On Sunday 28 September, during the tenth Netherlands Production Platform (NPP), the Kodak NPP Development Prize was awarded to director Mark de Cloe, screenwriter Céline Linssen and producers Wilant Boekelman and Koji Nelissen for the feature film project SHOCKING BLUE.

The jury, consisting of Marten Rabarts, Jean Heijl, Eurydice Gysel, Ria Jankie and Louis Machado said this about their verdict: ‘From a diverse line-up of films, the jury selected a project which tells a simple story both uniquely Dutch and yet wholly universal. Because the director has clear and assured intentions for a lush visual language, which will stand in distinct contrast to the unsophisticated setting and characters, and adds a generous injection of contemporary pacing and rhythms, opening up the inner world of his characters, Mark de Cloe's strong vision for the film SHOCKING BLUE wins the Kodak NPP Development prize 2008.’

In SHOCKING BLUE, a close friendship between three boys is severely undermined when something happens to one of them. A story of loss, guilt, innocence and impotence, set among the vivid colours of the Dutch bulb fields, making it the first Dutch tulip film.

Kodak sponsors the 5,000 Euro award to support the further financial development of the new project. The prize is intended for producers who focus on the development and backing of author films and is granted to a project that was presented at the NPP with clarity and dedication. Dutch film projects that had been selected for the NPP were eligible for the award.

Besides SHOCKING BLUE, the projects SONNY BOY (direction and screenplay Maria Peters, producer Hans Pos for Shooting Star Film Company) and A KRONSTADT TALE (director Ben van Lieshout, screenplay Céline Linssen, producers Ben van Lieshout for Van Lieshout Film Productions and Bea de Visser and Hans Eijses for AnotherFilm) had been nominated for the Kodak NPP Development Prize.

The NPP is part of the Holland Film Meeting, hosted by the Netherlands Film Festival for the 21st time through Monday 29 September. At this year’s NPP, a total of six Dutch and fourteen international feature film projects in progress were pitched to a panel of international producers and financiers.