Leo Bankersen has been writing about film since Chinatown and Night of the Living Dead. Reviewed as a freelance film journalist for the GPD for a long time. Is now, among other things, one of the regular contributors to De Filmkrant. Likes to break a lance for children's films, documentaries and films from non-Western countries. Other specialities: digital issues and film education.
Watching the emotional pulse of the world live, designed as a screen full of dancing dots. That was possible last night at IDFA during the live cinema event, presented by internet artist Jonathan Harris.
Way back when fast food had just been invented
A bit decadent it was last night. In a festive mood with glass in hand to the kick-off of the 26th edition of the documentary festival IDFA in Tuschinski, and then an hour and a half of watching the fortunes of a group of Syrian rebels in the completely destroyed city of Homs.
"Children are the best judges of what makes a good children's film," a member of the Cinekid children's jury spoke confidently. There may be room for improvement on that, but the fact is that at the awards ceremony on the festive closing night of the Cinekid festival, there was remarkable agreement with the adult jury.
Not only did both juries nominate the same film twice
Are these the figures that will make it clear to Minister Kamp that incentives for the film industry really need to happen? That hope could be heard during the discussion of a report by Oxford Economics implemented research to the economic position of the Dutch film and av industry.
The Dutch film world has a new club. Dutch filmmakers can join the Dutch Academy For Film (DAFF). With the aim, in short, of raising the profile of Dutch cinema. The DAFF was founded on 24 June this year following the example of similar academies in, for example, England, Sweden, Denmark and Germany. A press conference at the Netherlands Film Festival
The Dutch Film Festival not only kicked off tonight with the slavery drama How expensive was the sugar, but also with the presentation of the first awards. Janina Pigaht received the Filmprijs van de Stad Utrecht, the award for best debut, for her documentary Diaries of an elephant. In it, Pigaht goes in search of SS past
It cannot have been a difficult choice. The feature film Borgman by Alex van Warmerdam had already made it through to the Cannes competition earlier this year. Now this dark, wry-comic thriller has been chosen as the Dutch entry for the 86th Academy Awards (the Oscars) in
With all the critical coverage of Russia that Putin and his supporters are provoking, we would almost forget that we are in the middle of the Netherlands-Russia year sitting. A screening of Paul Verhoeven's war film will take place tonight at the Pioner Gorky Park in Moscow Black Book, as a kick-off to
Paul Verhoeven, Dick Maas, Katja Schuurman, Monique van de Ven and Kim van Kooten are all special guests at the upcoming edition of the Dutch Film Festival. Nothing special, you might think, but if you see them on the festival posters you probably won't recognise them. After all, they are namesakes of well-known film personalities who this year
Monsters University provides merry summer entertainment in 3D from this week. Last week World War Z be viewed with 3D glasses. At the end of 2009, Avatar overwhelmingly clear: 3D was back never to leave. We are now almost four years on
For more than a decade, Alkmaar film theatre and stage Provadja - one of the oldest Dutch film houses - has been struggling with housing that is far too cramped. Plans have been made for over a decade and last night the city council voted on relocation. And thus chose an option that Provadja's board, staff and volunteers had already categorically rejected. Namely
Is it because of the ice age? Is it a question of money or guts? Last night, the Amsterdam cinema Het Ketelhuis hosted the so-called Spring Consultation for the tenth time.
Would Gilles Jacob, the director of the Cannes Film Festival, see it as a godsend or a knee-jerk reaction to American studios? That Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby Wednesday's opening film certainly means spectacle and a lot of attention. But it is not a world premiere,
A major frustration of the Dutch film world has come to an end. After 38 years, we again have a film in the main competition at Cannes. The new film by
The symposium on disturbed women in horror films held at the Imagine Festival this Sunday afternoon was actually quite a reassuring gathering. You don't have to be disturbed yourself to have a fascination with horror. At least you could infer that from
Yesterday, the long-awaited Film Summit was held. At this private meeting, ministers Bussemaker (OCW) and Kamp (Economic Affairs) met a large number of representatives of the film sector. The consultations covered
It will take some getting used to he clicking 'external review' on the Internet Movie Database no longer to come across Roger Ebert's name. This legendary critic
That almost all major US family films and many action films are in 3D is by now self-evident. But contrary to predictions
The big story of the 2013 Oscars, of course, is how underdog Argo eventually surpassed initially-dead favourite Lincoln. When Sunday night Ben Affleck picked up the statuette for best film, he did so not as director but as producer. He wasn't even nominated for the Oscar for best director, and that comes with a film that...
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the 2012 cinema year was that two completely different films were the biggest crowd-pleasers. First, the new James Bond Skyfall, of course, with almost 2 million visits. But that the number two (1.2 million) is a
Fifteen years after Peter Delpeuts Felice, Felice the International Film Festival Rotterdam gets another Dutch opening. The 42nd edition of this leading event will kick off on 23 January with the world premiere of The resurrection of an asshole by Guido van Driel, festival director Rutger Wolfson announced this afternoon.
Nice of course that Amour by Michael Haneke was not only crowned best film at the European Film Awards ceremony in Malta last night, but also received the director's prize and prizes for best actor and actress. But a bit boring is starting to become this paean to Haneke's latest. Enough of this, then.
Two opposites had emerged. Would the VPRO IDFA Award for best feature-length documentary go to a personally coloured auteur's film, or to a thoughtful account of a major issue? To Alan Berliner's remarkable portrait of Alzheimer's-affected poet Edwin Honig, or to Dror Moreh's fascinating insight into the Israeli secret service?
In John Appel's new documentary Wrong Time Wrong Place features survivors of the shooting on the Norwegian island of Utoya and the preceding bombing, which killed 77 people.
It is rare for the same film to receive both jury and (children's) audience awards at the Cinekid festival. But about the subtle and sparkling French animated film Ernest et Célestine everyone agreed this time. This story based on picture books by Belgian illustrator Gabrielle Vincent, who died in 2000, won a double award, making it this year's big winner. Ernest and Célestine are a bear and a mouse who have to find that their friendship is poorly understood in the bear and mouse world.
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