05/10/2009

The Netherlands Film Festival in Utrecht came to a close on Friday night with the awards ceremony of the Golden Calves, the Dutch national film prizes.

The big winner of the night was Dutch/Irish co-production Nothing Personal [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Urszula Antoniak
interview: Urszula Antoniak
film profile], which already won several awards at Locarno in August. In Utrecht, Polish-born Urszula Antoniak’s debut feature went home with the gold in the Best Film, Best Director, Best Cinematography and Best Sound Design categories.

Nothing Personal stars Lotte Verbeek and Stephen Rea as two lost souls in the Irish wilderness. The film, which had been nominated seven times, will be released in the Netherlands December 17, courtesy of Cinema Delicatessen.

The film that went in with most nominations, the WWII tale Winter in Wartime [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] from director Martin Koolhoven, went home with statues for Best Production Design, Best Supporting Actor (Raymond Thiry) and Best Actor for 16-year-old newcomer Martijn Lakemeier.

The third big winner of the night was the intimate drama Can Go Through Skin [+see also:
film review
film profile] from debut director Esther Rots. The film won Golden Calves for Best Actress (Rifka Lodeizen), Best Editing and a Special Jury Award.

Best Supporting Actress went to Pleuni Touw in the historical romance-drama Bride Flight [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ben Sombogaart
interview: Hanneke Niens
film profile], while writer-director Alex van Warmerdam was awarded the Best Screenplay nod for The Last Days of Emma Blank [+see also:
interview: The Last Days of Emma Blank…
film profile], which premiered in Venice (see news).

The historical disaster film The Storm [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] went in with nominations in only minor categories and left the Golden Calves gala empty-handed, while the Dutch Oscar submission The Silent Army [+see also:
film review
film profile] did not even score a single nomination.

Upstream, the directorial debut of Danyael Sugawara, also missed out on any nominations but was awarded the festival’s Audience Award. The Critics’ Prize went to the little-seen documentary Boris Ryzhy from director Aliona van der Horst.

This year’s jury was chaired by scholar Ido Abram and composed of editors Jan Bosdriesz and Jan Dop, producer Annemiek van Gorp, actress Nadja Hüpscher, cinematographer Claire Pijman and director Robert Jan Westdijk.