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.
For his documentary on the refugee issue, Guido Hendrikx chose an unusual form. In a schoolroom in Sicily, a teacher played by an actor confronts the migrants with the hard facts about Europe.
The 2016 Autumn Consultation. This annual evening of debate around burning issues in the film industry revealed above all that the industry is far from being on the same page.
With Austerlitz, Sergei Loznitsa made a documentary about tourists in former concnetration camps that was as rigorous as it was unsettling. This year, he is guest of honour at IDFA and gave a master class there.
IDFA's tenth DocLab shows the state of the art in interactive documentaries, virtual reality and other media art. Juggle the artist's body or experience what it is like to be (colour) blind.
The much-discussed The Birth of a Nation about an American slave revolt gets a preview at two Dutch festivals. Debuting director Nate Parker boldly borrowed the title of famous and controversial classic.
Cinekid also addresses gender balance and the imagination of boys and girls. A hotly debated issue on which the last word has not yet been said.
The cheerful Dutch children's film Owl's Ball opens Cinekid, the film, television and new media festival for children and professionals. This 30th edition is the last under the leadership of director Sannette Naeyé.
Last Sunday, Polish film legend Andrzej Wajda died at the age of 90. His work unfolds as a dramatised history book with an un-romantic take on heroism.
The opening day of the National Film Conference at the Netherlands Film Festival offered the prospect of 'urgent' developments, but flames were not yet willing. Despite Issaka Sawadogo's engaging outpouring on the subject of diversity.
Book adaptations set the tone at the Netherlands Film Festival 2016. The Hero after Jessica Durlacher's novel opened the Utrecht film festival.
Brexit has given an extra charge to many programmes at the Fringe. But what is British anyway, and where do you belong?
Two very different forms of political theatre at the Edinburgh Fringe: feminist varieté and an immersive mode at the Maidan. You'll be throwing bricks before you know it.
Tim Honnef is one of the few Dutch with a performance at the Fringe. How did he end up here?
How to avoid choice stress at the Edinburgh Fringe bursting at the seams on all sides? We conduct an experiment: a day on the flow of flyers.
Amazing how more than a thousand performers at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival are willing to try their hand at the most difficult genre: comedy
Abbas Kiarostami (1940-2016) put Iranian cinema on the map with deeply lived humanism in a minimalist form.
Filmmaker Louis van Gasteren, who died on 10 May 2016, was initially an electrician but still found his calling as a filmmaker, producer, bohemian, visual artist and sleeper by conviction. The creator of a distinctive documentary oeuvre put much of himself into his work.
Good news for anyone who also thinks the Dutch film world could use a bit more spice. On 29 September, film theatre Springhaver in Utrecht will host the Evening of the Burning Calf organised. Rounded off with the presentation of the Brandend Kalf, the new film award for the most sensational, daring, cheeky or inspired Dutch film initiative. At least, if enough crowdfunders are those who want to support this project by film journalist Karin Wolfs and writer A.H.J. Dautzenberg.
Yes, you see, this event takes place, not entirely coincidentally, on the evening preceding the presentation of the Golden Calf awards. And no, the Brandend Kalf is not a side-programme of the Dutch Film Festival. When we ask Karin Wolfs to explain, she first of all wants to emphasise that it is a completely independent project. Nor a private party of Wolfs and Dautzenberg. Hence also that crowdfunding. If it succeeds
The Cinéma Arabe festival (from 19 April) is showing a rich palette of new work from the Arab World. Interview with director Hany Abu-Assad who sets a new tone with The Idol. And he has plans for a film about William of Orange. 'That will be my parting gift to the Netherlands.'
For one evening, EYE was all about virtual reality. What will remain of VR when the hype is gone we don't yet know. But maybe we will understand the phenomenon better if we stop comparing it to existing media like films or games.
At the 19th edition of the Holland Animation Film Festival, versatility celebrates. From abstract to documentary. Special attention also to the connection between animation and installation art.
The cinema industry in the Netherlands is aiming for new construction and is convinced there is still a lot of growth potential. But it won't happen without foreign capital. That is why the new multiplex in Alkmaar is now called Vue.
With the revamped, more compact Tiger competition, IFFR aims to show what the festival stands for. Nurturing new talent with a voice of its own. Is the Tiger roaring again?
Can a robot understand our feelings? Can we know others. Japanese drama Sayonara and American stop-motion animation Anomalisa have an unexpected common ground.
Who does a film belong to? That's the theme at this year's IFFR Critics' Choice programme. From YouTube compilations to a Russian Mad Men. Is the studio the owner, the filmmaker or the viewer? With video essays as the new form of film criticism.
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