^{Still: Mees Peijnenburg’s A Hole in My Heart}

It is some achievement for a small to medium-sized European industry to secure five feature selections and one short at Berlinale, a festival second only to Cannes in terms of influence and prestige. What’s more, three of these feature selections are directed by first-timers. Saskia Diesing’s Nena, Tallulah Schwab’s Confetti Harvest and Sam de Jong’s Prince screen in Berlin Generation. Meanwhile, Berlinale Forum has chosen Zurich, the second film of Sacha Polak, while the short film A Hole in My Heart by prolific mid-twenty something Mees Peijnenburg is selected for the festival’s Generation plus section.

Add to this the IFFR 2015 selection of debut features Between 10 and 12 (Peter Hoogendoorn), Son of Mine (Remy van Heugten) and Marinus Groothof’s The Sky Above Us, as well as Jan-Willem van Ewijk’s spectacular wind-surfing odyssey Atlantic, selected for Toronto 2014, and one can conclude two things. Firstly, that a quality-laden production outlook seems secure for the Netherlands industry. Secondly, that at an executive level, the right decisions are being made to allow the development of vital and energetic film talent.

The Netherlands Film Fund runs a number of funding initiatives designed to allow new writing and directorial talent to emerge. The Oversteek scheme, a collaboration with the Media Fund and the broadcasters VPRO and NTR, funds the production of two films by first or second-time directors to the tune of €860,000 per film per year. Within the scheme, the cinematic signature and vision of the filmmaker are essential criteria. Saskia Diesing’s Nena and 2015 IFFR Tiger film Son of Mine are Oversteek films, as have been numerous landmark films from the Netherlands’ recent past, such as Sascha Polak’s Hemel and Urszula Antoniak’s Nothing Personal.

The Fund’s newly expanded Wildcard programme supports maverick film talent straight out of film school, offering them complete creative licence to go forth and make a film wherever, however and about whatever they want, unsullied by any form of external interference. Two fiction Wildcards, each valued at €80,000, are offered, as is one animation Wildcard (€40,000) and three documentary awards, each worth €40,000. Such is the standard of Wildcard recipients, it was (maybe) inevitable that, at some point, one of their films would be selected for a major festival. Step forward 23-year old Morgan Knibbe, whose Those Who Feel the Fire Burning, an extraordinary ode to the plight of refugees entering Europe, was selected for IDFA 2014 main competition and was nominated for the festival’s top prize.

The Fund’s low budget funding scheme selects three (as of 2015) projects per year, releasing €200,000 in funding for each. This amounts to 75% of the film’s budget. Sam de Jong’s Berlin selection Prince was one such selection. “What I like about Prince is that it is really unique and different, and is a film of the now,” stresses the Fund’s New Screen NL head Dorien van de Pas.

As with Sam de Jong, A Hole in My Heart director Mees Peijnenburg also made a short that was screened at Berlin 2014 (Even Cowboys Get to Cry). “This is interesting as those two young men are both in Berlin two years in succession, which is rather unique in the Netherlands. A Hole in My Heart, for which the Fund gave post-production support, is shot in black and white and is very poetic. Mees tells urgent stories, but the form is always different.”

“There is a lot of talent emerging in the Netherlands,” van de Pas continues, including young upcoming producers. “It is great that the Fund can offer various opportunities to support their projects to give them more and more chances to succeed. They are given a lot more freedom and I feel that their creative and energy levels are boosted, which is good for the development of Dutch film culture as a whole. We can all be very excited.”