22/06/2007

"A great opportunity to quickly and easily finance Dutch films": such is the opinion of the Dutch Film Fund on the new financing scheme for Dutch films that officially debuted yesterday. Under the new rules, projects with at least 65% of their financing in place can ask the Dutch Film Fund to provide the remainder.

This year, a total of €11.8m is available for the "supplement regulation", while from 2008 €13m will be available each year. Producers are treated on a first come, first serve basis. It is separate from the other financing schemes of the Dutch Film Fund, for which about €7m is available for features each year.

The Dutch Film Fund opened the application for the regulation yesterday with a breakfast organised in collaboration with the Dutch Producers Union and already received requests for eleven projects for a total of just over €10.7m. The money will only be allocated after approval of the scheme by the European Commission, which should be forthcoming.

Projects that have already lined up for aid include IdtV’s Bride Flight, the new film from Twin Sisters director Ben Sombogaart; Robert Jan Westdijk’s love story Het echte leven from Motel Films; Fuworks’ comedy Spion van Oranje from director Tim Oliehoek; and Digna Sinke’s new arthouse project Atlantis, a Waterland Film & TV production.

In order to explain the new system and deal with the requests, the Dutch Film Fund has also revamped its website, which has already received positive reactions, with people judging the site "user friendly and accessible", according to the film fund. The site will also keep a record of which films have received funding under the new scheme.

The new regulation in part replaces the old “CV” regulation, which involved many parties and a lot of paperwork and was based on a tax rebate principle for private investors.