Netherlands Film Production Incentive invests € 4.6 million in 14 new productions

In the third round of the Netherlands Film Production Incentive of 2025 contributions were made to 14 productions for a total amount of €4.6 million. These include 9 feature films and 5 documentaries including 5 international co-productions.

The Netherlands Film Fund was able to support all the projects that applied for a grant this round. These contributions will generate more than €17.8 million in production expenses in the Netherlands across the entire spectrum of Dutch film professionals and film companies.

Upcoming application round 2025

The next application round for Netherlands Film Production Incentive is 27 October 2025. The Netherlands Film Production Incentive offers a financial contribution in the form of a cash rebate on the qualifying production costs that are demonstrably spent in the Netherlands.

Selected film productions in the third round of 2025

The Assignment (Patrice Toye)
Baseball Island (Lyangelo Vasquez)
Big Dreams (Louis Hothothot)
Case Nathalie (Ester Gould)
Heartbreak for Beginners (Bavo Defurne and Yves Verbraeken)
Honolulu King (Barbara Bredero)
In the Paramariboat (Safi Graauw)
Kimchi & Potatoes (Hyo Soon Kaag)
Late Bloomer (Jelle de Jonge)
Nooit te oud om... (Mark de Cloe)
Patsers for Life (Nabil Ben Yadir en Kobe Van Steenberghe)
Scrumple (Jamille van Wijngaarden)
She Sings (Virginia Heath)
Still City (Menno Otten)

For a full list of the titles, including credits and loglines, see below.

A person playing a guitar and singing into a microphone. — She Sings (photo by Chris Hogge)

The Assignment (feature film)

Director: Patrice Toye (BE)
Script: Patrice Toye and Peter Seynaeve (BE)
Dutch co-producer: Willy Waltz International
Lead producer: Menuetto (BE)
Co-producers: 2 Pilots Filmproduction (DE), Stenola Productions (BE)

Logline: Summer 1947. Ewout, a 16-year-old boy heavily traumatized by the war, determinedly and ruthlessly searches for the man he wants to become during a sweltering youth camp.

Granted support: € 230,184

Baseball Island (documentary)

Director/script: Lyangelo Vasquez
Dutch producer: New Ams Film Company
Co-producer: Robin Kristala (CW)

Logline: In an attempt to understand the unlikely baseball success of the former Dutch colony of Curaçao, a Little League baseball team is followed on its journey to the World Series in the US. Will the community of kids, coaches, and supporters manage to meet expectations and put Liga Pabou back in the spotlight this season?

Granted support: € 70,568

Big Dreams (documentary)

Director/script: Louis Hothothot (CN)
Dutch producer: Witfilm

Logline: The intriguing American plus-size actress Laurel and Chinese director Louis become entangled in an intimate yet complex friendship. As the camera’s presence grows more intrusive, Louis is compelled to hold a mirror up to himself and his filmmaking. Big Dreams is a hybrid documentary about fading boundaries, a desire for (self-)acceptance, and the lack of love.

Granted support: € 189,612

Case Nathalie (documentary)

Director/script: Ester Gould
Dutch producer: EVDJ

Logline: When Nathalie is forced to stop working, her family falls not only into poverty but into a three-year Kafkaesque and bureaucratic nightmare. Together with her case manager, social worker, bailiff and alderman, she investigates how our welfare system diminishes people and drives them to despair.

Granted support: € 152,000

Heartbreak for Beginners (feature film)

Director/script: Bavo Defurne and Yves Verbraeken (BE)
Dutch coproducer: Family Affair Films
Lead producer: Polar Bear (BE)
Co-producer: Altitude 100 Productions (BE)

Logline: In his final year of school, headstrong Tom uses all his charms to win the heart of his sports hero Z. He gets caught up in a chaotic mix of infatuation, painfully comical mistakes and heartbreaking disappointments, until he discovers that growing up sometimes means letting go, no matter how hard your heart protests.

Granted support: € 98,954

Honolulu King (feature film)

Director: Barbara Bredero
Script: Bodil de la Parra
Dutch producer: NL Film & TV

Logline: The 24-year-old Synne Blom puts her studies on hold to take over her grandfather Hardy's shop when her grandmother has to move to a nursing home. Not long after, she argues with her boyfriend, moves in with her grandfather, and becomes entangled in his past. Along the way, Synne discovers how much the gruesome events in former Dutch East Indies have left their mark, even on her.

Granted support: € 471,104

In the Paramariboat (feature film)

Director: Safi Graauw
Script: Johan Fretz and Matthijs Bockting
Dutch producer: KeyFilm

Logline: Johannes Fretz (29) is of double blood, but it is mostly others who appear to be preoccupied with his origins. He simply sees himself as Dutch. This changes when he accepts an invitation to perform in Paramaribo, at the embassy. Particularly when his mother follows him there uninvited, and he is drawn into a world that will forever change his perception of himself and the world.

Granted support: € 456,651

Someone being dragged on the street by two people. — Still City

Kimchi & Potatoes (feature film)

Director/script: Hyo Soon Kaag
Dutch producer: Family Affair Films
Co-producer: Krater films (BE)

Logline: Soo-Ji (15) and her brother Manuel (17) are adopted and live in a small village on the edge of the IJsselmeer. Although Soo-Ji feels part of the community, she becomes increasingly aware of the casual racism around her. Following her brother, who struggles with his identity, Soo-Ji slowly begins to find words for her frustrations, which unexpectedly brings them closer together.

Granted support: € 450,000

Late Bloomer (feature film)

Director: Jelle de Jonge
Script: Jildau Hartzema and Jelle de Jonge
Dutch producer: Hazazah Pictures
Co-producer: Interstellar Pictures (NL)

Logline: A patronising 65-year-old housewife is ready for a quiet retirement with her husband, but is shocked when he wants a divorce. With both children and husband out the door and no one left to care for, she decides to work for the first time in her life to prove she still matters. She successfully bluffs her way into the job market, but slowly cracks appear in her new identity.

Granted support: € 668,251

Nooit te oud om... (feature film)

Director: Mark de Cloe
Script: Maarten Lebens
Dutch producer: Rinkel Film
Co-producer: Potemkino (BE)

Logline: Three aging friends, cast aside by modern society, start a childcare center without any experience. While struggling with bureaucracy, family drama, and business setbacks, they discover unexpected talents and new opportunities. Their unconventional approach not only transforms childcare but also brings their own lives to a surprisingly new chapter.

Granted support: € 358,919

Patsers for Life (feature film)

Directors: Nabil Ben Yadir and Kobe Van Steenberghe (BE))
Script: Sven Huybrechts and Hendrik Verthé (BE)
Dutch co-producer: Fiction Valley
Lead producer: A Team Productions (BE)
Co-producer: 10.80 Films (BE)

Logline: After their “drug bust of the century”, Adamo and his friends try in Patsers for Life to escape the police by fleeing abroad. But Badia has other plans: she sets off on her own to Dubai to take revenge on Dutch drug lord Dzjengis Khan, who is responsible for her mother's death. Will our patsers arrive in time to stop her? And will Adamo ever be able to settle his debt with his great love?

Granted support: € 470,000

Scrumple (feature film)

Director: Jamille van Wijngaarden
Script Tijs van Marle
Dutch producer: Lemming Film
Co-producers: Lemming Film België (BE), Stellar Film (EE)

Logline: Cheerful and energetic Scrumple and her faithful companion, dog Splotch, are preparing for a big day: the wedding of Scrumple's parents. Her sole mission of being an exemplary bridesmaid is put in jeopardy when Splotch runs off with the wedding rings, and in her quest risks getting dirtier and dirtier.

Granted support: € 878,422

She Sings (documentary)

Director/script: Virginia Heath (UK)
Dutch co-producer: De Productie
Lead producer: EZ Films (UK)
Co-producer: Faction North (UK)

Logline: A cinematic portrayal of a unique Irish singer-song writer, Keeley Moss. Every song Keeley performs celebrates the life of, and demands justice for, Inga Maria Hauser, a young German backpacker, sexually assaulted and murdered in Northern Ireland in 1988. As the Director ‘investigates the investigator’, a Coroner’s Inquest opens in Belfast. But will Inga finally get justice?

Granted support: € 35,000

Still City (documentary)

Director/script: Menno Otten
Dutch producer: EVDJ
Co-producers: Box to Box (VK), Visualantics (BE)

Logline: Still City is a city symphony spanning over a century in Amsterdam. Using 125 years of found footage, it weaves a mosaic that reveals the essence of coexistence: the tension between the individual and the collective. By meticulously observing and ultimately freezing people and their shared glances, the individual and collective experience merge. And in that very tension, we find our connection.

Granted support: € 125,000

Header image: Big Dreams