Film financing on the rocks, #MeToo is just the beginning, three stars for best film critic and more burning issues. (All about the film industry's Autumn Consultation)

Finally, we now know who the highest-rated Dutch film critic is. Every week, film critics hand out their stars to films, but let's turn that around for once. So Alex de Ronde, director of Amsterdam cinema Het Ketelhuis, asked the Dutch film industry to give their verdict on the reviewers. The result was announced last night at the end of the Autumn Consultation.

Of course, there was more on the agenda of this annual debate evening organised by The Ketelhuis. This time, the panel scrutinising a number of burning issues consisted of Filmfonds director Doreen Boonekamp, Pien Houthoff (director of Filmtheater Lux), Winnie Sorgdrager (president of the Dutch Association of Cinemas and Film Theatres, Pathé manager Maarten Fluit and film producer Marc van Warmerdam.

Issues: film attendance and #MeToo

As a warm-up, a look back at the past film year, which was mostly a year of little change. Most notable was the stormy rise of #MeToo, which also reached the Netherlands. Hence, De Ronde had invited NRC editor Joyce Roodnat to devote the traditional spoken column to it.

Although the task was to finally get the very last word on #MeToo saying, Roodnat did the opposite. "It has only just begun." To also remind us that we owe this breaking of silence to Hollywood, and that it is certainly not a new prude. Shot through? Witch-hunting? None of that. "It's about aggression from men who are too lazy to jerk off." But brilliant films like Annie Hall or The Graduate she just keeps enjoying it, even if the directors turn out not to have been neat. Ironically, The Graduate About a young man who is forced upon the sexual advances of an older woman.

To which a voice from the audience added that it is good that #MeToo now also going to hit Trump.

Back to Dutch film. The concerns expressed last year have not been dispelled. Although the market share in the first three quarters of 2017 was slightly higher than the year before, not a single title passed the 400,000-attendance mark (Platinum Film). This is despite the steady expansion in the number of cinema screens in the Netherlands. There are just under 50 canvases again in 2017, increasing the number of canvases by some 40 % over the past decade.

Issue: cinema war?

Among other things, this raised the question of whether there is sometimes a real cinema war between the three big groups Pathé, Kinepolis and Vue. All three are foreign-owned, by the way. In the regions of Twente and Arnhem-Nijmegen, they face each other and there is stiff competition. Maarten Fluit refuted suggestions that Pathé's figures were under pressure, saying that he certainly did not want to call the competition a "war". According to him, increasing urbanisation means there is still room for new construction and they are all healthy companies.

It's a pity though that only Pathé was on the panel, because I would have liked to hear other, or more independent opinions. Now both Fluit and Houthoff thought it was an excellent decision by the Arnhem city council to stop Euroscoop coming there, but what would the latter itself think?

Indeed, cinema density is higher in several European countries (Germany, France) than in the Netherlands, so that seems to prove the expanders right. But Sorgdrager did note that cinema occupancy rates are getting smaller. A limit will be reached somewhere, but when?

Issue: funding on the rocks

More discussion, though not always illuminating, was around the main issue of the evening. What will film funding look like next year?

To be sure, I asked Boonekamp afterwards how, all things considered, the total amount of film subsidies and funds was doing. That is going up she assured.

That said, the discussion revealed that film producers are anxious and even angry about the fact that two subsidy schemes are being scrapped. These are the Film Fund's supplementary scheme and the cinema-fuelled Abraham Tuschinski Fund (ATF). The former means automatic money for producers who have achieved more than 150,000 admissions with a previous film. But, Boonekamp argued, that this scheme is being phased out comes as no surprise. It is the result of government cutbacks from several years ago. Moreover, she assured, the Fund will also continue to support public film. A replacement scheme will have some selection of content, though. Among other things, to ensure sufficient diversity in Dutch film.

Issue: money must flow back

The ATF was established when the VAT rate for cinemas went down from 21 to 6 per cent. From the benefit of this, cinemas made 10% available to Dutch film productions through the ATF. Again, like the supplementary fund, this is an automatic allocation that benefited around 30 films annually. That will be reduced to a maximum of 10 titles a year in the new formula. The details are still being hammered out and you shouldn't disturb a brooding hen, says Boonekamp. On balance, the ATF's budget does go up. From every ticket sold, not 0.10 but 0.15 euros will go to production. Yes, in this way the film theatres will also help to finance public films they do not show themselves.

From the audience, producer San Fu Maltha expressed annoyance at all the secrecy. He fears the threshold for awarding will be too high.

Issue: more money for fewer films?

A key word in all this is the concept of dilution. Some believe that it is not a good development when more and more films get smaller and smaller amounts of money. Last year already announced the Film Fund's intention to spend more money on fewer films, in order to give Dutch cinema a quality boost. However, Maltha believes that the positive effect of more money for fewer films is unproven. Van Warmerdam, speaking emphatically in a personal capacity here, argued that nothing is more stimulating than an automatic contribution you have earned yourself. Even if it is little. But for a documentary filmmaker, 5000 euros can already help tremendously in getting something off the ground.

How do you ensure that not only cinemas and distributors, but also producers benefit from what Dutch film viewers spend at the box office? Will Dutch cinema also benefit from all these new canvases, for instance through longer runs?

Boonekamp would like us not to get bogged down in partial schemes and would like to see more consistency in the industry. To throw a quick cudgel into the henhouse at the last minute, with a suggestion that we should also think about the 40% percentage of receipts that cinemas have been handing over as film rentals, which has been unchanging for years. Could there be a breakthrough there one day?

Issue: best critic

Yes, and then the verdict on Dutch film critics. 128 respondents handed out their stars. At the top of the rankings (published on the Boilerhouse website) are Dana Linssen (NRC) and Kees Driessen (Vrij Nederland), who both scored more than three out of the maximum five stars. Congratulations! Even if this does not say what exactly makes someone a good critic.