It’s becoming a yearly tradition! We will have a TAKEOVER from our neighbours: the NETHERLANDS FILM ACADEMY - CLASS OF 2019. Dutch Film Academy’s Director BART RÖMER will introduce this awesome batch of talent and film academy. We will also meet some of them and know more about: What drives them? How do they see their future? What's their contribution to Dutch film? and of course, are they rich and famous yet?
BODIL MATHEEUWSEN
Bodil's interest lies in writing small human drama, in a wayward way. Bodil closed her time at the Film Academy with two short films Porfotto (2019) and One Thing At A Time (2019) and a Virtual Reality project No Man’s Land (2019). She did an internship at the writers collective Winchester McFly. Bodil wants to further investigate her fascination for the horror genre and dreams of ever writing the almost perfect horror musical for the big screen.
DOUWE NAGELMAKER
Douwe wrote several films that dealt with socially involved topics such as euthanasia, PTSD and school shootings. He worked closely with director Lance Hossein Tangestani, with whom he graduated in the fourth year with the film Shalky (2019). His second graduation film is a visual effects film, Mania (2019), a visual representation of postnatal stress disorder.
Douwe prefers to move through multiple genres, depending on what the topic and the associated themes of a story require.
EDSON DA CONCEIÇÃO
Edson has a big fascination for personal stories. He is always looking for the story behind a person, so you can empathize with them. He believes that every character; good or bad, has its own truth. Edson directed the short film Final Stop (2018) in his third year. The film got selected for various Film Festivals. He just graduated with two short films: Mania (2019) and Porfotto (2019). Porfotto won, in his graduation year, the Topkapi prize for best fiction film.
MARLIES SMEENGE
Marlies’ films are characterized by their high empathic quality combined with a subtle comic and light tone. Her third-year documentary Anita’s Pack (2018) was shown at Makers van Morgen, and was selected from different festivals (Go Short, Docfest Maastricht, Mecal Pro Barcelona). She graduated as a documentary director with the slightly comic, observing documentary Heaven Awaits (2019).
PERLA VITA BEERENS
Perla has a love for characters and their mutual relationships. She wants nothing more than to offer a representation of a diverse street culture in the Netherlands, with influences from her Argentinian-Limburg background. She wrote the graduation film Ningyo (2019) and a long feature script about a tortured relationship between a fourteen-year-old girl and her mother ending in mother murder.
TIMO OTTEVANGER
Timo grew up in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, where he started his career in theatre. When he was 19 years old, he starred in the Dutch feature film Carmen of the North. Immediately, the magic of filmmaking drew him in. Soon after, he started to direct his own stories which brought him to the Netherlands Film Academy. He graduated with his film Ningyo (2019) and is now at the start of his career.
In our OFFICIAL SELECTION, you can watch and meet the teams of:
KRAUT GIRL
Directed by Raymon Hilkman | 17:31 | Live-Action
World War II has just finished. People are celebrating their independence. But not the family of Wies. She lives with her husband and two daughters and owns a grocery store. Her daughter Nellie got pregnant during the war by a German soldier. And now the family gets terrorised with hateful remarks and actions by their neighbours. Nellie's head even gets shaven on the streets. Wies tries whatever it takes to keep Nellie inside and make sure her business and family can keep going. But she has a hard time dealing with the shame. She's confronted by her own inability to accept her own daughter. She has to make a difficult choice: Live in shame or to choose for her daughter and grandchild.
ECHOING MEMORIES
Directed by Jefta Varwijk | 12:00 | Experimental
This film is a 12-minute flow of consciousness rummaging through old and new stories, sounds and images of a building key in dutch music lore. Situated in the historic centre of the city of Utrecht, it had a legendary status among music-stages in the Netherlands. From its violent inception to its closing in 2013, it was a whirlwind of the counterculture. Now that this legendary venue is set to be turned into a yuppie restaurant, this film goes all the way back, starting at the building's 800-year-old history. From its brick roots as a medieval monastery to centuries as an orphanage to headquarters for train workers during the industrial revolution. Interrupted by a short stay by the Nazi's, again it became a place for blue-collar Utrecht, until the local government unwisely let the building empty during the Punk and New Wave years: Punks and Squatters fought off riot police, rabid dogs and mounted riders to force their way into what came to be known as the legendary venue called Tivoli.
