Cinema of the Netherlands
Encyclopedia
Because the Dutch film industry is relatively small, and there is little or 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.

Box office

In 2000 the total revenue coming from box office
Box office
A box office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through an unblocked hole through a wall or window, or at a wicket....

 results in the Netherlands was
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...

128.5 million; Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 films had a share of 5.5%, which is €7.1 million. In 2006 the total revenue was €155.9 million; Dutch films had a share of 11.5%, which is €17.4 million.

The Netherlands Film Festival
Netherlands Film Festival
The Netherlands Film Festival is an annual film festival, held in September and October of each year in the city of Utrecht.During the ten-day festival, all Dutch film productions of the previous year are exhibited. Besides feature films, the program also consists of short subjects, documentary...

 and the Netherlands Film Fund
Netherlands Film Fund
The Netherlands Film Fund is a subsidy fund for Dutch film productions and was founded in 1993. The Netherlands Film Fund is itself mainly subsidized by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science...

 are the initiators of four awards recognising box office achievements in the Netherlands. The awards are intended to generate positive publicity for a film when the media attention for the film's release has stopped. The Golden Film
Golden Film
The Golden Film is a film award recognizing domestic box office achievements in the Netherlands. The Golden Film is awarded to films from the Netherlands once they have sold . The award is an initiative by the Netherlands Film Festival and the Netherlands Film Fund to increase media attention for...

 is awarded to films once they have sold 100,000 cinema tickets, the Platinum Film
Platinum Film
The Platinum Film is a film award recognising domestic box office achievements in the Netherlands. It is awarded for the first 400,000 visitors of a Dutch film production...

 at 400,000 tickets, and the Diamond Film
Diamond Film
The Diamond Film is a film award recognising domestic box office achievements in the Netherlands. The Diamond Film is awarded to films from the Netherlands once they have sold 1,000,000 cinema tickets or more during the original circulation...

 at 1,000,000 tickets. The Crystal Film
Crystal Film
The Crystal Film is a film award recognising domestic box office achievements in the Netherlands. The Crystal Film is awarded to documentary films from the Netherlands once they have sold 10,000 tickets...

 is for documentary films from the Netherlands and is awarded once the film has sold 10,000 cinema tickets.

The most visited film in Dutch cinema history is Titanic, which attracted 3.405.708 visitors. The most visited Dutch film is Turkish Delight
Turkish Delight (film)
Turkish Delight is a 1973 Dutch film directed by Paul Verhoeven and filmed by Jan de Bont. The film is a love story of an artist and a young woman, starring Rutger Hauer and Monique van de Ven. The story is based on the novel Turks fruit by Jan Wolkers...

which had 3.328.804 visitors in 1973, approximately a quarter of the entire population at the time. The Titanic, by comparison, drew roughly one fifth of the population of the Netherlands in the late nineties.

History

The first Dutch film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

 was the slapstick comedy Gestoorde hengelaar
Gestoorde hengelaar
Gestoorde hengelaar was the first Dutch fictional film, made by M.H. Laddé in 1896 and was produced by the studio Eerst Nederlandsch Atelier tot het vervaardigen van Films voor de Bioscoop en Cinematograaf van M.H. Laddé en J.W...

 (1896) by M.H. Laddé
M.H. Laddé
M.H. Laddé was a Dutch photographer and film director. He was the director of the first Dutch fictional film, the 1896 comedy Gestoorde hengelaar ....

. Willy Mullens
Willy Mullens
Willy Mullens was a Dutch producer, director, and promoter of movies. He is considered to be one of the early pioneers of Dutch cinema, and one of his movies was recently elected as one of only sixteen "Canonical Dutch movies." With his brother Bernardus Albertus he started around...

 was one of the influential pioneers of Dutch cinema in the early 1900s. His slapstick comedy film The Misadventure of a French Gentleman Without Pants at the Zandvoort Beach
The Misadventure of a French Gentleman Without Pants at the Zandvoort Beach
The Misadventure of a French Gentleman Without Pants at the Zandvoort Beach is a 1905 early Dutch silent film directed by Willy Mullens, and produced by Alberts Frères. A six-minute short comedy film , it is one of the oldest surviving Dutch fictional films...

 is the oldest surviving Dutch film.

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
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...

 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
Douglas Sirk
Douglas Sirk was a Danish-German film director best known for his work in Hollywood melodramas in the 1950s.-Life and work:...

 (Boefje, 1939).

During World War II, the private Dutch film industry came to a near halt. However, the German-led occupation government supported many small propaganda films in support of the Third Reich. The most well-known were De nieuwe tijd breekt baan (A New Order Arises, 1941), Met Duitschland tegen het Bolsjewisme (With Germany against Bolshevism, 1941) and Werkt in Duitschland (Work in Germany, 1942). After 1943, this funding came to an end, due to internal struggles within the Dutch Kultuurkamer and the lack of money of the occupational government.

Documentary school

The Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 film industry has long been renowned for its documentaries. The most prominent Dutch directors, especially those who started their careers before World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, came from a documentary background, for instance Joris Ivens
Joris Ivens
Joris Ivens was a Dutch documentary filmmaker and committed communist.-Early life and career:...

 and Bert Haanstra
Bert Haanstra
Bert Haanstra was a Dutch film and documentary director.Haanstra was born in the town of Holten and became a professional filmmaker in 1947. He won international acclaim with his short documentary Spiegel van Holland / Mirror of Holland, for which he received the Grand Prix du court métrage at the...

. Since the early 1970s, however, documentary production aimed at a theatrical release has declined, perhaps due to a shift towards television documentary.

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 Film Fund) was established in 1957, the Nederlandse Filmacademie (Dutch Film Academy) in 1958. Documentary filmer Bert Haanstra
Bert Haanstra
Bert Haanstra was a Dutch film and documentary director.Haanstra was born in the town of Holten and became a professional filmmaker in 1947. He won international acclaim with his short documentary Spiegel van Holland / Mirror of Holland, for which he received the Grand Prix du court métrage at the...

 made his first fiction film, Fanfare
Fanfare
A Fanfare is a relatively short piece of music that is typically played by trumpets and other brass instruments often accompanied by percussion...

, in 1958. Even though the film was a big success, this success was only incidental. Dutch cinema did temporarily provide a sound of its own in this period, in the form of what is now considered to be the "Dutch documentary tradition" or "Dutch documentary school". Headed by Haanstra, who won an Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject
Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject
This is a list of films by year that have received an Oscar together with the other nominations for best documentary short subject. Following the Academy's practice, the year listed for each film is the year of release: the awards are announced and presented early in the following year.-1940s:*1941...

 with 1959's Glass
Glass (film)
Glass is a 1958 Dutch short documentary film by director and producer Bert Haanstra. The film won the Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject in 1959. The entire film is about the glass bottle industry.-External links:*...

and also won prizes in Berlin and Cannes
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...

, the movement also included Herman van der Horst, who won a Golden Bear
Golden Bear
According to legend, the Golden Bear was a large golden Ursus arctos. Members of the Ursus arctos species can reach masses of . The Grizzly Bear and the Kodiak Bear are North American subspecies of the Brown Bear....

 for Best Documentary and John Fernhout, who's Sky Over Holland won a Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...

 and was nominated for an Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject
Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject
This is a list of films by year that have received an Oscar together with the other nominations for best documentary short subject. Following the Academy's practice, the year listed for each film is the year of release: the awards are announced and presented early in the following year.-1940s:*1941...

 in 1968.

Documentaries still play an important part in Dutch film industry. The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, held annually in November, is considered one of the largest documentary film festivals in the world. Famous documentary directors pre- and postdating the unofficial Documentary School include Joris Ivens
Joris Ivens
Joris Ivens was a Dutch documentary filmmaker and committed communist.-Early life and career:...

 and Johan van der Keuken
Johan van der Keuken
Johan van der Keuken was a Dutch documentary filmmaker, author, and photographer. In a career that spanned 42 years, Keuken produced 55 documentary films, six of which won eight awards. He also wrote nine books on photography and films, his field of interest...

. Ivens won a César Award
César Award
The César Award is the national film award of France, first given out in 1975. The nominations are selected by the members of the Académie des arts et techniques du cinéma....

 and a Golden Lion
Golden Lion
Il Leone d’Oro is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is now regarded as one of the film industry's most distinguished prizes...

, as well as a career achievement award at the Venice Film Festival
Venice Film Festival
The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...

.

Flourishing period

Although Haanstra continued to make internationally acclaimed documentaries, the "school" more or less faded out by the late sixties. By this time, the first generation of Dutch filmmakers who graduated from the Dutch Film Academy began to make a name for themselves. The most famous director of this era is undoubtedly Fons Rademakers, who received domestic and international critical claim with a number of films between 1959 and 1963. Rademakers learned the business from Vittorio De Sica
Vittorio de Sica
Vittorio De Sica was an Italian director and actor, a leading figure in the neorealist movement....

 and Jean Renoir
Jean Renoir
Jean Renoir was a French film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and author. As a film director and actor, he made more than forty films from the silent era to the end of the 1960s...

 and brought his newfound knowledge of foreign art films with him. Contemporaries include Academy-laureates Frans Weisz, Pieter Verhoeff and Frans Bromet, another documentary maker. Slowly, fiction films become more and more popular in The Netherlands.

A more lasting success for Dutch film came in the 1970s, mostly under the influence of one man: Paul Verhoeven. Verhoeven's five films of the decade - Business Is Business (Wat zien ik?, 1971), Turkish Delight
Turkish Delight (film)
Turkish Delight is a 1973 Dutch film directed by Paul Verhoeven and filmed by Jan de Bont. The film is a love story of an artist and a young woman, starring Rutger Hauer and Monique van de Ven. The story is based on the novel Turks fruit by Jan Wolkers...

(Turks Fruit, 1973), Katie Tippel
Katie Tippel
Katie Tippel is a 1975 film by Paul Verhoeven. The film is based on the memoirs of Neel Doff and was the most expensive Dutch film produced up to that time...

(Keetje Tippel, 1975), Soldier of Orange
Soldier of Orange
Soldier of Orange is a 1977 Dutch film directed by Paul Verhoeven and produced by Rob Houwer, starring Rutger Hauer and Jeroen Krabbé. The film is set during the German occupation of the Netherlands during World War II, and shows how individual students have different roles in the war...

(Soldaat van Oranje, 1977) and Spetters
Spetters
Spetters is a Dutch film released in 1980 directed by Paul Verhoeven.Spetters led to many protests across the board about the caricatural manner in which Verhoeven portrayed gays, Christians, the police, and the press. Although Verhoeven made one more film in the Netherlands, the response to...

(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
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...

 spoken film since The Fourth Man
The Fourth Man
The Fourth Man is a 1983 Dutch suspense film directed by Paul Verhoeven, based on the novel De vierde man by Gerard Reve. The film stars Jeroen Krabbé and Renée Soutendijk in the lead roles.-Plot:...

(De Vierde Man) that came out in 1983.

Other successful directors from this era are Wim Verstappen
Wim Verstappen
Wim Verstappen was a Dutch film director and producer, television director, and screen writer.Verstappen grew up on Curaçao. He started at the Netherlands Film and Television Academy in 1961, and released his first movie in 1966, De minder gelukkige terugkeer van Joszef Katus naar het land van...

 and Pim de la Parra, whose movies were more commercial than those of their colleagues in the 1960s. In his book Van Fanfare tot Spetters, film historian Hans Schoots argues that the flourishing period of Dutch film lies between these two films, ending with the controversial Spetters, after which the happy era that was the seventies was over, and a more down-to-earth approach to filmmaking kicked in. Indeed, after 1980, few Dutch films managed to bring crowds of millions to the cinemas, partly due to a decline in interest, partly due to home video systems which resulted in an overall drop in cinema attendance in the Netherlands.

Decline

A decline in cinema admission set in after the 1970s. Director Dick Maas, making studio-style action-thrillers such as De Lift
De Lift
De Lift is a 1983 film by the Dutch director Dick Maas about a killer elevator. In 2001, an English language remake, Down, was made and was also directed by Dick Maas....

(1983) and Amsterdamned
Amsterdamned
Amsterdamned is a 1988 Dutch horror movie about a serial killer who hides in the canal system of Amsterdam. The film was directed and written by Dick Maas, and stars Huub Stapel, Monique van de Ven, and Serge-Henri Valcke....

(1988), was about the only filmmaker having mainstream success in this period. He topped the box office charts with his dysfunctional family
Dysfunctional family
A dysfunctional family is a family in which conflict, misbehavior, and often abuse on the part of individual members occur continually and regularly, leading other members to accommodate such actions. Children sometimes grow up in such families with the understanding that such an arrangement is...

 comedy Flodder
Flodder
Flodder is a 1986 Dutch comedy film written and directed by Dick Maas, and distributed by First Floor Features. It is the first film in the Flodder franchise and is followed by two more films and a spin-off series...

(1986) and its sequel Flodder in Amerika
Flodder in Amerika
Flodders in America is a 1992 Dutch comedy film directed by Dick Maas. The film is the sequel of the successful film Flodder from 1986. It was filmed on location in New York and stars Dutch actors Huub Stapel, Nelly Frijda, Tatjana Simic, Rene van 't Hof, Lou Landre and American actor Jon Polito...

(1992), the latter getting nearly one and a half million admissions, making it the most successful Dutch film since the introduction of the VCR. Some more artistic directors, such as Jos Stelling
Jos Stelling
Jos Stelling is a Dutch film director and screenwriter. He has directed 12 films, and is working on his new film The Girl and Death, in which Dutch actress Sylvia Hoeks will play the lead role....

, Orlow Seunke and Alex van Warmerdam
Alex van Warmerdam
Alex van Warmerdam is a Dutch screenwriter, film director, and actor. He is also a painter.-Biography:He was cofounder of the theatre group Hauser Orkater . In 1980 he founded the theatre group De Mexicaanse Hond , together with his brother Marc van Warmerdam...

 made magic realism movies. Other auteur-directors emerged during this era as well, including Theo van Gogh
Theo van Gogh (film director)
Theodoor "Theo" van Gogh was a Dutch film director, film producer, columnist, author and actor.Van Gogh worked with the Somali-born writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali to produce the film Submission, which criticized the treatment of women in Islam and aroused controversy among Muslims...

, Ate de Jong
Ate de Jong
Ate de Jong is a Dutch film director who was nominated for 2002 Golden Calf Best Film for The Discovery of Heaven .-Director:* Alle dagen feest...

 and more recently Cyrus Frisch
Cyrus Frisch
Cyrus Frisch is a Dutch avant-garde filmmaker.Filmmaker Magazine called him the wild man of Dutch film. According to Holland Film Frisch is one of the most daring filmmakers currently working in Holland....

. In this decade, acclaimed director Fons Rademakers won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film with 1986's The Assault
The Assault (film)
The Assault is a 1986 film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Harry Mulisch. The film was directed and produced by Fons Rademakers...

.

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!
Costa!
Costa! is a 2001 Dutch film from BNN. It was the first movie that used several famous Dutch soap stars. Other movies that used soap actors, were Volle maan and Honeyz. The television series with the same title was based on the movie. It had the same cast members...

 (2001), that won back the confidence in the commercial viability of Dutch film.
Costa!
Costa!
Costa! is a 2001 Dutch film from BNN. It was the first movie that used several famous Dutch soap stars. Other movies that used soap actors, were Volle maan and Honeyz. The television series with the same title was based on the movie. It had the same cast members...

 is about Dutch teenagers vacationing at the Spanish coast. The success of the film spawned several copycat films (for instance Volle Maan
Full Moon Party (film)
Full Moon Party is a 2002 Dutch film.It received a Golden Film and a Platinum Film .- Plot :...

 (Full Moon Party; 2002)) and a spin-off sitcom (also called Costa!), which ran for several seasons on the public broadcasting network BNN
BNN
BNN is a three letter abbreviation which can refer to*Banana News Network, A Pakistani comedy TV Show.*Bart's Neverending Network , a radio and television broadcasting organization in the Netherlands...

.

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
Schnitzel Paradise
Martin Koolhoven's Schnitzel Paradise is a 2005 Dutch comedy film about Dutch-Moroccan Nordip Dounia who starts working in a restaurant kitchen and falls in love with Agnes Meerman, niece of the hotel's manager...

(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.

Family movies

More consistently successful, especially at the box office, are children's novels adaptations. Modern Dutch family movies follow in the tradition of Henk van der Linden - who made 38 youth films between 1952 and 1984 - and Karst van der Meulen who made twelve of them in the seventies and eighties. 1998's Abeltje
Abeltje
For the 1998 film, see The Flying LiftboyAbeltje is a children's book by celebrated Dutch author Annie M. G. Schmidt, originally published in 1953 by De Arbeiderspers. It was one of Annie M. G. Schmidt's first children's books, and such an instant success that it was already in its fourth edition...

and 1999's Kruimeltje
Little Crumb
Little Crumb is a 1999 Dutch film directed by Maria Peters. It was the Netherlands' submission to the 73rd Academy Awards for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but was not accepted as a nominee.-Cast:*Ruud Feltkamp - Kruimeltje...

were the highest grossing domestic films of these years. Minoes (2001), Pietje Bell (2002), De Schippers van de Kameleon
De Schippers van de Kameleon
De Schippers van de Kameleon is a Dutch family film with as main characters identical twins Koen van der Donk and Jos van der Donk . The actors are also identical twins, born March 6, 1988...

(2002), Pluk van de Petteflet
Tow Truck Pluck
Tow Truck Pluck is a 2004 Dutch family film, based on the book, Pluk van de Petteflet, by Annie M.G. Schmidt.The film received a Golden Film in 2004 and a Platinum Film in 2005.-Cast:...

(2004) and De Kameleon 2
Kameleon 2
Kameleon 2 is a 2005 Dutch family film with as main characters identical twinsKoen van der Donk and Jos van der Donk , also identical twins, born 6 March 1988....

(2005) achieved the same in their respective years. The Dutch children's films also got some international critical claim. For instance, Het Paard van Sinterklaas won awards at six foreign film festivals. This prompted producers to make an internationally oriented, big budget (appr. €12 million) family film, Crusade in Jeans
Crusade in Jeans
Crusade in Jeans is a children's novel written by Thea Beckman. It contains a fictional account of the children's crusade of 1212, as witnessed by Rudolf Hefting, a boy from the 20th century. The original Dutch title is Kruistocht in spijkerbroek...

. While a Dutch production, the film had an international cast and was shot in English.

The family oriented films' reign at the top of the domestic box office came to an end in 2006 with Paul Verhoeven's war thriller Black Book, which was the first Dutch film since Kruimeltje to get over a million admissions. Black Book was the most expensive Dutch film production of all time, with a reported budget of just under €18 million. The success was bested only one year later, with the romantic Christmas comedy Alles is Liefde
Alles is Liefde
Alles is Liefde is a 2007 romantic comedy film , directed by Joram Lürsen, starring Carice van Houten, Paul de Leeuw, Wendy van Dijk, and Daan Schuurmans.-Plot:...

.

Dutch filmmakers and actors abroad

Both Black Book and Alles is Liefde starred Carice van Houten(Valkyrie film) who subsequently made the transition to Hollywood, following in the footsteps of several actors, the most successful being Rutger Hauer (Blade Runner
Blade Runner
Blade Runner is a 1982 American science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young. The screenplay, written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, is loosely based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K...

), Jeroen Krabbé
Jeroen Krabbé
Jeroen Aart Krabbé is a Dutch actor and film director who has appeared in many Dutch and international films.-Biography:...

 (The Fugitive
The Fugitive (1993 film)
The Fugitive is a 1993 American thriller film based on the television series of the same name. The film was directed by Andrew Davis and stars Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones. The film was one of the few movies associated with a television series to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best...

) and Famke Janssen
Famke Janssen
Famke Beumer Janssen is a Dutch actress and former fashion model. She is known for playing the villainous Bond girl Xenia Onatopp in GoldenEye and Jean Grey/Phoenix in the X-Men film series .- Early life and education :...

 (X-Men
X-Men (film)
X-Men is a 2000 superhero film based on the fictional Marvel Comics characters of the same name. Directed by Bryan Singer, the film stars Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, Anna Paquin, Famke Janssen, Bruce Davison, James Marsden, Halle Berry, Rebecca Romijn, Ray Park and Tyler Mane...

). Filmmakers besides Paul Verhoeven who successfully began a career in Hollywood include Jan de Bont
Jan de Bont
Jan de Bont is a Dutch cinematographer, producer, and film director.-Early life and career:De Bont was born, one of 17 children, to a Roman Catholic family in Eindhoven, Netherlands. His earliest work after studying at the Amsterdam Film Academy was with the Dutch avant garde director Adriaan...

 (who started as cinematographer before directing big budget action movies like Speed and Twister), screenwriter-turned-director Menno Meyjes
Menno Meyjes
Menno Meyjes is a Dutch-born screenwriter, film director and producer.He moved to the United States in 1972 and studied at the Art Institute of California – San Francisco. He was nominated for several awards for his screenplay to the 1985 film The Color Purple, adapted from the novel by Alice Walker...

 (credits include The Color Purple
The Color Purple (film)
The Color Purple is a 1985 American period drama film directed by Steven Spielberg, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name by Alice Walker. It was Spielberg's eighth film as a director , and was a change from the summer blockbusters for which he had become famous...

and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is a 1989 American adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg, from a story co-written by executive producer George Lucas. It is the third film in the Indiana Jones franchise. Harrison Ford reprises the title role and Sean Connery plays Indiana's father, Henry...

) and producer Pieter Jan Brugge ( Glory, Consenting Adults, The Pelican Brief, Bullworth, The Insider, Miami Vice, Defiance
Defiance (2008 film)
Defiance is a 2008 World War II era film written, produced, and directed by Edward Zwick, set during the occupation of Belarus by Nazi Germany. The film is an account of the Bielski partisans, a group led by three Jewish brothers who saved and recruited Jews in Poland during the Second World War...

, Love and Other Drugs. Brugge produced and directed The Clearing. After directing an English-language thriller in Holland, director Roel Reiné
Roel Reiné
Roel Reiné is a Los Angeles-based Dutch film director.-Death Race: Frankenstein Lives:The Dutch filmmaker becomes the director seat for Death Race: Frankenstein Lives , an official sequel to Paul W.S. Anderson's Death Race...

 moved to Hollywood where he became an influential director-producer of DVD Premiere films, including the Steven Seagal
Steven Seagal
Steven Frederic Seagal is an American action film star, producer, writer, martial artist, guitarist and reserve deputy sheriff. A 7th-dan black belt in Aikido, Seagal began his adult life as an Aikido instructor in Japan...

-vehicle Pistol Whipped
Pistol Whipped
For the fire-arm technique of pistol whipping, see : Pistol whippingPistol Whipped is a 2008 action film starring Steven Seagal, Lance Henriksen, Renee Elise Goldsberry, Blanchard Ryan, Lydia Jordan and Arthur J. Nascarella. Filmed in Connecticut, in May and June 2007, it was directed by Roel Reiné...

(2008). Ate de Jong
Ate de Jong
Ate de Jong is a Dutch film director who was nominated for 2002 Golden Calf Best Film for The Discovery of Heaven .-Director:* Alle dagen feest...

 made a couple of low profile American films in the early nineties, and directed an episode of Miami Vice
Miami Vice
Miami Vice is an American television series produced by Michael Mann for NBC. The series starred Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas as two Metro-Dade Police Department detectives working undercover in Miami. It ran for five seasons on NBC from 1984–1989...

. He began a partnership with Jeroen Krabbé
Jeroen Krabbé
Jeroen Aart Krabbé is a Dutch actor and film director who has appeared in many Dutch and international films.-Biography:...

 and Edwin de Vries, which led to three English language productions starring international actors, including Isabella Rossellini
Isabella Rossellini
Isabella Fiorella Elettra Giovanna Rossellini is an Italian actress, filmmaker, author, philanthropist, and model. Rossellini is noted for her 14-year tenure as a Lancôme model, and for her roles in films such as Blue Velvet and Death Becomes Her.-Background and early life:Rossellini is a...

, Luke Perry
Luke Perry
Luke Perry is an American actor. Perry starred as Dylan McKay on the TV series Beverly Hills, 90210, a role he played from 1990–95, and then from 1998–2000. Much publicity was garnered over the fact that even though he was playing a sixteen-year-old when 90210 began, Perry was actually in his...

 and Stephen Fry
Stephen Fry
Stephen John Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter and film director, and a director of Norwich City Football Club. He first came to attention in the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue presentation "The Cellar Tapes", which also...

.

While many other Dutch actors and actresses have tried to break through in Hollywood, few have had the success of Hauer and Krabbé. Contemporaries Monique van de Ven
Monique van de Ven
Monica Maria Theresia "Monique" van de Ven is a Dutch actress and director.From 1973 until 1988 she was married to Dutch cinematographer and director Jan de Bont, with whom she lived in Los Angeles for a number of years. She is now married to actor and writer Edwin de Vries.Her film debut as an...

, Derek de Lint
Derek de Lint
Dick Hein de Lint is a Dutch film and television actor.De Lint was born in The Hague. In 1977, he played the character Alex in the film Soldier of Orange, directed by Paul Verhoeven. In 1986 he played the role of Anton Steenwijk in The Assault, which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language...

, Renée Soutendijk
Renée Soutendijk
Renette Pauline Soutendijk, known as Renée Soutendijk, is a Dutch actress. She was a favorite star of director Paul Verhoeven's films and is perhaps best known for her work in his 1980 release Spetters. Her good looks and striking blond hair secured her status as a Dutch sex symbol in the 1980s...

 and Huub Stapel
Huub Stapel
Hubertus Wijnandus Jozef Marie Stapel is a Dutch actor. He is especially known from the films De Lift , Flodder and Amsterdamned by Dick Maas. He also appeared in the Golden Earring video When the Lady Smiles.- External links :* at the New York Times Movies & TV...

 all returned to making Dutch films when their Hollywood-efforts proved disappointing. Celebrated actress Van de Ven of Turkish Delight-fame moved to the US with her then-husband Jan de Bont and appeared in a number of small American films, to no significant success, and only in supporting parts. De Lint's American résumé is more impressive, with guest appearances in various TV-shows, including NYPD Blue
NYPD Blue
NYPD Blue is an American television police drama set in New York City, exploring the internal and external struggles of the fictional 15th precinct of Manhattan...

and The L Word
The L Word
The L Word is an American co-production television drama series originally shown on Showtime portraying the lives of a group of lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people and their friends, family and lovers in the trendy Greater Los Angeles, California city of West Hollywood...

, and a number of supporting roles in theatrical movies, of which the most prominent was The Unbearable Lightness of Being
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
The Unbearable Lightness of Being , written by Milan Kundera, is a philosophical novel about two men, two women, a dog and their lives in the Prague Spring of the Czechoslovak Communist period in 1968. Although written in 1982, the novel was not published until two years later, in France...

(1988). Soutendijk scored the female lead as a cyborg in Eve of Destruction
Eve of Destruction (film)
Eve of Destruction is a 1991 science fiction film about a cyborg named Eve, designed in secret by the United States military for undercover operations. The film stars Gregory Hines as Colonel Jim McQuade and Dutch actress Renée Soutendijk with the dual roles as the cyborg's creator Dr...

(1991) opposite Gregory Hines
Gregory Hines
Gregory Oliver Hines was an American actor, singer, dancer and choreographer.-Early years:Born in New York City, Hines and his older brother Maurice started dancing at an early age, studying with choreographer Henry LeTang...

. Finally, Huub Stapel, star of all of Dick Maas' box office hits, had a large supporting role in a 1988 TV-movie about Anne Frank
The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank
The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank is a 1988 TV film directed by John Erman, based on Miep Gies' book Anne Frank Remembered.-Plot:...

.

More recently, a domestic favorite, Antonie Kamerling
Antonie Kamerling
Antonie Kamerling was a Dutch television and film actor and musician.-Biography:Antonie Kamerling was still a law student when in 1990 he was cast in the then new Dutch soap opera Good Times, Bad Times. His character, Peter Kelder, quickly became one of the most popular on the program...

, was one of the Dutch actors involved in the American independent film Five Fingers
Five Fingers (2006 film)
Five Fingers is a 2006 film written by Chad Thumann and Laurence Malkin and directed by Malkin.The film was produced by many people, including actor Laurence Fishburne who stars in the film alongside Mimi Ferrer, Ryan Phillipe, Touriya Haoud, Isa Hoes, and Colm Meaney...

in which, ironically, American actor Ryan Philippe plays the leading Dutch character. Kamerling also had a supporting part in Exorcist: The Beginning
Exorcist: The Beginning
Exorcist: The Beginning is a 2004 prequel to the 1973 film The Exorcist. This is the second version of the third Exorcist sequel. It was adapted by William Wisher Jr., Caleb Carr and Alexi Hawley, and directed by Renny Harlin...

(as well as its alternative version
Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist
Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist is a 2005 supernatural horror film directed by Paul Schrader. It is a prequel to The Exorcist .-Plot:...

). Thekla Reuten
Thekla Reuten
Thekla Simona Gelsomina Reuten is a Dutch actress.Reuten was born in Bussum, Netherlands, the daughter of an Italian mother and a Dutch father. Reuten portrayed Duncan MacLeod's love interest Anna in Highlander: The Source, released in September 2007...

, star of Oscar-nominated Twin Sisters, has made her US-debut with Highlander: The Source
Highlander: The Source
Highlander: The Source is the fifth installment of the Highlander film series, directed by Brett Leonard, and was intended to be the first film of a planned trilogy on SciFi Channel though no further direct sequels are currently planned. Adrian Paul reprises his role as Duncan MacLeod from the...

and is set to appear in the DVD premiere film Fire Bay. She had a short stint as a supporting character in Sleeper Cell
Sleeper Cell (TV series)
Sleeper Cell is a one-hour drama on the Showtime network that began airing on December 4, 2005. The tagline for the first season was "Friends. Neighbors. Husbands. Terrorists." and the tagline for the second season was "Cities. Suburbs. Airports. Targets." The series was nominated for an Emmy award...

and made an appearance in a 2008 Lost episode
The Economist (Lost)
"The Economist" is the third episode of the American Broadcasting Company's fourth season of the serial drama television series Lost and 75th episode overall. It was aired on February 14, 2008 on ABC in the United States and on CTV in Canada. The episode was written by co-executive producers...

, as a German spy.

Lastly, actor Yorick van Wageningen
Yorick van Wageningen
Yorick van Wageningen is a Dutch actor.After acting in several Dutch plays, movies, and television series, van Wageningen was asked to come to Hollywood to appear in Steven Spielberg's Minority Report. Due to problems with his visa, he was unable to work on that movie in the United States....

 made a name for himself by appearing in Beyond Borders
Beyond Borders
Beyond Borders is a 2003 drama film about aid workers, directed by Martin Campbell and starring Angelina Jolie and Clive Owen. The original music score was composed by James Horner....

(2003), The Chronicles of Riddick
The Chronicles of Riddick
The Chronicles of Riddick is a 2004 American science fiction film which follows the adventures of Richard B. Riddick, as he attempts to elude capture after the events depicted in the 2000 film Pitch Black, and details his meeting with Jack and Imam, his escape from the prison planet Crematoria, and...

(2004) and The New World (2005). This series was to be preceded by a supporting role in Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...

's Minority Report
Minority Report (film)
Minority Report is a 2002 American neo-noir science fiction film directed by Steven Spielberg and loosely based on the short story "The Minority Report" by Philip K. Dick. It is set primarily in Washington, D.C...

, but due to problems with his visa, he was unable to work on that movie. Contrary to most other Dutch actors successful in Hollywood (with the notable exception of Famke Janssen), Van Wageningen was not a major star in his own country before playing in American films, and instead is using his new status as internationally experienced film actor to get major roles in upcoming Dutch films, beginning with 2008's Oorlogswinter. Likewise, Saskia Mulder
Saskia Mulder
Saskia Mulder is a Dutch film and television actress. She is the younger sister of supermodel Karen Mulder.-Career:...

 (sister to model Karen Mulder
Karen Mulder
Karen Mulder is a Dutch former model and singer. During the 90s, she had a successful modeling career and was recognized as a world-class "supermodel" by various media...

), made her debut abroad, appearing in French and English films and television series before making guest appearances in Dutch soap-operas. Her most famous film to date is Neil Marshall
Neil Marshall
Neil Marshall is an English film director, editor and screenwriter. Marshall began his career in editing and in 2002 directed his first feature film Dog Soldiers, which became a cult film. He followed up with the critically acclaimed horror film The Descent in 2005...

's The Descent
The Descent
The Descent is a 2005 British horror film written and directed by Neil Marshall. The film follows six women who, having entered an unmapped cave system, become trapped, and are hunted by subterranean flesh-eating humanoids....

. She was also a regular in the short lived Scottish sitcom The Book Group
The Book Group
The Book Group is a comedy drama that aired on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom between 2002 and 2003, and ran for two series. It was written and directed by the American-born Glasgow resident Annie Griffin, who also wrote and directed Festival...

. Dutch photographer Anton Corbijn
Anton Corbijn
Anton Corbijn is a Dutch photographer, music video and film director. He is the creative director behind the visual output of Depeche Mode and U2, having handled the principal promotion and sleeve photography for both for more than a decade...

 made his film debut directing the British biopic Control about Joy Division
Joy Division
Joy Division were an English rock band formed in 1976 in Salford, Greater Manchester. Originally named Warsaw, the band primarily consisted of Ian Curtis , Bernard Sumner , Peter Hook and Stephen Morris .Joy Division rapidly evolved from their initial punk rock influences...

 lead singer Ian Curtis
Ian Curtis
Ian Kevin Curtis was an English singer and lyricist, famous for leading the post-punk band Joy Division. Joy Division released their debut album, Unknown Pleasures, in 1979 and recorded their follow-up, Closer, in 1980...

.

Behind the scenes, cameraman Theo van de Sande, born in Tilburg, has made an impressive CV filming big budget films, having shot films such as Cruel Intentions
Cruel Intentions
Cruel Intentions is a 1999 American drama film starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, Reese Witherspoon, and Selma Blair. The film is an adaptation of the 18th-century French epistolary novel Les Liaisons dangereuses by Laclos and is set among wealthy teenagers living in modern New York...

and Blade
Blade (film)
Blade is a 1998 vampire superhero action horror starring Wesley Snipes and Stephen Dorff, loosely based on the Marvel Comics character Blade. The film was directed by Stephen Norrington and written by David S. Goyer. Blade grossed $70 million at the U.S. box office, and $131.2 million worldwide...

, after he previously had a worthy career in his native country. Lesser known Dutch individuals with international credits include Hollywood sound designer Charles Deenen
Charles Deenen
Charles Deenen , is a Dutch computer/video game Audio Director, Music Composer, Sound Designer & Mixer. He is also known for his music and sound efforts for games of C64 and Amiga era. He was one of the first demosceners....

; Oscar-winning director Marleen Gorris
Marleen Gorris
Marleen Gorris is a writer-director from the Netherlands. Gorris is known as an outspoken feminist and supporter of gay and lesbian issues which is reflected in much of her work....

 who made a number of international productions including the 1997 adaptation of Mrs Dalloway and currently works on several British productions; DJ and composer Junkie XL
Junkie XL
Tom Holkenborg , better known as Junkie XL or JXL, is a Dutch musician. He uses the name JXL in cases where the term "Junkie" might cause offense. XL is for "Xpanding Limits"....

 who wrote additional music for Ridley Scott
Ridley Scott
Sir Ridley Scott is an English film director and producer. His most famous films include The Duellists , Alien , Blade Runner , Legend , Thelma & Louise , G. I...

's Kingdom of Heaven
Kingdom of Heaven (film)
Kingdom of Heaven is a 2005 epic action film directed by Ridley Scott and written by William Monahan. It stars Orlando Bloom, Eva Green, Jeremy Irons, David Thewlis, Marton Csokas, Brendan Gleeson, Kevin McKidd, Alexander Siddig, Ghassan Massoud, Edward Norton, Jon Finch, Michael Sheen and Liam...

and scored the action film DOA: Dead or Alive
DOA: Dead or Alive
DOA: Dead or Alive is a 2006 ensemble martial arts film loosely based on the Tecmo/Team Ninja fighting game series of the same name. Directed by Corey Yuen and written by J. F. Lawton, Adam and Seth Gross....

; Sylvia Kristel
Sylvia Kristel
Sylvia Kristel is a Dutch actress, model and singer. Her most famous role is in the French film Emmanuelle.- Early life :...

, most famous for her role as Emmanuelle
Emmanuelle
Emmanuelle is the lead character in a series of French softcore erotic movies based on a character created by Emmanuelle Arsan in the novel Emmanuelle...

 in a series of softcore movies, also appeared in a large number of lesser known American (tv-)movies, of which The Nude Bomb
The Nude Bomb
The Nude Bomb is a 1980 comedy film based on the television series Get Smart. It starred Don Adams as Maxwell Smart, Agent 86, and was directed by Clive Donner...

, a feature film adaptation of the tv-series Get Smart
Get Smart
Get Smart is an American comedy television series that satirizes the secret agent genre. Created by Mel Brooks with Buck Henry, the show starred Don Adams , Barbara Feldon , and Edward Platt...

is probably the most notable. Kristel briefly apepars as Agent 34; an established cinematographer in the alternative film scene, Curaçao
Curaçao
Curaçao is an island in the southern Caribbean Sea, off the Venezuelan coast. The Country of Curaçao , which includes the main island plus the small, uninhabited island of Klein Curaçao , is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands...

-born Robby Müller
Robby Müller
Robby Müller is a cinematographer whose name is most often associated with film director Wim Wenders.-Life and work:...

 has repeatedly worked with Wim Wenders
Wim Wenders
Ernst Wilhelm "Wim" Wenders is a German film director, playwright, author, photographer and producer.-Early life:Wenders was born in Düsseldorf. He graduated from high school in Oberhausen in the Ruhr area. He then studied medicine and philosophy in Freiburg and Düsseldorf...

, Lars von Trier
Lars von Trier
Lars von Trier is a Danish film director and screenwriter. He is closely associated with the Dogme 95 collective, although his own films have taken a variety of different approaches, and have frequently received strongly divided critical opinion....

 and Jim Jarmusch
Jim Jarmusch
James R. "Jim" Jarmusch is an American independent film director, screenwriter, actor, producer, editor and composer. Jarmusch has been a major proponent of independent cinema, particularly during the 1980s and 1990s.-Early life:...

; a director at the start of his career, Kees van Oostrum has moved to US to become a prolific cinematographer on various TV-movies and miniseries; two-time Academy Awards
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...

 nominated production designer Jan Roelfs, who worked with Andrew Niccol
Andrew Niccol
Andrew M. Niccol is a New Zealand screenwriter, producer, and director. He wrote and directed Gattaca, S1m0ne, In Time, and Lord of War. He also wrote and co-produced The Truman Show, which earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay in 1999 and won a BAFTA award for Best...

 and Oliver Stone
Oliver Stone
William Oliver Stone is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Stone became well known in the late 1980s and the early 1990s for directing a series of films about the Vietnam War, for which he had previously participated as an infantry soldier. His work frequently focuses on...

; George Sluizer
George Sluizer
George Sluizer , is a Dutch filmmaker whose credits include features as well as documentary films....

, who made an American remake of his popular culthit Spoorloos and currently works mostly on pan-European co-productions, will make a US-comeback with the Rob Schneider
Rob Schneider
Robert Michael "Rob" Schneider is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, and director. A stand-up comic and veteran of the NBC sketch-comedy series Saturday Night Live, Schneider has gone on to a successful career in feature films, including starring roles in the comedy films Deuce Bigalow:...

-comedy The Chosen One (2009); cameraman Rogier Stoffers, who shot a number of US box office hits in the 2000s, most notably Disturbia
Disturbia (film)
Disturbia is a 2007 American thriller film directed by D. J. Caruso and executive produced by Ivan Reitman. It is an updated version of Alfred Hitchcock's classic film Rear Window...

; tall man Carel Struycken
Carel Struycken
Carel Struycken is a Dutch film, television, and stage actor. He is best known for playing Mr. Homn on the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation and Lurch in the films The Addams Family and Addams Family Values...

, whose physique landed him the parts of Lurch in Barry Sonnenfeld
Barry Sonnenfeld
Barry Sonnenfeld is an American filmmaker and television director. He worked as cinematographer for the Coen brothers, then later he directed and produced big budget films such as Men in Black.-Life and career:...

's The Addams Family
The Addams Family (film)
The Addams Family is a 1991 American black comedy film based on the characters from the cartoon of the same name created by cartoonist Charles Addams....

 films and The Giant
The Giant (Twin Peaks)
The Giant is a character from the television series Twin Peaks, created by David Lynch and Mark Frost. He is played by Carel Struycken.The Giant appears to FBI agent Dale Cooper in visions, first right after Cooper has been shot in his hotel room...

 in Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks is an American television serial drama created by David Lynch and Mark Frost. The series follows the investigation headed by FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper , of the murder of a popular teenager and homecoming queen, Laura Palmer...

; Jany Temime was costume designer on the last three Harry Potter films
Harry Potter (film series)
The Harry Potter film series is a British-American film series based on the Harry Potter novels by the British author J. K. Rowling...

, In Bruges
In Bruges
In Bruges is a 2008 black comedy crime film written and directed by Martin McDonagh. The film stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson as two hitmen in hiding, with Ralph Fiennes as their gangster boss. The film takes place—and was filmed—within the Belgian city of Bruges. In Bruges was...

 and Children of Men; Arjen Tuiten, a special make-up effects artist working for the Stan Winston Studio, with El Laberinto del fauno as one of his prominent credits; Dutch born costume designer Elsa Zamparelli, who received an Oscar nomination for Dances with Wolves
Dances with Wolves
Dances with Wolves is a 1990 epic western film directed by and starring Kevin Costner. It is a film adaptation of the 1988 book of the same name by Michael Blake and tells the story of a Union Army Lieutenant who travels to the American frontier to find a military post, and his dealings with a...

.

Acclaimed Dutch directors

  • Theo van Gogh
    Theo van Gogh (film director)
    Theodoor "Theo" van Gogh was a Dutch film director, film producer, columnist, author and actor.Van Gogh worked with the Somali-born writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali to produce the film Submission, which criticized the treatment of women in Islam and aroused controversy among Muslims...

    , independent filmmaker, assassinated 2004, noted for controversial, actor-driven films
  • Nouchka van Brakel
    Nouchka van Brakel
    Nouchka van Brakel is a Dutch film director known for her 1982 movie Van de koele meren des doods. That movie, and a movie about Eve and a documentary about Mary, established her as an important Dutch feminist film director...

    , feminist film director
  • Cyrus Frisch
    Cyrus Frisch
    Cyrus Frisch is a Dutch avant-garde filmmaker.Filmmaker Magazine called him the wild man of Dutch film. According to Holland Film Frisch is one of the most daring filmmakers currently working in Holland....

    , the "enfant terrible" of Dutch cinema
  • Marleen Gorris
    Marleen Gorris
    Marleen Gorris is a writer-director from the Netherlands. Gorris is known as an outspoken feminist and supporter of gay and lesbian issues which is reflected in much of her work....

    , Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
    Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
    The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is one of the Academy Awards of Merit, popularly known as the Oscars, handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...

    -winner
  • Bert Haanstra
    Bert Haanstra
    Bert Haanstra was a Dutch film and documentary director.Haanstra was born in the town of Holten and became a professional filmmaker in 1947. He won international acclaim with his short documentary Spiegel van Holland / Mirror of Holland, for which he received the Grand Prix du court métrage at the...

    , Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject
    Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject
    This is a list of films by year that have received an Oscar together with the other nominations for best documentary short subject. Following the Academy's practice, the year listed for each film is the year of release: the awards are announced and presented early in the following year.-1940s:*1941...

    -winner
  • Joris Ivens
    Joris Ivens
    Joris Ivens was a Dutch documentary filmmaker and committed communist.-Early life and career:...

    , influential documentary-maker
  • Martin Koolhoven
    Martin Koolhoven
    Martin Koolhoven is a Dutch film director and screenwriter.Born as Martinus Wouter Koolhoven, Koolhoven graduated from Dutch film school in 1996 and almost immediately made an impact on the Dutch film industry with his 53 minute television film Duister Licht in which the slaughtering of a pig was...

    , contemporary auteur director
    Auteur theory
    In film criticism, auteur theory holds that a director's film reflects the director's personal creative vision, as if they were the primary "auteur"...

     who crossed over to mainstream films in the 2000s
  • Pieter Kuijpers
    Pieter Kuijpers
    Pieter Kuijpers is a Dutch film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor.-Films:*Darkling *Godforsaken *The Archives *Off Screen...

    , contemporary crime/thriller director
  • Nanouk Leopold
    Nanouk Leopold
    Nanouk Leopold is a Dutch film maker. She graduated from Dutch film school in 1997, starting off by making films for Dutch television...

    , contemporary arthouse director
  • Joram Lürsen
    Joram Lürsen
    Joram Lürsen is a Dutch film and television director.Lürsen graduated from the Netherlands Film and Television Academy in Amsterdam in 1990 with his film De Finales...

    , director of recent family oriented box office hits
  • Dick Maas
    Dick Maas
    Dick Maas is Dutch film director, screenwriter, film producer and movie music composer.He achieved national fame after the success of the movies De Lift, Amsterdamned and Flodder.-Shorts:* Adelbert* De overval...

    , director of four consecutive local blockbusters in the 1980s and 1990s
  • Tim Oliehoek, young action-film director
  • Fons Rademakers, Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
    Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
    The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is one of the Academy Awards of Merit, popularly known as the Oscars, handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...

    -winner
  • Jos Stelling
    Jos Stelling
    Jos Stelling is a Dutch film director and screenwriter. He has directed 12 films, and is working on his new film The Girl and Death, in which Dutch actress Sylvia Hoeks will play the lead role....

    , artfilm director
  • Eddy Terstall, Amsterdam-based auteur director
    Auteur theory
    In film criticism, auteur theory holds that a director's film reflects the director's personal creative vision, as if they were the primary "auteur"...

     of sharp, dialogue driven comedies
  • Jean van der Velde (director), popular director of mainstream films
  • Paul Verhoeven, successful and often controversial Hollywood director
  • Alex van Warmerdam
    Alex van Warmerdam
    Alex van Warmerdam is a Dutch screenwriter, film director, and actor. He is also a painter.-Biography:He was cofounder of the theatre group Hauser Orkater . In 1980 he founded the theatre group De Mexicaanse Hond , together with his brother Marc van Warmerdam...

    , writer-director of absurdist magic realism
    Magic realism
    Magic realism or magical realism is an aesthetic style or genre of fiction in which magical elements blend with the real world. The story explains these magical elements as real occurrences, presented in a straightforward manner that places the "real" and the "fantastic" in the same stream of...

     films

Acclaimed Dutch films

, the top-15 most visited Dutch films since 1945 were:
  1. Turks Fruit
    Turkish Delight (film)
    Turkish Delight is a 1973 Dutch film directed by Paul Verhoeven and filmed by Jan de Bont. The film is a love story of an artist and a young woman, starring Rutger Hauer and Monique van de Ven. The story is based on the novel Turks fruit by Jan Wolkers...

    (Turkish Delight, 1973) - 3,328,804
  2. Fanfare
    Fanfare (film)
    Fanfare is a 1958 Dutch comedy film directed by Bert Haanstra. It was entered into the 1959 Cannes Film Festival.-Cast:* Hans Kaart - Geursen* Bernhard Droog - Krijns* Ineke Brinkman - Marije* Wim Van den Heuvel - Douwe* Andrea Domburg - Lies...

    (1958) - 2,635,178
  3. Ciske de Rat (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
    Flodder
    Flodder is a 1986 Dutch comedy film written and directed by Dick Maas, and distributed by First Floor Features. It is the first film in the Flodder franchise and is followed by two more films and a spin-off series...

    (1986) - 2,313,701
  7. Keetje Tippel
    Katie Tippel
    Katie Tippel is a 1975 film by Paul Verhoeven. The film is based on the memoirs of Neel Doff and was the most expensive Dutch film produced up to that time...

    (Katie Tippel, 1975) - 1,829,116
  8. Alleman
    Alleman (film)
    The Human Dutch is a 1963 Dutch documentary film directed by Bert Haanstra. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature...

    (1963) - 1,664,645
  9. Ciske de Rat (1984) - 1,593,311
  10. Soldaat van Oranje
    Soldier of Orange
    Soldier of Orange is a 1977 Dutch film directed by Paul Verhoeven and produced by Rob Houwer, starring Rutger Hauer and Jeroen Krabbé. The film is set during the German occupation of the Netherlands during World War II, and shows how individual students have different roles in the war...

    (Soldier of Orange, 1977) - 1,547,183
  11. Flodder in Amerika
    Flodder in Amerika
    Flodders in America is a 1992 Dutch comedy film directed by Dick Maas. The film is the sequel of the successful film Flodder from 1986. It was filmed on location in New York and stars Dutch actors Huub Stapel, Nelly Frijda, Tatjana Simic, Rene van 't Hof, Lou Landre and American actor Jon Polito...

    (1992) - 1,493,873
  12. De Overval
    De Overval
    De Overval is a 1962 Dutch film directed by Paul Rotha. It shows a true story from World War II: the raid on Leeuwarden prison of December 8th, 1944. Without firing a shot, Dutch resistance members disguised as German SD and their prisoners enter the prison, free 39 prisoners and vanish into the...

     
    (The Silent Raid, 1962) - 1,474,306
  13. Alles is Liefde
    Alles is Liefde
    Alles is Liefde is a 2007 romantic comedy film , directed by Joram Lürsen, starring Carice van Houten, Paul de Leeuw, Wendy van Dijk, and Daan Schuurmans.-Plot:...

    (Love Is All, 2007) 1,292,682
  14. Een Koninkrijk voor een Huis
    A Kingdom For a Horse
    A Kingdom For a Horse or Een Koninkrijk voor een huis is a 1949 Dutch comedy film directed by Jaap Speyer.-Cast:*Heintje Davids ... Heintje Blom *Johan Kaart ... Kobus Blom...

    (A Kingdom For a Horse, 1949) 1,291,728
  15. Kruimeltje
    Little Crumb
    Little Crumb is a 1999 Dutch film directed by Maria Peters. It was the Netherlands' submission to the 73rd Academy Awards for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but was not accepted as a nominee.-Cast:*Ruud Feltkamp - Kruimeltje...

    (Little Crumb, 1999) 1,136,054

Academy Awards nominations and wins

The winning films are marked with blue in this list of Academy Award nominated films.
Year Film title Award category
1942 High Stakes in the East Documentary
1959 Glass
Glass (film)
Glass is a 1958 Dutch short documentary film by director and producer Bert Haanstra. The film won the Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject in 1959. The entire film is about the glass bottle industry.-External links:*...

(Glas)
Documentary Short Subject
Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject
This is a list of films by year that have received an Oscar together with the other nominations for best documentary short subject. Following the Academy's practice, the year listed for each film is the year of release: the awards are announced and presented early in the following year.-1940s:*1941...

1959 The Village on the River
The Village on the River
The Village on the River is a 1958 Dutch film directed by Fons Rademakers. The film was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 32nd Academy Awards.-Cast:*Max Croiset ... Dr. Van Taeke*Mary Dresselhuys ... Mrs. Van Taeke...

(Dorp aan de rivier)
Best Foreign Language Film
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is one of the Academy Awards of Merit, popularly known as the Oscars, handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...

1962 Big City Blues Live Action Short Film
Academy Award for Live Action Short Film
This name for the Academy Award for Live Action Short Film was introduced in 1974. For the three preceding years it was known as "Short Subjects, Live Action Films." The term "Short Subjects, Live Action Subjects" was used from 1957 until 1970. From 1936 until 1956 there were two separate...

1962 Pan Live Action Short Film
1964 The Human Dutch
Alleman (film)
The Human Dutch is a 1963 Dutch documentary film directed by Bert Haanstra. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature...

(Alleman)
Documentary Feature
Academy Award for Documentary Feature
The Academy Award for Documentary Feature is among the most prestigious awards for documentary films.- Winners and nominees:Following the Academy's practice, films are listed below by the award year...

1967 Sky over Holland Live Action Short Film
1971 Adventures in Perception
Adventures in Perception
Adventures in Perception is a 1971 Dutch short documentary film directed by Han Van Gelder. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short., and won the Best Short Film on Art at the 1971 Cork Film Festival. It is a study on the works of M. C. Escher...

Documentary Short Subject
1972 Ape and Super-Ape
Ape and Super-Ape
Ape and Super-Ape is a 1972 Dutch documentary film directed by Bert Haanstra. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.-About the film:...

(Bij de beesten af)
Documentary Feature
1972 This Tiny World
This Tiny World
This Tiny World is a 1972 short documentary film produced by Charles Huguenot van der Linden. It won an Academy Award in 1973 for Documentary Short Subject....

(Deze kleine wereld)
Documentary Short Subject
1973 Turkish Delight
Turkish Delight (film)
Turkish Delight is a 1973 Dutch film directed by Paul Verhoeven and filmed by Jan de Bont. The film is a love story of an artist and a young woman, starring Rutger Hauer and Monique van de Ven. The story is based on the novel Turks fruit by Jan Wolkers...

(Turks fruit)
Best Foreign Language Film
1978 Oh My Darling Animated Short Film
Academy Award for Animated Short Film
The Academy Award for Animated Short Film is an award which has been given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as part of the Academy Awards every year since the 5th Academy Awards, covering the year 1931-32, to the present....

1986 Anna & Bella
Anna & Bella
Anna & Bella is a 1984 animated short film from the Netherlands. At the 58th Academy Awards, Anna & Bella won an Oscar for Best Short Film . The film runs 8 minutes. It was directed by Børge Ring, and its cast includes Tonny Huurdeman as the voices of Anna and of Bella...

Animated Short Film
1986 The Assault
The Assault (film)
The Assault is a 1986 film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Harry Mulisch. The film was directed and produced by Fons Rademakers...

(De aanslag)
Best Foreign Language Film
1995 Antonia's Line (Antonia) Best Foreign Language Film
1997 Character
Character (1997 film)
Character is a 1997 Dutch/Belgian film, based on the best-selling novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk and directed by Mike van Diem. The film won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 70th Academy Awards...

(Karakter)
Best Foreign Language Film
1999 3 Misses Animated Short Film
2000 Father and Daughter
Father and Daughter (film)
Father and Daughter is a 2000 Dutch animated short film, made by Michaël Dudok De Wit. It won the 2000 Academy Award for Animated Short Film....

Animated Short Film
2002 Hotel Paraiso
Zus & Zo
Zus & Zo is a 2001 Dutch film directed by Paula van der Oest. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film....

(Zus & zo)
Best Foreign Language Film
2003 Twin Sisters (De tweeling) Best Foreign Language Film
Source: The Official Academy Awards Database.

Film festivals

See also: List of film festivals in the Netherlands


There are three large film festival
Film festival
A film festival is an organised, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theaters or screening venues, usually in a single locality. More and more often film festivals show part of their films to the public by adding outdoor movie screenings...

s in the Netherlands:
  • The International Film Festival Rotterdam
    International Film Festival Rotterdam
    The International Film Festival Rotterdam is an annual film festival held in various cinemas in Rotterdam, Netherlands held at the end of January. It is approximately comparable in size to other major European festivals such as Cannes, Venice, Berlin, and Locarno...

     (IFFR) is a film festival for independent, innovative and experimental cinema and visual arts. The international festival is held since 1972 in Rotterdam
    Rotterdam
    Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...

    . During the festival the Tiger Awards are awarded to starting filmmakers.
  • The Nederlands Film Festival (NFF) is since 1981 the annual film festival for Dutch film productions. The seven day festival is held in the end of September and early October in Utrecht
    Utrecht (city)
    Utrecht city and municipality is the capital and most populous city of the Dutch province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, and is the fourth largest city of the Netherlands with a population of 312,634 on 1 Jan 2011.Utrecht's ancient city centre features...

    . Dutch films from the previous year are shown, and the Golden Calves
    Golden Calf (award)
    The Golden Calf is the award of the Netherlands Film Festival, which is held annually in Utrecht. The award has been presented since 1981, originally in six categories: Best actor, Best actress, Best film, Best Short film, Culture Prize and Honourable mention...

     are awarded to the best films, best actors and best other crew members judged by an independent and professional jury.
  • The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) is world's largest documentary festival. It is held since 1988 in Amsterdam
    Amsterdam
    Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

    .

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).
  • The Beeld voor Beeld Festival in the Amsterdam Tropenmuseum
    Tropenmuseum
    The Tropenmuseum is an anthropological museum located in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and established in 1864.One of the largest museums in Amsterdam, the museum accommodates eight permanent exhibitions and an ongoing series of temporary exhibitions, including both modern and traditional visual...

     is a documentary film festival with a main focus on Ethnographic film
    Ethnographic film
    An ethnographic film is a documentary film related to the methods of ethnology. It emerged in the 1960s as an important tool for research in the domain of visual anthropology, when filming human groups in society...

    . Beeld voor Beeld is member of CAFFE - Coordinating Anthropological Film Festivals in Europe
    CAFFE - Coordinating Anthropological Film Festivals in Europe
    CAFFE stands for Coordinating Anthropological Film Festivals in Europe. It is an initiative geared towards better cooperation and communication between the existing anthropological film festivals in Europe....

    .

External links

  • Cinema Context: an encyclopedia of film culture in the Netherlands from 1896
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK