Netherlands Film Festival - nominations for Farewell and Bukowski

One of the most fascinating Dutch films to hit cinemas last year was Farewell By Ditteke Mensink. A romance in an airship flying around the world, and then constructed entirely from real archival footage. This miraculous and wonderful tour de force now has a chance to win a Golden Calf for best feature-length documentary.

These and other nominations for Golden Calfs were announced at the 30th Netherlands Film Festival's Talkshow last night.

The other nominated feature-length documentaries are The Player By John Appel and The Rainbow Warriors of Waiheke Island by Suzanne Raes. Appel's incisive study of the motivations of notorious gamblers, including his own father, had already been awarded best Dutch documentary at last year's International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. The Rainbow Warriors of Waiheke Island is a fine portrait of activists in retirement. The jury praised it as a "loving tribute, rich in archival material".

The jury, chaired by Pieter Broertjes, took the opportunity to highlight the strength of the Dutch documentary tradition, and warned of its imminent erosion by government austerity measures already taken and possibly yet to come.

Nominations for best short film went to Bukowski By Daan Bakker, The moon is broken by Arno Diericks and the visually mesmerising stop-motion animation Red-End and the Seemingly Symbiotic Society by Robin Noorda and Bethany de Forest. The already City of Utrecht award-winning Bukowski and The moon is broken, a clever mini-drama playing with fantasy and reality about saying goodbye, are both part of KORT! This is NTR's artistically highly successful short film programme, which is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year.

Nominated as best short documentary are: Drona & me By Catherine van Campen, Shades of Grey of Saskia van den Heuvel and Weapon of War By Femke van Velzen and Ilse van Velzen.

Chance to win the Golden Calf for best television film making Finnemans By Thomas Korthals Altes, Mum Sanne Vogel and Beri Shalmashi and Process By Jenneke Boeijink.

VPRO will report live on the Golden Calf awards ceremony on Friday 1 October from 20:30-21:55 on Nederland 3.