Photo: Charlotte Reekers

The Holland Film Meeting is a leaner, meaner affair in 2024 as it seeks to prepare 15 ambitious new Dutch feature projects (including one documentary) for successful careers, both local and international.

As in past years, the HFM programme is divided into three sections, but a fundamental change this year sees the introduction of the Dutch Gallery selection, presented in collaboration with SEE NL, which shines the spotlight on four projects at post-production phase and invites producers and directors to hold work-in-progress screenings in the presence of international and national distributors, sales agents, and festival programmers.

Stories & Beyond is again aimed at screenwriters and filmmakers with a project at early stage of script development looking to explore narrative developments and perspectives, based on the advice of (inter)national experts, creatives and industry professionals. 

The New Dutch selection invites film teams (producer/director) with a project at advanced script or research stage to work out new ways, over the course of HFM, to “define, engage, and reach their intended audience, and to position their project to (inter)national platforms and audiences.”

A core determinant is that HFM is proudly Dutch, just as Finnish Film Affair is robust in its development of new Finnish projects, or the Flemish Connext is über supportive of new films out of Flanders. What’s more, the Holland Film Meeting is resolutely international in its focus, determined to steer its projects along a path that gives them the greatest possible visibility beyond Dutch borders.

At the same time, HFM offers the chance for Dutch filmmakers to test the viability of their projects, both in creative and business terms within a nurturing but rigorously professional (and not uncritical) environment before their roll-out to co-pro markets further down the line.

That said, 2024 is a year of observation, assessment and deliberation for HFM, with a new co-ordinator, Charlotte Reekers, in place. (One can indeed argue the same for the Netherlands Film Festival whose new director, Ido Abram, took over in July).

“We're kind of testing things out this year to see if this new structure works and how it can improve,” Reekers says of the professional event that has undergone fundamental change since its launch in the 1990s as a fully-fledged international co-production market.

“What is the main focus? What are our new goals? What does the industry in the Netherlands need and how does it fit into the European or global market, and how can the Holland Film Meeting help in this?” 

Reekers won’t be shy, therefore, about gauging opinion from the Dutch and international professionals in tow about whatever tweaks and realignments may be necessary for future roll-outs of the event. “The coming HFM will be collaborative and representative enough to be able to get a good indication of what the general opinion is, or what people's takeaways are from the whole event in terms of its quality or what needs improvements.”

Reekers has seen the emergence over past years of a confident production sector whose output can hold its own within the European landscape. She points out, if readers need reminding, that The Netherlands is a strong co-production partner with many treaties and agreements in place, and with a keen record in supporting films that have been selected for the core A-festivals. 

The 15 projects at HFM suggest there may be more of the same, as represented by some of The Netherlands’ leading filmmaking and production talents, such as producers Alain de Levita, Steven Rubinstein Malamud, Loes Komen and Fleur Knopperts/Denis Vaslin of Volya, and directors Urzula Antoniak, Reber Dosky, Paula van der Oest and Michiel ten Horn. 

“So I am very hopeful. There are of course so many excellent filmmakers and, based on what I see among the films and film ideas at Holland Film Meeting this year, hopefully in the next years there will be more success,” Reekers signs off.