News

Netherlands-based sales agent Dfw International has added Nienke Römer’s comedy “Candy & Bonita” and war drama “Betrayal” by Thomas Nauw and Dennis Bots to its lineup ahead of this week’s American Film Market.

AFM marks the first major event for the sales agent since Studiocanal acquired a majority stake in its Benelux distribution parent Dutch FilmWorks in June.

“Candy & Bonita,” produced by 2CFilm in partnership with Rtl’s VOD service Videoland, centers on friends Tilly (Sanne Langelaar) and Marieke (Fockeline Ouwerkerk) who try to regain control of their lives by making female-friendly porn. The endeavor helps the pair find their place in the world again, but also drags everyone in their orbit into an unforgettable adventure. The film also stars Dutch porn actor and model Bobbi Eden.

The pic is currently in post-production and set for a domestic release in January 2023.

Elsewhere, “Betrayal” tells the story of German-Dutch soldier...

Netherlands Film Fund head Bero Beyer has an additional €5m to navigate the pandemic.

Netherlands Film Fund CEO Bero Beyer has given details of an ambitious plan to kickstart Dutch production this summer as the Covid-19 lockdown lifts.

The Fund has received a significant sum believed to be in excess of €5m ($5.7m) in extra government funding to help the Dutch industry cope with the pandemic. This money is part of a €300m ($340m) coronavirus support scheme for the entire cultural sector that was announced recently by the Dutch minister of culture Ingrid van Engelshoven.

Beyer has now revealed how...

Government-backed scheme is backing projects by Thomas Vinterberg, Alex van Warmerdam and Ramon Gieling.

The Netherlands film production incentive has announced today it is backing high-profile projects by Thomas Vinterberg and Alex van Warmerdam in its first funding round of 2019.

Overall the incentive will pump €10.5m ($11.79m) into 22 new productions and five high-end TV-series. This breaks down as 17 feature films, three feature length documentaries, two animated feature films, four drama series and one animated series, including 14 international co-productions. It is predicted the projects backed in this spending round will generate more than €40m ($35.64m) in production expenditure in the Netherlands.

LevelK has acquired international sales rights to Geir Greni’s Norwegian horror film ”All Must Die” (working title).

Written by Greni and Robert Naess, “All Must Die” is set in the Norwegian woods, where a group of friends are having a bachelorette party but events quickly spin out of control.

“All Must Die” stars Viktoria Winge, Julia Schacht, Veslemoy Morkerid, Marte Saeteren, Tinashe Williamson and Linni Meister. The Oslo-based company Snurr Films produced the movie.

At the Efm, LevelK is also selling “Aurora,” Miia Tervo’s critically acclaimed Finnish romantic comedy that world premiered at the Goteborg Film Festival.

LevelK’s recent acquisitions include the Dutch thriller “Vicious,” directed by Dennis Bots and written by Alexandra Penrhyn Lowe, based on Mel Wallis De Vries’ bestselling novel.

Miia Tervo’s Finnish romantic comedy “Aurora” has been acquired by international sales company LevelK ahead of its world premiere in competition at the Goteborg Film Festival.

Set to open the fest, “Aurora” marks Tervo’s feature debut. The film, a comedy-drama set in the snowy Finnish region of Lapland, tells the story of a commitment-phobic, heavy-drinking party girl, Aurora, who meets Darian, an Iranian refugee seeking asylum for him and his daughter. The two of them agree to help each other in unconventional but vital ways that will shape their respective futures.

“I wanted to do a quality film with silly and warm humor…with some honest dark shades and romantic comedy…to show the inner reality of a young woman in the Arctic ghetto coping with inherited barriers against love and life,” said Tervo.

The director said she also aimed to show “Northern magic instead of superimposed exoticism...

Dennis Bots directs based on Mel Walles De Vries’ novel.

LevelK has acquired world sales rights to the Dutch thriller Vicious.

Dennis Bots directs the film, which is based on a bestselling novel by Mel Wallis De Vries, adapted by Alexandra Penrhyn Lowe.

The story is about four high school girls who go for a relaxing weekend at a remote cottage in the Ardennes. Their stay becomes a living hell after a series of weird and disturbing events.

The cast is led by Abbey Hoes (Efp Shooting Star at Berlinale 2015), Olivia Lonsdale, Holly Mae Brood and Romy Gevers.

Bots has...

Exclusive: Dummie The Mummy And The Tomb of Achnetoet lead the slate.

Dutch sales company Incredible Film has announced it will handle international sales on Pv Pictures family adventure films.

Leading the slate are Dummie The Mummy and The Tomb Of Achnetoet (2017), the latest adventures of an adolescent Egyptian mummy in modern-day Holland, currently in post-production ahead of a Dutch theatrical release slated for October.

Other Pv titles include Master Spy, about a 10-year old boy who meets a spy who has just woken up from the year 1973, the first two Dummie The Mummy films, and the company’s successful Mister Twister collection.

Incredible Film MD Danielle Raaphorst is also handling sales on the documentary It Hurts So Much by popular Dutch novelist Heleen van Royen, which charts a year spent with her aging mother who suffers from vascular dementia.

The film has attracted more than 30,000 admissions in The Netherlands and came second only to Moonlight for the...

Heleen van Royen directs the documentary about her mother’s suffering with dementia.

Danielle Raaphorst of Netherlands-based sales company Incredible Film has announced the pick-up of the Dutch feature doc It Hurts So Much for international sales. The film, which premiered at International Film Festival Rotterdam last month, is directed by novelist Heleen van Royen and chronicles the year the writer spent with her aging mother who suffers from dementia.

Also on the Incredible Film European Film Market (Efm) slate is The Fury (market premiere) starring Hannah Hoekstra, a 2017 Efp Shooting Star.

The all-star female drama, for which Hoekstra won best actress awards at both the Montreal International Film Festival and at the Netherlands Film Festival, is based on the best-selling novel by A.F.Th. van der Heijden, and concerns a glamorous and mysterious aunt who, for some reason, is continually furious at everybody and everything.

Incredible also has an Efm market premiere of new family...

Top brass at the 12th Zurich Film Festival have given the Golden Eye for international feature film to The Happiest Day In The Life Of Olli Maki, the debut feature by Juho Kuosmanen.

The film, which previously won Cannes’ Un Certain Regard prize and is Finland’s Oscar submission, is based on the true story of a Finnish boxer who is more concerned with his new girlfriend than winning a championship bout.

The Golden Eye in Zurich comes with a $25,700 (25,000 Chf) cash prize.

Kuosmanen told Screen that awards are “always nice” and added that he was especially delighted by the audience reception.

“It feels like the film is communicating with different people with different backgrounds. The audience feedback has been very good [in Zurich] and for me it’s important that the film is understood and people are communicating with it.”

The jury, which comprised Lone Scherfig, David Farr, Sibel Kekilli and Graham Broadbent, also gave three...

Details have emerged of the new regional film fund being set up in the province of Limburg in the Netherlands.

Two projects have already been supported by the new Limburg Fund, which is currently still at pilot stage.

Code M directed by Dennis Bots (Secrets of War, Cool Kids Don’t Cry) is the first film to have been supported by the Fund.

The feature, also known as The Sword Of D’Artagnan, will be launched for pre-sales in Cannes by Sola Media. It is produced by Harro van Staverden of Bijker Film.

The second project supported by the Limburg Fund is Playboy Priest, produced by by Reinier Selen at Rinkel Film.

Investment levels from the new fund are capped currently at €200,000 - a relatively modest amount - but it is anticipated that amounts may rise when the Fund is launched officially.

Support from the new fund can be combined with money producers access through the recently...

Youngsters and oldsters alike…here is the reel deal: The New York International Children’s Film Festival (Nyicff) will be making its presence known in the upcoming days. On tap for the 18th annual event will be a noted variety of creative animated films and shorts for all ages to enjoy and relish. The New York International Children’s Film Festival promises to serve up an array of animated showcases that boasts all styles and formats that should prove imaginative and appealing to our past and present childhood memories.

Please note that the Nyicff will run its operation from February 27, 2015 to March 22, 2015. Additionally, the majority of these impressive feature-length and short films have experienced critical acclaim overseas. Therefore, the impact of the Nyicff’s cinematic selections should be rewarding for ardent fans of animated film fodder designed to capture the spirit of its enthusiastic viewers.

Among the films being displayed...

Dennis Bots’ Secrets of War has already been sold to German Speaking Europe, Turkey and Estonia.

Sola Media has boarded worldwide sales for Secrets of War, which screens at TIFFKids starting Sunday.

Deals have been done with German Speaking Europe (Koch Media), Turkey (Mediavizion) and Estonia (Estin Film).

Rinkel Film and Bijker Film & TV produces; the team is also planning a Sept 13 open air screening at the American Cemetery in Margraten, celebrating 70 years of liberation from the Nazis.

Dutch Film Works has released to strong results in the Netherlands.

Dennis Bots directs the story, adapted by Karen van Holst Pellekaan and based on Jacques Vriens’ bestseller about 12-year-old best friends living in Nazi-occupied Netherlands.

It is summer 1943, and friends Tuur and Lambert are both 12 years old and living in their rural village. They have been inseparable since they were small, but their relationship seems about to change when Tuur’s parents join the resistance, while Lambert...

Dennis Bots’ Secrets of War [pictured] has already been sold to German Speaking Europe, Turkey and Estonia.

Sola Media has boarded worldwide sales for Secrets of War, which screens at TIFFKids starting Sunday.

Deals have been done with German Speaking Europe (Koch Media), Turkey (Mediavizion) and Estonia (Estin Film).

Rinkel Film and Bijker Film & TV produces; the team is also planning a Sept 13 open air screening at the American Cemetery in Margraten, celebrating 70 years of liberation from the Nazis.

Dutch Film Works has released to strong results in the Netherlands.

Dennis Bots directs the story, adapted by Karen van Holst Pellekaan and based on Jacques Vriens’ bestseller about 12-year-old best friends living in Nazi-occupied Netherlands.

It is summer 1943, and friends Tuur and Lambert are both 12 years old and living in their rural village. They have been inseparable since they were small, but their relationship seems about to change when Tuur’s parents join the resistance, while Lambert...

Nearly 30 sales companies receive financial backing to market their films in Toronto.

A total of 28 sales companies from eight European countries are to receive financial backing from to market their films at the Toronto International Film Festival (Sept 4-14) from European Film Promotion’s Film Sales Support scheme.

More than €150,000 ($200,000) in total is being reserved by Efp for Europe’s attending sales companies.

European films eligible for Fss support have to run in the festival and need to be available for Canada. Of the 39 supported films, 27 are receiving their world premiere in Toronto.

Amongst them are François Ozon’s The New Girlfriend, Bent Hamer’s 1001 Grams and Susanne Bier’s A Second Chance.

Michael Winterbottom The Face Of An Angel sees German actor and former European Shooting Star Daniel Brühl in a lead role.

Foreign Body by Krzysztof Zanussi, a co-production between Poland, Italy and Russia with one-time European Shooting Star Agata Buzek in a main role...

The lineups for the Mavericks, Discovery, and Tiff Kids parts of the Toronto Film Festival were announced, wrapping up a series of lineup announcements for the Toronto International Film Festival.

With the added films, the festival’s entire slate is now a whopping 393 movies. Two hundred eighty-five of those movies are feature films, of which 143 are world premieres.

The Mavericks portion of the festival includes onstage discussions following the screening of each film. Do I Sound Gay? will be followed by a talk between director David Thorpe and sex-advice guru Dan Savage. Also premiering in that space is The 50 Year Argument,...

Bill Murray is coming to Toronto folks. Actually, the film he stars in (Theodore Melfi’s St. Vincent) is having its official World Premiere launch at the jaw-dropping 285 feature film 2014 Tiff line-up. In the final batch of items we finally get the confirmation that 2014′s Palme d’Or Winner Winter Sleep (which gets added along with a trio of others to the Masters Programme) will show, and Tomm Moore’s highly anticipated Song of the Sea (among the four item line-up for Tiff Kids) also lands. Worth mentioning are the sprinkling of add-ons to the various other sections (Marjane Satrapi’s Sundance preemed The Voices, Matt Shakman’s Cut Bank and the world preem of Danis Tanovic’s Tigers) with a Studio Ghibli docu item being fitted into the Tiff Docs, but it is the Discovery Programme that finally takes shape.

The “up-and-comers” include Berlin Film Fest (and future Nyff...

Bill Murray starrer St. Vincent will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival as part of this week’s wave of programming that includes Discovery.

The Discovery section includes the upcoming world premiere of Stories Of Our Lives, a portmanteau of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex testimonies by anonymous filmmakers from Kenya.

Selections include first-looks of Ross Katz’s Us comedy Adult Beginners, Sarah Leonor’s French Legion drama The Great Man, Isidora Marras’ Chile-Argentinian psychothriller I Am Not Lorena and UK drama X + Y.

“Christopher Nolan, Steve McQueen, Lynne Ramsay and David Gordon Green all presented their first features in our Discovery section,” said Tiff artistic director Cameron Bailey. “It’s a great place to spot new talent first.”

Besides St. Vincent, Festival Additions includes concert film cum road movie Roger Waters The Wall, while the world premiere of Krzysztof Zanussi’s Foreign Body takes its place among the Masters strand.

Tiff Docs arrivals...

Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Lobster, Peter Greenaway’s Eisenstein In Guanajuato and Alex van Warmerdam’s Schneider vs. Bax among those to receive a share of €8.5m ($11.4m) from the new Netherlands Film Production Incentive.Scroll down for full list of projects

A total of 34 film projects have received funding totaling €8.5m ($11.4m) from the budget of the new Netherlands Film Production Incentive.

It is anticipated that these projects will generate €47.9m ($64.6m) in Netherlands-based production expenditure.

Some 21 of the 34 successful applicants were international co-productions of feature films and documentaries, in which a Dutch producer has a majority or minority stake.

Productions include The Night Of A Thousand Hours by screenwriter/director Virgil Widrich, a co-production between Austria (Amour Fou Vienna), Luxembourg (Amour Fou Luxembourg) and The Netherlands (KeyFilm); The Lobster by director/screenwriter Yorgos Lanthimos, a co-production between Ireland (Element Pictures), France (Haut et Court), Greece (Faliro House), UK (Scarlet Films) and The Netherlands (Lemming Film); and...

Australian 3D animation [pictured] is the Stuttgart-based sales outfit’s biggest ever project.

Stuggart-based family film sales powerhouse Sola Media has arrived in Cannes pre-selling its biggest ever project.

Australian 3D animated feature Santa: Lost Down Under has a reported budget of $30m.

“It is the biggest project that we have ever had,” commented company Managing Director Solveig Langeland.

Sola will be screening a promo reel for the film in the Marché.

The film, directed by Rob Nunn, is billed as a bold new Aussie take on the traditional Christmas story. Santa and Rudolph end up stranded in the outback just four days before Christmas. The producers are Diana Girogiutti, Ben Cunningham and Charles Glaspole.

Also new on Sola’s slate is another big budget animated 3D feature, the $17m Manou The Swift. This is being produced in Stuggart by Andrea Block and Christian Haas.

On the live action front, Sola is handling Dutch kids’ movie Secrets Of War from director...

Based on their outstanding careers forged on international co-productions, 24 up-and-coming players in the European film industry have been selected to take part in European Film Promotion's (Efp) networking platform Producers on the Move. Now in its 15th year, Efp spotlights emerging European producers at the Cannes Film Festival from May 17-19 and helps them embark on successful cooperation with their similarly ambitious Producers on the Move colleagues from all over Europe.

The programas been financially supported by the Media Program (2007-2013) of the European Union and the participating Efp member organizations who each made a careful selection of their national participants according to specific criteria.

The schedule of Producers on the Move includes working sessions, one-to-one speed-dating meetings and various opportunities to exchange knowledge and follow up discussions on future projects. In addition, Efp will be teaming up with the European cultural channel Arte and the pan-European co-production fund Eurimages for Producers on the Move. For the first time, Eurimages has prepared a case study exclusively for Efp's program to be discussed under the direction of Eurimages Executive Director Roberto Olla.

He points out the importance of programs such as Producers on the Move:

“This is the 4th consecutive year that Eurimages is involved with this initiative which perfectly marries our objectives of encouraging co-operation between producers so as to stimulate cinematographic co-productions and of promoting their international distribution. Further to the success of the collaboration at the Cannes Festival, the Eurimages Fund has strengthened its partnership with European Film Promotion through other initiatives which also seek to unite professionals from the European film industry in order to participate in its development on an international level.”

Looking back at previous editions, Efp's programme results each year in several new trans-national co-productions and gives the producers a higher profile in Cannes. For 2013, almost all of the participants are still in contact with one another and 17 co-productions are in development.

One recent success story is the coming-of-age feature The Word, directed by Anna Kazejak and co-produced by two Producers on the Move from 2011, Lukasz Dzieciol(Opus Film, Poland) and Jesper Morthorst (Sf Film Production, Denmark). The film was released in Poland in March after its premiere at the Berlinale in the Generation sidebar.

Currently in post is Dirk Ohm - The Illusionist That Disappeared, directed by Bobbie Peers. The producer Maria Ekerhovd (Mer Film As, Norway), joined forces for this film with her Producers on the Move colleague from 2011, Gian-Piero Ringel (Neue Road Movies, Germany) and the 2010 Producers on the Move, Lizette Jonjic (Migma Film, Sweden). Norway has scheduled the release for September 2014. Ekerhovd and Ringel also worked together for two further projects: Every Thing Will Be Fine by Wim Wenders and the six episodes for Cathedrals of Culture which have been presented at this year’s Berlinale.

The following producers were selected by the Efp member organizations:

Viktoria

Director: Maya Vitkova

Producer: Maya Vitkova

Viktoria Films, Bulgaria

selected by Bulgarian National Film Centre

Gangster of Love

Director: Nebojša Slijepcevic

Producer: Vanja Jambrović

Restart, Croatia

selected by Croation Audiovisual Centre

Burning Bush

Director: Agnieszka Holland

Producer: Tomáš Hrubỳ

Nutprodukce, Czech Republic

selected by Czech Film Center

Antboy

Director: Ask Hasselbalch

Producer: Eva Jakobsen

Nimbus Film, Denmark

selected by Danish Film Institute

Concrete Night

Director: Pirjo Honkasalo

Producer: Mark Lwoff

Bufo, Finland

selected by Finnish Film Foundation

Möbius

Director: Eric Rochant

Producer: Mathias Rubin

Récifilms, France

selected by UniFrance films

Brides

Director: Tinatin Kajrishvili

Producer: Tinatin Kajrishvili

Gemini, Georgia

selected by Georgian National Film Center

The Special Need

Director: Carlo Zoratti

Producer: Henning Kamm

Detailfilm, Germany

selected by German Films

Standing Aside, Watching

Director: Yorgos Servetas

Producer: Konstantin Kontovrakis

Heretic Creative Producer, Greece

selected by Greek Film Centre

Land of Storms

Director: Adam Csaszi

Producer: Eszter Gyárfás

Proton Cinema, Hungary

selected by Magyar Filmunió/ Hungarian National Film Fund

Metalhead

Director: Ragnar Bragason

Producer: Árni Filippusson

Mystery, Iceland

selected by Icelandic Fim Centre

You're Ugly Too

Director: Mark Noonan

Producer: John Keville

Sp Films, Ireland

selected by Irish Film Board

Black Souls

Director: Francesco Munzi

Producer: Olivia Musini

Cinemaundici, Italy

selected by Istituto Luce Cinecittà

Monument to Michael Jackson

Director: Darko Lungulov

Co-Producer: Ognen Antov

Dream Factory Macedonia, Fyr of Macedonia

selected by Macedonian Film Agency

The Ascent

Director: Nemanja Becanovic

Producer: Ivan Djurović

Artikulacija Production, Montenegro

selected by Ministry of Culture of Montenegro

Totally True Love

Director: Anne Sewitsky

Producer: Teréz Hollo-Klausen

Anna Kron Film, Norway

selected by Norwegian Film Institute

Fuck for Forest

Director: Michal Marczak

Producer: Mikołaj Pokromski

Pokromski Studio, Poland

selected by Polish Film Institute

Collider

Director: Jason Butler

Producer: Nuno Bernardo

beActive Entertainment, Portugal

selected by Ica I.P. / Portugal

Slovakia 2.0

Director: Iveta Grófová, Juraj Herz, Martin Šulík, Miro Jelok, Mišo Suchý, Ondrej Rudavský, Peter Kerekes, Peter Krištúfek, Viera Cákanyová, Zuzana Liová

Producer: Mátyás Prikler

MPhilms, Slovak Republic

selected by Slovak Film Institute

The Extraordinary Tale

Director: José F. Ortuño, Laura Alvea

Producer: Marta Velasco

Áralan Films, Spain

selected by Icaa / Spain

Beyond Beyond

Director: Esben Toft Jacobsen

Producer: Petter Lindblad

Snowcloud Films, Sweden

selected by Swedish Film Institute

Ate Ver La Luz

Director: Basil da Cunha

Producer: Elodie Brunner

Box Productions, Switzerland

selected by Swiss Films

Secrets of War

Director: Dennis Bots

Producer: David Bijker

Bijker Film & TV, The Netherlands

selected by Eye International

Weekend

Director: Andrew Haigh

Producer: Tristan Goligher

The Bureau Film Company, United Kingdom

selected by British Council...

Exclusive: Dutch company working on big budget historical family film dramatising the events behind the Reformation of 1517.

Dutch company Bijkers TV (the outfit behind local box office hit Cool Kids Don’t Cry) is developing an ambitious, big budget new historical family film, Falko, that will dramatise the events behind the Reformation of 1517.

The new film is to be directed by Dennis Bots [pictured], and is scripted by Karen van Holst Pellekaan - the team behind Cool Kids Don’t Cry and Secrets of War. The producer is Harro van Staverden.

Falko will be coproduced with German partner Flying Moon.

The film, which is budgeted at €6m, is aimed at family audiences

It tells the story of Falko Voeten (12), the son of printer Klaas Voeten, who secretly prints banned literature about the new religious movement. When his father is arrested, Falko unwittingly becomes the focal point in the hunt for an important letter written by Martin Luther.

Threatened...

Benelux is the regional focus for Trieste’s fourth edition of its When East Meets West (Wemw) co-production forum (January 20-22, 2014) being held during the Trieste Film Festival.

Eight of the 22 projects being presented in public pitches at the forum, which runs Jan 20-22, will be projects from the Benelux countries - Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg - looking for potential co-producers and distributors from Italy or Eastern Europe.

They include new projects from Luxembourg’s Bady Minck, 1313 Dante’s Emperor, and The Netherlands’ David Verbeek, Full Contact, as well as the Belgian documentary film-makers Daniel Lambo, Eternal Silence, and Gilles Coton, Meet Enver Hadri.

Wemw’s project manager Alessandro Gropplero told ScreenDaily that this year’s call for projects had attracted a record 200 entries - 23 from the Benelux, 32 from Italy and 145 from Eastern Europe - with 140 fiction film projects and 60 documentary projects.

An international jury then selected 10 fiction and 12 documentary projects in development to be pitched...

At a ceremony held yesterday at Tiff Bell Lightbox, the award winners for the 15th annual Tiff Kids International Film Festival were announced. In addition to Audience Choice Awards, three Young People.s Juries weighed in on the recipients of the coveted Golden Sprocket Awards. Winners of the Jump Cuts Young Filmmakers Showcase were also announced, as determined by a jury of film industry professionals. Tiff Kids is committed to involving children in the critical assessment of films, in support of the Tiff mission to transform the way people see the world through film. The Festival continues to provide a forum where young voices can be heard, a life-long love of cinema is formed, and media literacy skills are strengthened.<span style="font-weight: bold;">Tiff Kids Audience Choice Award . Best Feature Film</span><br style="font-weight: bold;" />Cool Kids Don.t Cry (Achtste Groepers Huilen Niet), director: Dennis Bots, The NetherlandsGrade eight student Akkie has only two concerns: going...