As you may have noticed, I didn't have time to give an update during the Film Festival. Friday night the festival ended with an awards ceremony and a big party. Time always flies by during these days... So here's a recap of the festival.
Before
As I posted in my previous blog, I had intended on watching many, many movies. Unfortunatly I got way to busy... That's pretty much how it works, and it's not that bad. I'll just watch them some other time. The busyness started two days before the festival, when we (the journalists / journalists room) start working in the attic. This is our place and it's the best. We work with a room full of people gathering news, doing interviews, having lunch and - when we're not too busy - talking to each other. The great thing about this is, that because we start early the upcoming days would be less stressful. And that's exactly how it worked out! Well, mostly ;-). I already wrote a couple of pieces before the festival actually started and one of my interviews was the front page of the first daily paper. For me, that's something to be very proud of!
During the film festival
The festival started on a Wednesday with the opening movie - Nono, the zigzag kid - showing in different theatres. One of my jobs was to get peoples reactions this evening. It was fun talking to people - at least not as bad as last year, because it was a serious hassle to get people to talk - and hearing their positive thoughts. That was my way to kick the festival officialy off. Of course the writing had already begun. I got to interview hosts, directors, actors and actrices, not to mention an editor I already knew from the previous year.
The Dutch Film Festival isn't just movies. There are a lot of events, like book releases, a quiz, something with games and an event about the film trailer. Every night there's a talkshow - I attended one - and masterclasses... There was also a one time show by actor Jeroen Willems, giving his dutch version of the songs of Jacques Brel. Now, that was amazing.
(Actor Jeroen Willems during his show)
What I love about the festival is how busy you get. You work with deadlines, get to ask amazing people interesting questions and, I don't know... for some reason it's just something that I really enjoy. Yes, sometimes it's crazy busy - meaning you have to eat at your desk and can't really get away - but looking back, there's so much I can take away from this. It's an amazing experience, we had a wonderful team and I learn so much. Plus the food is great and we got to watch some movies for free. Like I said, I didn't get to see all the movies on my list. But I did see these movies:
- Antonia's Line
- Mira
- Facing Animals
- Dark Blood
- Lilet Never Happened
- De verbouwing /The Rebuild (?)
- The Battle
- Workversion of 'The Entertainer'
I won't go into detail about all of them. But I will say that Antonia's Line (which won an Oscar years ago) was amazing! Mira was kind of a bore... to be honest, Facing Animals was sometimes hard to watch, but beautifully made. Dark Blood was fun and creative - by George Sluizer, with River Phoenix. And I can't deny the fact that I liked it that the main female's character was named Buffy :p. The final movie I'd like to mention is Lilet Never Happened. A great movie, strong and based on a true story... It does make you think. That's all I'm going to say about it.
(The junior jury gives it's award to My Life on Planet B -
well deserved I might add!)
Challenging
There are always some things that take more work than others. That's why one of my proudest things this festival was trying - and succeeding - in interviewing four members of the cast and the writer and director of the short movie Bowy is Inside. It's an amazing film with a great young cast and I managed to speak to all six of them in one day. It was quite a challenge and I'm very proud of that accomplishment.
Other than that I had a great interview with one of the talkshow hosts and I got to interview a very famous Dutch entertainer. He was so nice and sweet and I never though I would get to talk to him, so that's something else I'm proud of. I got to write an article about movie trailers, which I love. I also attended a masterclass for editors, with Job ter Burg, Peter Alderliesten and main guest Hervé Schneid (from Amélie and Alien Resurrection).
Party time!
The festival lasts up and until Friday. That day there's a awards ceremony for best movie, director and so on and so on - they win a Golden Calf. Afterwards there's a big party with a lot of famous people, but also for all of the volunteers, who so deserve this night off. But before there's time to relax, we still had to bring out a paper. One of the things I like about the festival is when all the nominations are announced and we get to call all the nominees for their reactions. It's such a crazy time when you try to get a hold of everyone and get to congratulate them. It's probably one of my favorite things to do. After we get those, there aren't a lot of articles to write, because no other movies are playing. Which means we get to relax a bit more. On Friday there's basically nothing to do, so we can finally sleep in. And get ready for the dance. It's black tie, so you have to look your best. Before going to the party we - the writing team - went to a restaurant. It was absolutly delicious! As a group we partied till the the wee bit hours of the night (I think I was home by four...which is late for me). All in all, in my book, the festival was a big succes and I hope to do it again next year!
(The Award show, and I believe everyone who got
a Golden Calf on stage)
