Dutch films look to an extraordinary Berlin

The Berlin International Film Festival has announced a first part of its selection. As in recent years, Dutch youth cinema is strongly represented in the Generation competition of the Berlin International Film Festival.

My Extraordinary Summer with Tess*, director Steven Wouterlood’s first feature film, will celebrate its world premiere in Generation Kplus section. The film is a BIND Film (NL) production in co-production with Ostlicht Filmproduktion (DE), with sales handled by Picture Tree International.

Steven Wouterlood has won many awards for his previous work, among them an Emmy and the TIFF Kids Award (Toronto) for his short film Anything Goes (2013). King’s Day (2015) also won TIFF Kids Award and the Jury Award of Chicago Int’l Children’s Film Festival.

My Extraordinary Summer with Tess tells the story of Sam who, while on holiday with his family, practises being alone in order to avoid the pain of loss. After an adventure with Tess, however, he realizes he should cherish his family instead of fleeing from them. The film is an adaptation of the novel by Anna Woltz which has already been published in eight countries worldwide: Germany, Netherlands, France, Hungary, Slovenia, China, Japan and Taiwan. The book rights have been sold to Slovakia and Poland as well.

Selected for the Generation 14plus section is the Dutch minority co-production Stupid Young Heart* by Selma Vilhunen (NL co-producer: Windmill Film), which world premiered at Toronto in September.

Also part of Generation 14plus is Goldie, Dutch filmmaker Sam de Jong’s latest film. Sam de Jong’s short film Marc Jacobs* was selected for Berlinale’s Short Film Competition in 2014, and his first feature Prince* received a Special Mention from the Youth Jury in Berlin. Goldie is a US production (a.o. VICE).

Earlier, Berlinale announced the selection of four minority co-productions: A Tale of Three Sisters* by Emin Alper (NL co-producer: Circe Films) will world premiere in Berlin Competition, and the Panorama programme includes the world premieres of The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea* by Syllas Tzoumerkas (NL co-producer: PRPL), Hellhole* by Bas Devos (NL co-producer: Phanta Film) and the European premiere of Alejandro Landes’ Sundance contender Monos* (NL co-producer: Lemming Film).

More film selections will be announced shortly.

The 69th Berlin International Film Festival takes place February 7 – 17 2019.

*supported by the Netherlands Film Fund

(source: Eye International)

Filmstill - My Extraordinary Summer with Tess