Holland Film Meeting

The Netherlands Film Festival is the central, most extensive meeting place for professionals from all corners of the Dutch audiovisual industry. Within the framework of the festival, the annual Holland Film Meeting builds and expands bridges between the Dutch and international worlds of film, TV, and digital storytelling. Together, we broaden our horizons and deepen our stories by exchanging knowledge, collaborating on projects, and finding our future audiences.

HFM project programme

Projects in different stages of development from the Netherlands and far beyond can apply for the creative development part of the HFM. Projects are eligible if they are of feature-length (fiction, documentary, animation), unless they are projects of digital or interactive storytelling (for which no length requirement exists); and if they are fit for international co-production and collaboration.

The programme is shaped like a multiple-week creative lab. It consists of plenary workshops, one-to-one expert meetings, and other events geared towards your project’s creative deepening and marketplace potential. It starts ahead of the actual film festival and the Holland Film Meeting, and its duration and focus are different depending on the scheme the project has been selected for:

Stories & Beyond, for projects in early and late screenplay stages; projects should be a Dutch majority production or from one of our three focus countries, changing annually. The focus countries for 2021 are France, Indonesia, and South-Africa.
BoostNL (in collaboration with IFFR PRO), for projects in advanced screenplay and financing stages, with an interest in extensive creative development; Dutch projects can apply directly through NFF/HFM, international projects can only apply via IFFR and on the condition that they have received support from the Hubert Bals Fund (HBF);
New Dutch, for projects in production and post-production; productions should be a Dutch majority production, looking for sales, distribution, and festival selection.

When?
The 2021 Lab begins over the course of August 2021. The HFM festival programme will be from Thursday September 30 to Saturday October 2, 2021.

How to apply?
Project submissions are open till Monday May 24, 2021.

Apply here

HFM during the festival

In light of world events, and in keeping with our festival’s ecological mission, the annual gathering of industry professionals from the Netherlands and the rest of the world will once again take place in an online context in 2021.

During the final weekend of the Netherlands Film Festival, around the festive announcements of our annual Golden Calf winners, the three-day programme for invited industry professionals will consist of pitch presentations of our projects in selection, one-to-one meetings, daily industry talks (our renowned “boat sessions”), and a funky final awards ceremony for the projects in development.

When?
For 2021, the HFM dates have been set at Thursday September 30 through Saturday October 2.

How to apply?
The HFM is invitation-only, both for Dutch and international professionals. If you feel like your company and its activities are not yet on our radar, feel free to reach out directly to HFM Coordinator Jordi Wijnalda, [email protected].