50 million euros. Perhaps that is the simplest way to sum up how the near future of Dutch cinema was looked at last night at Amsterdam's Het Ketelhuis cinema. More on that amount later.
Eye-catcher for this traditional spring meeting was a sculpture from the new Dutch hero epic Redbad. But things did not get that rough. It was called a debate night on burning issues in the film industry. Yet it hardly came to any real discussion among the panellists. The well-filled audience also kept remarkably quiet.
Main points were the stormy growth of video on demand (VOD) offerings, alongside film education and the levies proposed by the Culture Council.
Wasps' nest?
The new director of the Netherlands Film Festival obviously did not let himself be tempted to call the Dutch film world a hornet's nest. But at least it is a forest is where you quickly lose track between the trees. So it proved again. Many links, but no chain. That was the metaphor used by Pien Houthoff of Nijmegen's Lux cinema.
As a kick-off, we were introduced to two important new players. Orwa Nyrabia is this year's appointed new artistic director of the documentary festival IDFA. Silvia van der Heiden is the brand-new general director of the Netherlands Film Festival. She will have to deal with the tricky question of what kind of festival the Netherlands Film Festival actually wants to be.
New directors
But last night, unfortunately, they still kept their powder dry. Which was somewhat to be expected. Nyrabia had let me know beforehand that he thought it was still too early to comment specifically on the festival as we will see it in November. Van der Heiden's appointment is even more recent. She is in the middle of all kinds of introductory rounds. However, she did hint at strengthening the festival's function as a meeting place for professionals.
It is striking, by the way, when you put the two together like this, that they have completely different backgrounds. Van der Heiden comes from a marketing background, while the Syrian Nyrabia, who emigrated abroad, knows the documentary business inside out. He has been involved with IDFA before in various roles. The Return to Homs was the opening film of the festival in 2013.
Netflix times
But what was it really about. Although it wasn't worded exactly that way, it was all about how Dutch film should hold its own in Netflix times. In which film should be understood broadly, while Netflix symbolises that screening is fanning out across all kinds of digital media at an accelerated pace. Nice to know, by the way, that steadily growing rag sales are already starting to approach the cinema record.
Too bad there wasn't someone from market leader Netflix behind the table. But there were representatives from vod providers Pathé Thuis and the new, arthouse-lover-targeted Cinemember. Yes, the number of vod providers is showing stormy growth. The outsider may wonder whether this serves the consumer, but that suggestion found little resonance. Surely some see something in the future in a broad vod platform where you can simply find all providers/distributors on it. On the other hand, Rick Hartman of Cinemember does not expect a kind of Spotify for films. The structure for film distribution is more complicated than that for music.
It became most concrete on the issues that hooked into the Opinion of the Council for Culture for the audiovisual sector. Which states on its own website that "substantial measures" are needed to strengthen that sector. So that Dutch film remains afloat at a time when American films, companies like Netflix and foreign cinema groups (Pathe, Vue, Kinepolis) are calling the shots here. In doing so, the Council advocates, among other things, a single high-quality vod platform, more or less like the current NLZIET. Which, if I understand it correctly, is not quite the same as the currently much-discussed NPO Start Plus after all.
Charges and education
Two other pillars of the opinion are levies and media education. The latter sounds wildly idealistic to me. Of course I am in favour of film being as natural as books or other art in the cultural curriculum for schoolchildren, but will this really boost the Dutch cinema market share? Time will tell. In any case, Minister Van Engelshoven (in the audience) is keen on film education.
To be on the safe side (at least that's how I see it), the Council also mentions in the opinion quotas to be set for Dutch productions within cinema and online offerings. Quotas are controversial, we know, but nothing about this last night.
In addition, it wants to support production of high-quality films and series. 'Without a quality product, the industry cannot hold its own in the international supply.' Who would disagree.
Operators must dock
How does the Council intend to get more money for the production of those Dutch quality films, and for improved visibility of them? Levies. A word that is politically sensitive, but still. Following the example of other countries, the Council is thinking of a levy of 2 to 5 per cent of the turnover of all forms of exploitation of films and series. Yes, even Netflix would have to dock. Incidentally, Netflix is already funding a Dutch series to be produced by Pupkin Film.
Guido van Nispen, chairman of the council's audiovisual section, estimates that such levies could raise around €50 million annually. Just a quick check: that's about as much as the Film Fund's current budget.
At the moment, something similar exists on a much smaller scale, and it is called the VAT Covenant. Briefly, when VAT for cinemas went from 21 to 6 per cent a few years ago, it was decided to pass on a small part of that benefit to the Abraham Tuschinski Fund. That fund supports the production of larger audience films. Reason why not all film theatres are happy with this remittance, which benefits films they do not screen themselves. Gerard Huisman of Contact Film does not even participate in the covenant.
That objection is unlikely to apply to the Council's proposed levy, but that, in turn, is offset by the fact that, for example, vod operators already pay just 21 per cent VAT. Do they see anything in such an additional levy, was the question to delegates. No, was the short answer.
So, will that 50 million come? That is the key question for the coming year. Make a note of the date for the Autumn Consultation: 6 November. Boilerhouse director Alex de Ronde suggested that there might only have to be one guest behind the table then: OCW minister Ingrid van Engelshoven.
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