The first Festival of Dutch short film in Paris is a fact. Organized in the framework of the golden jubilee of the Institut Néerlandais, the Dutch cultural centre in Paris, it offers a representative summary of the Dutch production since 1945, in some 60 films. The festival takes place in one of the former cinemas of the Cinémathèque francaise, today fittingly called Cinéma du Monde.
The reason to organize such a festival is obvious: after the Second World War, it is thanks to short films that the Dutch are recognized on the international cinema scene and even in 2007 it is with short films like CONTACT by Hanro Smitsman and MY SISTER by Marco van Geffen, that the Dutch are present at respectively Berlin and Cannes.
It is not the first time the Institut Néerlandais shows Dutch shorts to the Parisian public. Since 1999 it organizes every year the Dutch Short Film Night, thus giving the opportunity to young Dutch filmmakers to present themselves their work in Paris; a tradition which is being pursued this year. But this first Dutch Short Film Festival is also the opportunity to (re-) discover other films by famous or less famous filmmakers: Paul Verhoeven, Johan van der Keuken, Bert Haanstra, Herman van der Horst, George Sluizer, Paul Driessen, Michaël Dudok de Wit, as well as Wolke Klupell, Sytske Kok, Piet Kroon, Rosto AD, Tjebbo Penning and Elbert van Strien.
The four days of screening are classified by theme: first films, documentaries on the Low Countries, films on art, Dutch films distributed in France, comic and absurdist films and even a section with horror and fantastic films!Every screening will be presented by a French or Dutch specialist, like Herman de Wit (Dutch Film Festival), Jan Doense (filmmaker and director of the Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival), Bert Hogenkamp (cinema historian) and Nico Crama (filmmaker and producer). They also contributed in developing the program.
For more information, go to
http://www.institutneerlandais.com/en/filmandvideo.html#shorts