Actually a bit of a shame that Halina Reijn's provocative and widely acclaimed Babygirl had its official Dutch premiere just after the turn of the year. Otherwise, this expected audience hit would have been a wonderful eye-catcher when considering the 2024 cinema year. Now, at the presentation of the annual figures in Amsterdam's Pathé Tuschinski during the industry's New Year's reception, we had to make do with some more conventional reflections.
In a nutshell, the best-attended film was the Pixar animation Inside Out 2 with just under 1.4 million tickets sold. A deserved success for a film for young and old alike. Total cinema and movie theatre visits were over 29 million. 7% less than in 2023, but Dutch films actually did well. The market share increased from 14% to 17%.
Deferred US titles
This is partly due to postponed US blockbusters, as a result of prolonged strikes by US actors and screenwriters. Like, for example, Mission Impossible - The Final Reckoning, now pushed forward to 2025. Had that one taken to the canvases as planned in June 2024, 2024 would undoubtedly have looked different.
A comparison with other European countries shows that the Netherlands had the biggest dip in visits. Apparently, dependence on US product is greater here than elsewhere. France, for example, saw no decline.
Nevertheless, representatives of the Netherlands Association of Cinemas and Film Theatres (Boris van der Ham) and the distributors' organisation NVBI (Anne de Jong) felt that it was not that bad. De Jong noted that the industry had shown resilience and good cooperation in the Netherlands. Although there is still much to do. For instance, there are plans for a joint working group on promotion.
The year of the family film
NVBF board member Kassandra Dommisse, who explained the annual figures, called 2024 not only a year of resilience, but also the year of family films. Of the overall top 10, six were family films. Among Dutch films, there were nine of the top 20, along with a penchant for comedies. Actually surprising that the best-attended Dutch title precisely does not fit into this picture. Loverboy: Emotions Out by Cyriel Guds (376,754 visits) is a raw crime film set in the world of human trafficking in the Netherlands. A sequel is forthcoming. Incidentally, in the overall ranking, this title did not get higher than 15th place. Some modesty is in order.
Netherlands on the rise
Attendance for Dutch films this year was actually 20% more than last year. Which, as mentioned, will partly have to do with slightly less American competition. This can also be seen in the number of titles released. Compared to 2023, the total number of titles in cinemas and film theatres rose from 502 to 523. The number from the USA remained the same (146), Dutch production rose from 77 to 90.
Best of best visited
In addition to these figures, several lists of best-rated titles had of course been published by the end of 2024. Although this was not really discussed in Tuschinski, it is of course still nice to make a few comparisons. I base this on the results of a poll among some 50 Dutch film journalists who all submitted their top three (International and Dutch). Unsurprisingly, those results are quite different from the visitor numbers.
The best film according to film journalists was Jonathan Glazer's brilliant and unorthodox Holocaust drama The Zone of Interest. Widely followed by the surreal fantasy Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos) and the committed comedy Anora (Sean Baker) as numbers two and three. But none of these three made it into the top 20.
Looking only at the movie theatres, the picture looks different. There, the two highest-rated titles also attracted the most visitors. Only Anora drops to a humble 19th place there in terms of attendance. Ken Loach's The Old Oak ranks number three in terms of visits to film theatres. Dutch Oscar entry De terugreis - unfortunately not making the shortlist - is not doing badly here either. Number five based on attendance, number two (after Milk) in the film journalists' Best Dutch films list.
As already noted, the Netherlands had to drop out when the Oscar shortlist for best International title was determined, but there were a few successes I'd like to mention. No, not Babygirl, which is an American production. But Milk, Stefanie Kolk's feature debut, was nonetheless selected for Giornata degli autori in Venice. Ineke Houtman's Book of All Things was awarded best film at the important youth film festival Schlingel, and Nina Gantz's short stop-motion animation Wander to Wonder has already received 39 international awards in addition to a Golden Calf.
Silver Rose and Rose
As usual, the Jan Nijland Silver Rose and the incentive prize the Jan Nijland Silver Rose were presented at the end of the afternoon. Prizes intended for a person or body of great significance to the Dutch cinema world. The Zilveren Roos 2024 is for Leendert de Jong, who, as a programmer at Filmhuis Den Haag, made school from the 1980s onwards with a rich and very comprehensive cinema programming. An example for the arthouse section. Marieke Jonker was surprised with the Roosje. The jury praised her enthusiasm and inspiring work. 'Together with makers, exhibitors, distributors and other film enthusiasts, she always comes up with refreshing new ways for audiences to discover and cherish the cinema experience.
Jonker himself added: 'As gatekeepers, we determine what can be seen. Especially now that there is a lot going on, innovative and crazy ideas are needed.'
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