News

Slowly but surely, the global TV market is shifting.

Whether it’s mainly due to the rise of streaming platforms, the rush for international imports brought on by a worldwide production shortage, or an audience finally taking advantage of a wealth of options, series in languages other than English are in the middle of a boom.

While some shows have certainly helped spur that influx of new fans (including ones that can be found below), the nature of the modern TV world is that there are precious few shows anymore that become can’t-miss phenomena. Netflix recently amended its weekly Top 10 report to include viewing totals in English and non-English categories, where (to the extent that those numbers are accurate and transparent) the top slots in the latter frequently outpace the former.

Many of these shows are unofficial litmus tests for the TV world at large. Premises that seemed inherently...

Viaplay Sets True-Life Disaster Story ‘Roombeek’ As Latest Dutch Original Drama Series

Viaplay has ordered its latest Dutch original: a four-part drama from Banjiay Benelux label EndemolShine Scripted about the 2000 Enschede fireworks warehouse explosion titled Roombeek. The horrific tragedy killed 23 people and injured 950 and the series will explore its devastating human impact and aftermath. Casting for the series is underway, and production will begin in early 2023, with EndemolShine Scripted’s Gerd-Jan van Dalen and Viaplay Group’s Kennard Bos producing. Having launched in the Netherlands in March, Viaplay’s scripted original slate from the territory includes true crime drama The Hunt for Jasper S., produced by Willem Bosch and Pieter Kuijpers; dark comedy Something Stupid, created by novelist Saskia Noort; and Liesbeth Strik’s drama The Guilty. Filippa Wallestam, Viaplay Group Chief Content Officer, said: “We have very high ambitions for our Dutch Originals, and are committed to working with...

Exclusive: A Nordic Noir-style thriller about one of The Netherlands’ most high-profile murder cases has been greenlit as the latest Viaplay original and third from Holland.

The Hunt for Jasper S. (De Jacht op Jasper S) will tell the story of the capture of Jasper Steringa, who eventually confessed 13 years after killing someone in a case that led to a widespread debate about the use of DNA and was fuelled by conspiracy theories. Steringa was a farmer who forced his victim with a knife into a field where she was later found dead, and local asylum seekers were initially blamed.

The show from Newen-backed Pupkin was described as “one of the first Dutch productions to employ the globally successful Nordic Noir aesthetic” by Nent streamer Viaplay, which last month unveiled dark comedy Something Stupid and crime drama The Guilty as the first two Dutch originals. The streamer is attempting to...

Disney Plus has unveiled its first Dutch original scripted drama series, titled “Nemesis.”

The 8-part series will be produced by Netherlands-based production company Pupkin.

Described as a “thrilling crime drama,” the show is based on a novel written by Simon de Waal. Showrunners will be Willem Bosch and Pieter Kuijpers.

“Nemesis” tells the story of a woman fighting for justice in public prosecutor Sylvia van Maele, who sets out to hunt down a group of international criminals after a witness is murdered in van Maele’s own home.

“We are incredibly proud to announce the first Dutch drama series for Disney Plus,” said Mascha van Erven, director of local original productions at Disney Plus Benelux. “‘Nemesis’ is a thrilling crime series about the influence of the crime scene on our society and a wayward woman in the Public Prosecution Service who goes to war in an unorthodox way. The best...

Disney+ has greenlit its debut Dutch scripted original, an adaptation of Simon de Waal’s Nemesis.

Afterlife writer Willem Bosch and Van God Los’ Pieter Kuijpers will showrun the eight-parter which comes as Disney deepens its ties with European territories as it targets 60 international originals by 2024. The streamer has already commissioned multiple shows in the UK, Spain, France and Germany.

Police thriller Nemesis from Dutch indie Pupkin follows Public Prosecutor Sylvia van Maele who, after a brutal murder of a key witness in her own house, decides to take matters into her own hands. With an underground team of detectives, she opens the hunt for a group of international criminals who until then have remained out of reach of the law.

“The best storytellers within the Netherlands will tell the story,” said Mascha van Erven, Director, Local Original Productions, Disney+ Benelux.

Bosch said Pupkin is “taking a major new step in realizing its ambitions,...

Netflix added the Dutch horror series Ares to its library back in January and now, fans who’ve watched the show are warning first-time viewers that it may just be too scary to finish.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the title, Ares follows a student who discovers the existence of a secret society and must then decide how much she wants to become involved in it. Shot mostly in and around the city of Amsterdam, it stars Dutch actors Jadie Olieberg, Tobias Kersloot and Lisa Smit, who all give believable and strong performances.

Created by Pieter Kuijpers, Iris Otten and Sander van Meurs, it’s also the latest foreign show to gain a fair bit of traction with the streamer’s American audience. Ever since the unexpectedly-huge success of Bong Joon-ho’s thriller Parasite, Netflix has been trying to cash in on our newfound appetite for foreign media.

New Netflix series Ares may not have dropped last month with a huge amount of hype behind it, but the Dutch horror drama is beginning to develop a reputation as a show that’s almost too scary to finish.

Created and executive produced by Pieter Kuijpers, Iris Otten and Sander van Meurs, the first season of Ares tells the story of Rosa Steenwijk (Jade Olieberg), a first-year medical student who joins a sinister, secretive society in Amsterdam that’s been around since the Dutch Golden Age of the 1600s. As she slowly begins to realize exactly what she’s become a part of, Rosa must decide how far she’s willing to go rise up the ranks.

The eight-episode first season was released last month to generally favorable reviews, drawing comparisons to Ari Aster’s Midsommar and the Suspiria movies. Forbes, for instance, included Ares on their list of the...

Netflix has started production on “Ares,” its first Dutch original series, the streaming giant announced Tuesday. Filming is taking place in Amsterdam, where Netflix’s European headquarters have been based since 2015. “Ares” will launch on the platform later this year.

An eight-part psychological horror, “Ares” stars Jade Olieberg, Tobias Kersloot, Lisa Smit, Robin Boissevain, and Frieda Barnhard. It is directed by Giancarlo Sanchez and Michiel ten Horn with script development run by Michael Leendertse for production company Pupkin.

Plans for a then-untitled first Dutch production from Pupkin were first announced in April 2018. Erik Barmack, Netflix’s vice president of international original series, said at the time that a Dutch original had been on Netflix’s “wish list” for some time.

Created by Pieter Kuijpers, the series enters the world of a secret student society in the heart of Amsterdam where best friends Rosa (Olieberg) and Jacob (Kersloot) surrender to a world of wealth and power.

Watch the first trailer from Iffr competition selection.

Ena Sendijarević’s Take Me Somewhere Nice, which will have its world premiere in the Tiger Competition of the upcoming International Film Festival Rotterdam, has had its world sales rights picked up by Greek outfit Heretic Outreach.

The project marks the feature debut of Amsterdam-based writer-director Sendijarević, who is of Bosnian origins. The film tells the story of Alma, who travels from the Netherlands to Bosnia to visit a father she’s never met, embarking on a road trip across the country with her cousin.

The director’s previous short films include Import,...

Newen has acquired equity stakes in a pair of production outfits, the Dutch company Pupkin and Danish banner Nimbus, in order to expand its global footprint and focus on drama.

Through these deals, Newen will aim at creating synergies between talent, formats and relationships with local players, and will be boosting its distribution activities.

Newen is acquiring a 60% equity interest in Pupkin via Tuvalu Media Group, a Dutch production company Newen owns. Pupkin, launched in 2003 by Pieter Kuijpers, Iris Otten and Sander van Meurs, is one of the Netherlands’ leading feature film and drama studios. Its current production slate includes Netflix’s first Dutch series, an Amsterdam-set untitled coming-of-age/horror drama.

With Tuvalu and Pupkin, Newen will become the third-largest local player in the Netherlands.

“Pupkin is very complementary to Tuvalu Media Group because the first is strong in drama production and the other one is experienced in non-scripted. Having...

Exclusive: Drug gang drama to be directed by Belgian directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah.

Ambitious Amsterdam-based Dutch Features Global Entertainment, headed by CEO Pim van Collem, is to begin world sales at the Afm on Patser, the new feature from L.A. and Brussels based Belgian directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah.

El Arbi and Fallah are also attached to direct Beverly Hills Cop 4, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer for Paramount Pictures, and have recently directed the first two episodes for the series Snowfall for FX Networks. Their previous feature, teen gang movie, Black (2015) won the Dropbox Discovery Award at Tiff and became a media phenomenon after provoking riots in a Brussels cinema.

Patser tells the tale of four ne’er-do-wells from the neighbourhood ‘t Kiel’ in Antwerp, aspiring to become gangster legends. They foolishly get involved in high-profile drug affairs, and start a war between gangs from Antwerp, Amsterdam and even...

The winner of the Eurimages Lab Project Award from Haugesund’s Works In Progress presentations was Katrín Ólafsdóttirs The Wind Blew On from Iceland.

The new prize, worth $56,000 (€50,000) was given to “the most promising cutting-edge film presented as a work in progress”.

The jury was comprised of Norwegian filmmaker Bent Hamer, Dorien van de Pas of the Netherlands Filmfund, and Heidi Zwicker of Sundance.

Head of New Nordic Films Gyda Velvin Myklebust noted that the award was aimed at a film that was “experimental in form or content”.

Of the 20 films presented, industry buzz was highest for pitches including Izer Aliu’s energetic and funny teenage story 12 Dares; Norwegian debut The Tree Feller; Fenar Ahmad’s Danish criminal underworld drama/thriller Darkland, Danish debut Winter Brothers; family animation Richard The Stork (already a hot seller for Global Screen); absurdist Norwegian comedy Lake Over Fire; and Danish drama Mesteren, starring Soren Malling and Jakob Oftebro and directed by [link...

Projects from Terence Davies and Peter Greenaway among the titles being pitched at the Netherlands Production Platform (Npp).

The Holland Film Meeting (Sept 26-29), the Utrecht-based event dedicated to funding independent cinema, begins today.

Projects from Terence Davies (A Quiet Passion) and from Peter Greenaway (Eisenstein In Guanajuato) are among the titles being pitched at this year’s 15th anniversary Netherlands Production Platform (Npp).

The coproduction market includes both international and Dutch projects. 23 projects from 15 countries are at the Npp.

Acclaimed British director Davies has now delivered a final draft of the screenplay for A Quiet Passion, his biopic of reclusive New England poet Emily Dickinson.

The €4.6m project is being produced through Hurricane Films, run by Solon Papadopoulos and Roy Boulter. The company also produced Davies’ feature doc Of Time And The City and is working on his new feature Sunset Song, expected to shoot in early 2014. Boulter is due in Utrecht to present A Quiet Passion.

Boulter...

TORONTO -- Canadian movie distributor Cinemavault Releasing International on Monday said it has acquired the international rights to U.S. filmmaker Joseph Greco's indie feature "Canvas", which stars Joe Pantoliano and Marcia Gay Harden.

Toronto-based Cinemavault Releasing will begin shopping the drama next month in Berlin. Greco wrote and directed the film based on his own childhood memories growing up with a schizophrenic mother.

"Canvas", shot in 2004 in Hollywood, Florida, picked up the audience award for best feature at the 2006 Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival. It is Greco's feature film directing bow.

Producer credits on "Canvas" belong with Sharon Lane, Adam Hammel, Lucy Hammel, Joe Pantoliano and Bill Erfurth.

Other movies represented by Cinemavault Releasing include Steve Buscemi's "Interview", the Sienna Miller starrer based on an original film by the late Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh; "Spinning Into Butter", produced by and starring Sarah Jessica Parker; and Pieter Kuijpers's "Off Screen", a thriller starring Jan Decleir and Jeroen Krabbe.

MONTREAL -- Off Screen, a co-production between the Netherlands and Belgium directed by Pieter Kuijpers, picked up the top Grand Prix of Americas prize Monday at the 29th Montreal World Film Festival (MWFF), while Quebec director Claude Gagnon was a five-time winner. Gagnon won best director for his Canada-Japan co-production, Kamataki, along with the Air Canada's People Choice Award or audience award, Most Popular Canadian Film prize, the Prix de la Federation Internationale de la Presse Cinematographique (the international critics' FIPRESCI prize) and the fete's Ecumenical Prize. Other prizes handed out Monday night at the close of the festival included the Special Jury Prize that was shared by Japanese director Akira Ogata's The Milkwoman and German director Hans W. Geissenderfer's Snowland, while the best screenplay went to Jose Corbacho and Juan Cruz, the co-writers of the Spanish film Tapas.