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Newen Studios Renews Financial Pact With Anton

Newen Connect has renewed its pact with global production and financing studio Anton for a further three years. This sees the Newen Studios subsidiary receive investment in exchange for Anton gaining shared distribution revenue. It is the third extension to the agreement, which began in 2019, and means Newen Connect will now focus on developing further series, while Anton gets to deepen its ties with Newen labels such as Ucg and Jude Law’s Riff Raff Entertainment. To datum the pact has led to Anton investing in more than 70 productions from across Europe, including the recently launched French thriller series Cat’s Eyes, plus Swedish political thriller 8 Months and upcoming sci-fi film We Come in Peace. “Newen Connect has significant plans both in the range of the projects we want to co-develop and invest in over the coming years… this partnership with Anton will...

International broadcasters are maxing out on Máxima. The Dutch royal drama series continues its global rollout, with sales outfit Beta Film closing deals in 50 territories, including with Australia’s public broadcaster Sbs.

The drama, which premiered at TV festival Canneseries earlier this year, is a Dutch-style The Crown, a dramatization of real-life events surrounding the Dutch royal family. Adapted from Marcia Luyten’s 2022 novel Máxima Zorreguieta: Motherland, the series revolves around the romance between the Argentinean Máxima Zorreguieta and Willem-Alexander, the future King of the Netherlands. Zorreguieta, of course, will go on to marry Willem-Alexander to become Queen Máxima.

Beta has sold the first, 6-episode season of Máxima across Scandinavia, with deals with Denmark’s TV2, TV4 in Sweden, Finland’s MTV, to the Yes network for Israel, and did a multi-territory deal with the Fox Network for the central European region.

Máxima premiered on Rtl Netherlands streamer Videoland and...

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.

Bero Beyer speech kicks off 47th edition.

Source: Iffr

Iffr director Bero Beyer

The International Film Festival Rotterdam kicked off its 47th edition last night (Jan 24) with an impassioned speech from festival director Bero Beyer.

Beyer addressed what he described as the “pattern of widespread abuse and often quite criminal sexual misconduct, committed almost exclusively by white middle-aged heterosexual men of power or status in the film industry.”

“It’s hard to say what’s more disturbing: The fact that anyone ever considered this behaviour to be acceptable, that so many were willing to look the other way and pretend it wasn’t going on,” Bero commented of the recent spate of industry scandals.

“It matters who tells the story and it matters who we see on our many screens. Too often history is written by the so-called winners, but mostly by bullies and mostly by men. So, if Iffr is part of the film industry: Who should...

When a few hundred films stop by the Toronto International Film Festival, it’s certainly impossible to cover everything, but we were able to catch around 100 features — and, with that, it’s time to conclude our experience, following the festival’s own award winners. We’ve rounded up our favorite films seen during the festival, followed by a list of the complete coverage.

Stay tuned over the next months (or years) as we bring updates on films as they make their way to screens. One can also click here for a link to all of our coverage, including news, trailers, reviews, and much more. As always, thanks for reading, and let us know what you’re most looking forward to in the comments below.

The Breadwinner (Nora Twomey)

In the Taliban-controlled Afghan city of Kabul, Nora Twomey’s debut film as sole director (she co-helmed Oscar nominee The Secret of Kells...

Vignettes depicting a young girl playing the piano on a darkened concert stage come and go throughout Boudewijn Koole’s Disappearance. They provide bookends to the whole, his film seemingly a visual representation of the melody—both as this single chapter in Roos’ (Rifka Lodeizen) life and its entire duration from birth to death. It’s only during the end credits that we’re finally told who this girl is: Young Louise (Eva Garet). The mystery lay in the fact that Roos played piano as a child too, giving it up at the same age (eight) her mother (Elsie de Brauw’s elder Louise) continued onto an illustrious, decades-spanning career. And while Louise beautifully breathed life into so many concertos, the composition that proved most difficult was always her daughter.

As Koole’s director’s statement reveals, he and screenwriter Jolein Laarman chose death as the inspiration of a story...

Exclusive: Messi and Maud, a Chilean adventure with a childless 45-year-old woman and an eight-year-old boy, had its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival. The film was selected for Tiff’s Discovery Program under the category of ‘Directors to Watch: The Future of World Cinema.’ The film marks the first feature-length work by director Marleen Jonkman and writer Daan Gielis, and stars Dutch actors Rifka Lodeizen (Tonio, Publieke Werken) and Guido Pollemans…...

Playing sort of like the female version of Steve McQueen’s Shame comes Dutch filmmaker Sacha Polak’s film debut, Hemel, a provocative and, more significantly, non-exploitative exploration of a young woman’s confused search for intimacy through (more often than not) hollow casual sexual encounters. A 2012 Berlin International Film Festival selection, Polak’s film also captures an emotionally potent performance from newcomer Hannah Hoekstra, creating a fascinating and realistic portrait of sexuality, a rare phenomenon even in the heterosexual realm.

We meet the twenty three year old Hemel (Hannah Hoekstra), which means Heaven, in the midst of a hook-up with a man she seems to have little in common with. Exchanging hostile observations supporting hostile gender stereotypes, their banter evolves into a discussion of women shaving pubic hair, which Hemel is opposed to but let’s herself be sheared anyhow. She equates a lack of hair with pre pubescence...

Cologne, Germany -- Dutch/Irish co-production "Nothing Personal," a feature debut from Polish-born director Urszula Antoniak won big at this year's Golden Calves, the Dutch national film awards, taking four trophies, including that for best film.

The story of a woman who abandons her life and all her possessions in the Netherlands for a nomadic lifestyle in Ireland, also secured nods in the best director, best cinematography and best sound design categories. The film stars Lotte Verbeek and Stephen Rea.

Martin Koolhoven's World War II epic "Winter in Wartime" picked up three Golden Calves, for best actor Martijn Lakemeier, a 16-year-old first-timer, best supporting actor Raymond Thiry and best production design. Director Esther Rots, another first-timer, scooped three trophies for her intimate drama "Can Go Through Skin," taking Golden Calves for best actress Rifka Lodeizen and best editing prizes along with a special Jury award.

Dutch Oscar contender, Jean van de Velde...