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Finding the FUN in FUNding

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- Report of a Dutch Cineaste who talks about experience in searching funds from the Dutch Film Fund.

Finding the FUN in FUNding – report of a Dutch Cineaste So there we were, as a collective, sitting in a comfy leather chair in a posh brownstone house located in the Amstrerdam’s Zuid district, nervously waiting for our turn to talk with the Dutch Film Fund.
The beaming smiles of Achmed Akkabi and starlet Georgina Verbaan almost blinded us in their Colgate cleanliness, while the phrase: Made with the support of the Dutch Film Fund! kept drawing our attention. The film was vapid teenybopper crap. Then, all five of us are ushered into the inner sanctum of the Film fund to defend our request for a pile of dough to organize our fresh-faced animation festival.
We believed our chances were not too shabby: the Dutch Film Fund co-initiated a study on the state of Dutch animation that concluded the Netherlands was clearly lacking in platforms for animation. It also didn’t hurt that we rigorously picked apart and put together our request over the course of several months, until we were sure it would stand any test.

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“Why, there’s a whole lot of you!” exclaimed a jolly member of the Film Fund. “So what’s his request all about?” he asked jovially, leafing through the pages. Clearly, this was the first time he said eyes on it. We were slightly flabbergasted, to say the least. We animatedly stated our case and did our best to prove that we were not some Mickey Mouse organization.
At a certain point, the jovial member asked us: “ So what is the cinematographic worth of your festival?” while we argued vehemently bout the need for a platform for all those brilliant, unseen animated films, the blinking teeth of Achmed and Georgina still seemed to mock us on the way out.
We received a taken sum to pay drink away t the opening party.

An anonymous Dutch Cineaste

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