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Cinema of the Netherlands

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The Dutch film industry has long been renowned for its documentaries. The most prominent Dutch directors, especially those who started their careers before World War II, came from a documentary background, for instance Joris Ivens and Bert Haanstra. Since the early 1970s, however, documentary production aimed at a theatrical release has declined, perhaps due to a shift towards television documentary.

Because the Dutch film industry is relatively small, and there is little to no international market for Dutch films, almost all films rely on state funding. This funding can be achieved through several sources, for instance through the Dutch Film Fund or the Dutch public broadcast networks ('omroepen'). In recent years the Dutch Government has established several tax shelters for private investments in Dutch films.

History

Although the Dutch film industry is relatively small, there have been several active periods in which Dutch filmmaking thrived. The first boom came during the First World War when The Netherlands was one of the neutral states. Studios like Hollandia produced an impressive cycle of feature films. A second wave followed in the 1930s, as talking pictures led to a call for Dutch-spoken films, which resulted in a boom in production: between 1934 and 1940, 37 feature films were released. To accommodate the rapid growth, the Dutch film industry looked to foreign personnel experienced with sound film technology. Mostly these were Germans who had fled their country as Hitler took power. Several renowned German directors who would go on to work in Hollywood directed films in the Netherlands in this period, most notably Douglas Sirk (Boefje, 1939).

During World War II, the Dutch film industry came to a near halt. In the years directly following the war, most effort was given to the reconstruction of the country; film was not a priority. In the late 1950s the Dutch film industry professionalized. The Nederlands Film Fund (Dutch) (Dutch Film Fund) was established in 1957, the Nederlandse Filmacademie (Dutch) (Dutch Film Academy) in 1958. Documentary filmer Bert Haanstra made his first fiction film, Fanfare, in 1958. Even though the film was a big success, this success was only incidental.

A more lasting success for Dutch film came in the 1970s, mostly under the influence of one man: Paul Verhoeven. Verhoeven five films of the decade - Business Is Business (Wat zien ik?, 1971), Turkish Delight (Turks Fruit, 1973), Katie Tippel (Keetje Tippel, 1975), Soldier of Orange (Soldaat van Oranje, 1977) and Spetters (1980) - were box-office hits; they are still in the top-twenty most successful Dutch films ever. Turkish Delight and Soldier of Orange were successful abroad as well and eventually led to Verhoeven's Hollywood career. In 2006 Verhoeven returned to his own language and made Black Book (Zwartboek), his first Dutch spoken film since The Fourth Man (De Vierde Man) that came out in 1983.

In the mid-1990s, the Dutch government introduced tax shelters (the so-called 'CV-regeling') to encourage private investments in Dutch films. After implementation of these new rules there was a boom in production of Dutch movies. It were however not the movies made through the tax shelter, but movies aimed at a young audience, such as Costa! (2001), that won back the confidence in the commercial viability of Dutch film. Costa! is about Dutch teenagers vacationing at the Spanish coast. The success of the film spawned several copycat films (for instance Volle Maan (Full Moon; 2002)) and a spin-off sitcom (also called Costa!), which ran for several seasons on the public broadcasting network BNN.

After a while the formula wore down and the new commercial flavor became films with a multicultural feel. Hush Hush Baby (Shouf Shouf Habibi, 2004) and Schnitzel Paradise (Het Schnitzelparadijs, 2005) were both comedies featuring Dutch/Moroccan actors and became a commercial success. The difference with Volle Maan is that the films were also acclaimed by critics (both in the Netherlands as internationally) and both films were shown at the Berlin Film Festival.

Acclaimed Dutch directors

Acclaimed Dutch films

Top-10 visited Dutch films since 1945

As of December 31st, 2003. Source: Hans Schoots, Van Fanfare tot Spetters (2004), p. 211.

  1. Turks Fruit (Turkish Delight, 1973) - 3.328.804
  2. Fanfare (nl) (1958) - 2.635.178
  3. Ciske de rat (1955 film) (1955) - 2.432.500
  4. Wat zien ik? (Business Is Business, 1971) - 2.358.946
  5. Blue Movie (nl) (1971) - 2.335.301
  6. Flodder (nl) (1986) - 2.313.701
  7. Keetje Tippel (Katie Tippel, 1975) - 1.829.116
  8. Alleman (1963) - 1.664.645
  9. Ciske de Rat (1984 film) (1984) - 1.593.311
  10. Soldaat van Oranje (Soldier of Orange, 1977) - 1.547.183

Oscar nominations and wins

Year Film title Award category
1942 High Stakes in the East Documentary
1959 Glass (Glas) Documentary Short Subject
1959 The Village on the River (Dorp aan de rivier) Best Foreign Language Film
1962 Big City Blues Live Action Short Film
1962 Pan Live Action Short Film
1964 The Human Dutch (Alleman) Documentary Feature
1967 Sky over Holland Live Action Short Film
1971 Adventures in Perception Documentary Short Subject
1972 Ape and Super-Ape (Bij de beesten af) Documentary Feature
1972 This Tiny World (Deze kleine wereld) Documentary Short Subject
1973 Turkish Delight (Turks fruit) Best Foreign Language Film
1978 Oh My Darling Animated Short Film
1986 Anna & Bella Animated Short Film
1986 The Assault (De aanslag) Best Foreign Language Film
1995 Antonia's Line (Antonia) Best Foreign Language Film
1997 Character (Karakter) Best Foreign Language Film
1999 3 Misses Animated Short Film
2000 Father and Daughter Animated Short Film
2002 Hotel Paraiso (Zus & zo) Best Foreign Language Film
2003 Twin Sisters (De tweeling) Best Foreign Language Film
Source: The Official Academy Awards Database. Winning films are marked with blue.

Other acclaimed Dutch films

Film festivals

There are three large film festivals in the Netherlands:

There are several smaller film festivals in the Netherlands, and several of them are held in Amsterdam. These festivals are either local festivals or festivals specialized in films of a specific genre (e.g. fantastic films), for/about a specific target group (e.g. films for/about deaf people), or from a specific region (e.g. Japanese films).

See also

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