04/06/2020 - The scheme, promoted by the national film agency, will earmark a grant of €850,000 for each of the two productions

Directors Jaap van Heusden and Ena Sendijarević, who have both received Dutch Crossover funding

The Netherlands Film Fund, the country’s film agency, has announced the recipients of its Dutch Crossover scheme production grants. The initiative’s purpose is to promote the making of Dutch films that can reach wider audiences domestically and internationally, and it targets filmmakers who are aiming to broaden their audience base. On this occasion, the body has earmarked a grant of €850,000 for each of the two selected features.

The first project is Ena Sendijarević’s Sweet Dreams [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ena Sendijarević
film profile], produced by Amsterdam-based Lemming Film. The Bosnian filmmaker is best known for her short Import (2016) and her debut feature, Take Me Somewhere Nice [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ena Sendijarević
film profile] (2019), the recipient of the Heart of Sarajevo Award for Best Feature Film at the 2019 Sarajevo Film Festival. The story of her sophomore film takes place in the year 1900 and is set on a remote island. Here, in the midst of another sugar crisis, Jan, the head of a sugar factory, dies and leaves behind his wife, Agathe, and Siti, the mother of his illegitimate son, who will turn out to be the sole heir. A family reunion will ensue.

The second film to be granted funding is In Alaska, written and directed by Jaap van Heusden. This is the director’s fourth feature, following Win/Win [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (2010), The New World [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (2013) and In Blue [+see also:
trailer
interview: Yannick Jozefzoon
film profile] (2017). The plot focuses on Woody, a 17-year-old boy from a tiny village in Alaska, who is so depressed that he wants to end his life. Instead, he does something epically stupid: he shoots the oil pipeline that crosses the state and becomes a wanted criminal overnight, hunted down by special agent Susan Tarheel. While he is running for his life, he will learn for the first time what it truly means to be alive. The movie is being produced by Marc Bary for Amsterdam-based firm IJswater Films, in co-production with Lithium Studios (Canada), Caviar (Belgium), Volterra Group (Netherlands) and EO (Netherlands).