The Film Academy can be satisfied. The two juries that handed out the three student awards at the Netherlands Film Festival on Monday night had also looked at graduation work from other Dutch academies with a film section. But in the end, all the lucky ones were students of the Netherlands Film and Television Academy, as the Amsterdam programme is called in full.
Again Magnesium. The Tuschinski Award for best graduation film, open for the first time to all Dutch academies this year, went to Magnesium by Sam de Jong. This close-to-the-skin portrait of a young gymnast struggling with a major personal dilemma was awarded earlier this month by the Circle of Dutch Film Journalists.
Shady El Hamus, the screenwriter of Magnesium and director-screenwriter of About sons, received the Dioraphte Award for distinguished achievement. About sons is about homesickness and depression among the older generation of immigrants.
Finally, there was the Film Producers Netherlands Award, a prize for the best production team. In this case, it was Niek Teunissen, Wim Boven and Casper Eskes, who together were the driving force behind the short youth film The Club of Ugly Children based on the children's book by Koos Meinderts. This exciting adventure, which hides a nice political satire, is indeed a calling card with enthusiastic and enterprising appeal that certainly deserves the attention of a broadcaster looking for production talent for a new youth series. Also, the team's incisive way of marketing and premiering The Club of Ugly Children took in hand may be there.
Leo Bankersen
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