it deserves. Films from short to long, from art-house to mainstream, from analogue to digital. Feature films, documentaries, animations, short films, TV dramas and events for young and old.
Both Dutch film professionals and a large national audience visit the festival for its wide-ranging programme. The talkshows, workshops, debates, film parties and of course the screenings guarantee an effervescent, instructive, inspiring and creative festival. Recurring highlight at the NFF is the competition for the Grand Prizes of the Dutch Film, the Golden Calves.
Main Programme/Golden Calf
The Main Programme of the festival is a selection of long features,short films, documentaries and TV films completed over the previous twelve months. Any Dutch filmmaker can submit a film to the festival before the deadline in June. Some of the selected films compete for the much-coveted Grand Prizes of Dutch Film, better known as the Golden Calf awards.
Furthermore, a selection of first-time features, culled from the Main Programme, compete in the Debut Competition for the Film Prize of the City of Utrecht.
In the Panorama section, the festival surveys the best student films,the new crop of Flemish films and a number of striking foreign films to which Dutch talents made a key contribution.
In addition, productions are selected for screening during the NFF Online Competition. This online competition offers a selection of films with a maximum duration of five minutes.
Guest of the Year
In the Spotlight Section, the festival presents highlights from Holland's recent and distant cinematographic past. A central feature of this section is Guest of the Year, closely analysing and comprehensively screening the work of a Dutch actress, actor, filmmaker or producer.
In 2011, the Guest of the Year was prolific Dutch producer Frans van Gestel of Topkapi Films and formerly of IDTV Film. This year’s Guest of the Year is actor Jeroen Willems, who played many remarkable roles in national and international theatre, film and TV productions.
Kids & Youth
The festival presents a broad selection of children’s and family films. It organises the Kids’ Cinema and Youth Cinema for thousands of students from primary and secondary schools in Utrecht and surroundings. The ‘meet & greets’ and educational workshops are also much-loved programme sections.
International meetings
Dozens of foreign festival programmers, distributors, TV programmers and producers attend the festival to keep abreast of developments in Dutch cinema. During the Holland Film Meeting, people establish valuable contacts forinternational co-productions.
Reports
People can follow the festival at home via the festival website, which is updated daily with festival reports and on-the-spot accounts. The Talkshow and the Gala of the Dutch Film - featuring the presentation of the Golden Calves - can also be watched live on www.filmfestival.nl.
In addition, Nederland 2 will broadcast many film classics, festival news casts and behind-the-screen reports, while Film1 will present TV premières, a film blog with interviews and, of course, red carpet pictures.
Before & After the festival
September is the culmination of the NFF, but outside the festival period the organisation is also busy enriching the knowledge of and promoting Dutch cinema. This is done, to name one example, by handing out the Golden, Platinum, Diamond and Crystal Film to productions with high visitor numbers. Via the NFF website, newsletters, social media channels and NFF TV (in dutch), the festival extensively reports on the Dutch film throughout the year.