From the Netherlands at BFI London
Halina Reijn's debut feature Instinct* (produced by Topkapi Films, in co-production with Man Up) is part of the First Feature Competition and is one of the contenders for the Sutherland Award. The film world premiered at Locarno where it won the Variety Piazza Grande Award and a Special Mention for Best First Feature. Next week Instinct will celebrate its North-American premiere at Toronto.
My Extraordinary Summer with Tess* by Steven Wouterlood (produced by Bind Film) is presented in the Family section. Since its world premiere at Berlinale's Generation (Special Mention Generation Kplus) it has screened at numerous film festivals worldwide and received several awards including the Grand Prize for Best Feature Film at New York International Children's Film Festival and Best Film at Kristiansand International Children's Film Festival. The film has also already been sold to more than ten countries where it will get a theatrical release, among others Japan, South-Korea and Canada.
Selected for the shorts programme Drive It Like You Stole It is Stefanie Kolk's short film Eyes on the Road* (produced by New Amsterdam Film Company), which celebrated its world premiere earlier this month at Locarno in the Pardi di Domani (Leopards of Tomorrow) competition.
Experimental short film, The Sasha, directed and produced by María Molina Peiró, is included in shorts compilation The Culture. It previously screened at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, Indie Lisboa and Oberhausen amongst others.
Four minority Dutch co-productions are also selected for BFI London Film Festival. Director Alejandro Landes' Monos* (NL Co-producer: Lemming Film), the Colombian submission to the International Feature Film Academy Award, is set for the main competition. The film has been doing very well in the international circuit since its world premiere at Sundance.
BFI London's Dare strand, which shows films that take you out of your comfort zone, includes The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea* by Greek director Syllas Tzoumerkas (NL Co-prod: PRPL). It world premiered in Berlinale's Panorama.
Italian/New Zealand/Dutch co-production That Which is to Come is Just a Promise* by Flatform (NL Co-prod: Serious Film), which world premiered in Cannes' Quinzaine, is presented in What Remains.
The minority co-produced short documentary Spring Fever, directed by Anna Snowball screens in the ...In an Age of Consent short film programme.
Lastly, George Pearson's Love, Life and Laughter (1923), from the archive of Eye Filmmuseum is this year's BFI London's Archive Special Presentation.
The 63rd BFI London Film Festival runs 2 - 13 October 2019.
source: Eye International
*supported by Netherlands Film Fund