Of the nineteen projects presented within the New Dutch, Stories & Beyond and BoostNL categories, the majority are fiction features with the subprogramme Stories & Beyond placing special emphasis on Dutch genre films this year. Additionally, one project this year is a creative documentary, and one is a feature-length animation. 

New Dutch Selection 
New Dutch is a curated selection of the most exciting new projects from the Netherlands whose production teams will receive a tailor-made trajectory best suited to their individual goals, wishes and needs. This year eight projects are earmarked for bespoke creative and business mentorship as they eye up their immersion into the marketplace and their eventual roll-out to (inter)national audiences.

Head of Professionals & Talent Sterre de Jong reflects: “From 2023 onwards, we will put our program “New Dutch” front and center in showcasing the best of what the Netherlands and Dutch-speaking territories like Curaçao and Flanders have to offer. We will focus not only on the potential for co-production or sales but also on incorporating international feedback to make a bigger splash in global waters for the Dutch film industry."

In Marcel Visbeen’s Alles komt goed (De Productie), a social worker faces an existential dilemma when his father asks for help with his self-appointed death. Finn Szumlas’ Stairway to Earth (Goldman Film & Phanta Film) is a love story about a Polish woman who is afraid to tell her Dutch lover that she is carrying his child. An Other Green World, directed by Jesse van der Kolk and produced by Jelmer Wristers (No End Cinema), tells the story of an impoverished 19th Century Dutch farmer who migrates with his family to Brazil's uninhabited inland, only to lose everything. Abdelkarim El-Fassi’s Porte Bagage concerns a dysfunctional family whose members undertake a nostalgic road trip to Morocco. Kristen Dania & Ralph Winedt’s Mester Muri is a Curaçao/Spanish project about a young man who decides to navigate the complexities of his emotions. In the Dutch/Bangladeshi Her Name Was Laboni, produced by Loretta van der Horst, documentary photojournalist Claudio Montesano Casillas retraces the life of a victim of the infamous 2013 Rana Plaza collapse in Bangladesh. The Belgian/Dutch project 24 Strong by Rieneke Van Santen, produced by Kristian Van der Heyden (Harald House) is a feature documentary that dives into female driven independent investigative media in Papua New Guinea, a poverty-ridden country with the highest rate of gender based violence. Boni, a story based on facts by director Edson da Conceiçao (winner HFM Script development Award 2022) and Timo Ottevanger, tells the tale of Boni, who frees slaves by raiding plantations in the Amazon jungle. 

BoostNL Selection 
BoostNL, the tailor-made professional programme run in collaboration with Dutch partner festival IFFR presents six projects. Three projects from The Netherlands, and three more from Peru, France/India and Colombia supported by IFFR's Hubert Bals Fund. The selected projects begin their five-month training trajectory in Utrecht and conclude in Rotterdam in January/February 2024. The programme places particular emphasis on script and story development and helps develop festival, sales and marketing strategies for optimal business returns.  

Student Oscar-winning producer Loes Komen (Room for Film), Eva Verweij and director Mischa Kamp will present the drama Jasmine, about a woman whose life is turned upside down when she discovers she is pregnant. Producers Iris Lammertsma and Boudewijn Koole (Witfilm) are present with Cindy Jansen’s tale of father/son compulsion and tragedy, Clockwork Universe. Shamira Raphaëla’s drama Awa - The sea between us is produced by Michel Drenthe & Robin Amatmoester (Caribbean Filmcom N.V.). In the film, the dreamy adolescent Joshua, a boy mourning the death of his grandfather, makes a personal sacrifice for a desperate, stranded Venezuelan refugee. Further afield, the Peruvian A Tied Woman, by Olivia Manrufo & Miguel Angel Moulet, speaks of a nurse’s duty set against a backdrop of mass sterilization carried out by the Peruvian government. Ashmita Guha Neogi’s Cold Ashes Can Cause Forest Fires (France/India) is produced by Salt for Sugar Films. In the film, the tender friendship between teenage girls Uma and Kali is imperiled when the hidden secrets of the adults are revealed. In Colombian María Cristina Pérez’s animated feature Mi papá el camion a clumsy countryman travels to the city with his daughter and pig to pursue his dream of being a truck driver. 

Stories & Beyond Selection 
Five Dutch genre projects are selected for Stories & Beyond. The section offers the maximum opportunity for screenwriters and filmmakers at the early stages of development and production to explore the international potential of their projects and obtain feedback and advice from key creative and industry professionals. 

In Herbert Alfonso’s .Nevel, produced by Cabon Content, a suicidal writer believes he is trapped in a poem that is bigger than life itself. Meanwhile David-Jan Bronsgeest’s Meet Jimmy, written and produced by Tim Koomen of Bloodrave, is a feature version of the director’s terrifying 2018 short film of the same name. In David Verbeek’s The Thief's Mantra, produced by Wout Conijn, a thief reflects upon his life from a time in future. Meanwhile, Erik de Bruyn’s Keelin’s Return, is produced by Rianne Poodt of production company The Rogues. In Jan Doense’s horror Lily, scripted by Nathalie Pagie and produced by Annemiek van der Hell of Windmill Film, a woman looks to save her possessed daughter.  
 
More about the Holland Film Meeting
Since 1998 the Holland Film Meeting has been considered one of Europe’s must-attend co-production, showcasing and development events, and generally acknowledged as an essential hub for the formation of strong ties between the Dutch and international film industries, as well as strengthening the Dutch audiovisual industry.

Click here to read about the entire 2023 selection.