10/08/2010

René Wolf is the head of acquisitions at EYE Film Institute Netherlands, formerly Filmmuseum (the Dutch cinémathèque).

Cineuropa: How would you describe the position of EYE as a distributor in the Netherlands?
René Wolf: The Eye Film Institute is an archive, exhibitor and distributor in one. We have a collection of about 35,000 titles from the early days of cinema till the present. Distribution is an important tool to make sure that this collection has it’s own face. Since there’s no legal deposit in our country, except for Dutch movies made with government support, we depend on what distributors and producers give us. Preservation, restoration, acquisition and distribution give us the possibility to have the collection develop in such a way that it distinguishes itself from foreign archives. By buying classic films, we sometimes fill in gaps or strengthen already strong points.

With new films we do more or less the same: We buy titles of important directors but also try to discover new talent. Our position is foremost supplementary. A lot, 75 to 80 percent of what we distribute, wouldn’t have a theatrical release without our support. We don’t want to compete with other distributors: if they want to release a title, we can redirect our attention to other films that otherwise wouldn’t be released.

What, if anything, has changed since Filmmuseum became part of EYE Film Institute?
Not so much. We continue to do what we did, but the field has expanded to Dutch experimental films because of our merging with Filmbank. We try to attach more of the experimental shorts to features. The merger with NIF (Institute for Film Education) can help us give more context to releases through info sheets, lectures etc. Also, we might expand our field to children’s films.

What characterises an EYE title?
It’s a movie directed by a real “cinema auteur”. You should be able to experience why the director has chosen the medium cinema to express him or herself; it has to be interesting both in form and content. We prefer to distribute titles that show that the director tries to explore new ways of cinematic expression.

What kind of films seem to work well with Dutch audiences?
I'm sorry to say that even arthouse audiences go more and more for feel-good movies and don’t want to be challenged. Festival awards, good reviews, famous stars – although the latter are hardly present in our distribution titles – are important, but not a guarantee for success. So in our marketing we try to find in each title what could possibly attract the audience. We try to get opinion makers interested in certain movies at an early stage and have them spread the word. We often try to give an individual title a context that will help it get more attention. This could be through a combination with the director’s other work, or a challenging combination with archival material. Or we try to have a well-known person that likes the movie do introductions or give lectures.

How do the Netherlands compare to Europe when it comes to distributing arthouse titles?
The Dutch aren’t a very cinephile audience. There is not much hunger to discover something new. This makes it difficult to release arthouse movies. It’s also very hype sensitive: if something is successful it will be very successful, such as our releases Russian Ark [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Best of Youth [+see also:
trailer
film profile]. Word of mouth is very important. On the other hand we have a wonderful infrastructure for arthouse titles. This gives them a much longer life than in certain countries where there is no alternative circuit available.