Film awards

Nederlands Film Festival
The Golden Calves, the major prizes for the Dutch film industry, are awarded during the closing evening of the Netherlands Film Festival (NFF), the so-called ‘Golden Calves Gala’. The nominations and winners are determined by means of an academy system and juries.

In addition to the Golden Calves, various other prizes are awarded at the NFF. For example, you have the VEVAM Fund Award of the Directors’ Forum (€ 5,000) and the prize for the winner of the NFF Debut Competition (€ 5,000). For graduating students, you have the Talent Award Ceremony in which various prizes are awarded for the short films that were shown that year in the student competition:

• The VEVAM Fund Talent Award for the best graduation production of the past year (€ 5,000).
• The NAPA Award for the producer with the most innovative vision of the future from the past year (€ 5,000).
• The Fentener van Vlissingen Fonds Award for an outstanding achievement of a crew member (€ 7,500).
• The KNF Award, presented by the Circle of Dutch Film Journalists (Kring van Nederlandse Filmjournalisten), for best graduation film.
• The Keplerfilm Animatieprijs for the best animation graduation film (€ 3,000).
• The Wildcards for talent development. With this amount, the winners (directors) are given the opportunity to make a new documentary, fictional or animation film (€ 50,000).

IDFA
The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) has two competitions for short documentaries: the IDFA Award for Best Student Documentary and the IDFA Award for Best Short Documentary. Both are international competitions. IDFA also has a national competition for long documentaries.

International Film Festival Rotterdam
The International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) has a Tiger Competition for up-and-coming talent and there is also a competition for short films. All international filmmakers in the short film selection compete for the Ammodo Tiger Short Award, which is accompanied by a cash prize of € 5,000. In addition, you also have awards for an established, international ‘image maker’, the Audience Award and the Critics Awards.

Cinekid
The awards that are presented during this festival go to the best international and Dutch films, television programmes and new media productions for children and young people.

Go Short International Film Festival
At this short film festival in Nijmegen, the Go Short Awards are presented for the best European short film and the best Dutch short film. The festival is highly regarded internationally and it is not strange therefore that the winners of the European competition are put on the Academy Awards' shortlist (see International awards). Because the festival is a springboard for young talent, Go Short selects 21 films each year that are submitted for the student competition by young, talented filmmakers. The films stand a chance of winning the Encouragement Award, which inspires and stimulates young filmmakers.

Film by the Sea
Film by the Sea, an international film festival in Vlissingen, has several competitions and also presents awards. There are three competitions during the festival: the Film & Literature Competition, Vive le cinéma competition and the Zeeuws Licht competition. There are two awards for young and new talent: the Youth Jury Award, chosen by a jury consisting of young people between the ages of 15 and 25, and the International Student Jury Award, chosen by a jury consisting of international students from University College Roosevelt and HZ University of Applied Sciences.

VERS Awards
The VERS Film Awards are presented during the film festival VERS, which is held every year in June and that is devoted to the image maker of tomorrow. Various short filmmakers compete for the jury awards for Best Film, Best Cinematography and Best Editing. A jury decides who walks away with a total of € 17,500 in prize money to make a new film.

CFAP Prijs
The Cultureel Fonds Audiovisuele Producenten (Cultural Fund for Audiovisual Producers, CFAP) supports projects, makes grants available to AV producers and awards the CFAP Prijs (CFAP Prize) annually to a distinctive film or television producer on the basis of nominations from fellow professionals and colleagues. The winner receives € 20,000, but the nominees also don’t go home empty-handed.

Zilveren krulstaarten
The Zilveren Krulstaarten (Silver Curly Tails) are the Dutch industry awards for screenwriters. The nominees are chosen by members of the Netwerk Scenarioschrijvers (Scriptwriters Network) of the Auteursbond (Dutch Authors’ Guild). There are three categories: Beste scenario Film (Best script Film), Beste scenario Kort (Best script Short) and Beste scenario TV-serie (Best script TV series). Only films and series that premiered in the previous calendar year are eligible for the award.

Kees Hoelierhoek Scenarioprijs
The Kees Holierhoek Scenarioprijs (Kees Holierhoek Screenplay Prize) is the largest screenplay prize in the Dutch-speaking region for TV drama series. Since 1993, the prize has been awarded every other year to a screenwriter or a team of writers of Dutch television drama within a general or specific dramatic genre.

Major international film awards include the Academy Awards (AA), known by the general public as the Oscars. These are the most important film awards in the United States. You then have the BAFTA Awards, the most important award in the United Kingdom.

At the beginning of the year, the presentation of the Golden Globe Awards take place, in recognition of excellence in film and television, both in the United States and abroad. It is not only the start of the awards season, but also predicts the nominations for the Academy Awards (the Oscars) in February.

International film festival awards
The three most important international film are the festivals in Cannes, Venice and Berlin. These festivals each have their own prestigious prizes, respectively the Palme d’Or, the Golden Lion and the Golden Bear. Europe also has its own ‘Academy Awards’: the European Film Awards (EFA) of the European Film Academy. This awards show is often seen as the European counterpart of the Academy Awards.

Your film will only end up on the shortlist of the BAFTA, AA or EFA if it is selected for a prestigious film festival. These film festivals benefit from this, because they get put on the map in that way. The festivals which this concerns are as follows. Shortlist of film festivals where films are shown that are considered for the:

• European Short Film Award
• Academy Award Best Short
• BAFTA Best Short