The Netherlands Film Festival handed out its Debut Competition and Student Competition prizes Monday night during the Talent Awards Ceremony at Stadsschouwburg Utrecht.
Muriel d’Ansembourg’s short “Fuck-a-Fan” won the NFF Debut Competition, taking the Film Prize of the City of Utrecht. The award includes €7,500 in prize money, a certificate and the Festival’s De Gouden Berg signature sculpture, designed by artist Noor Nuyten. The film premiered at Tribeca in 2024 and centers on a viral porn star and a devastated fan whose planned “Fuck-a-Fan” shoot turns into an unlikely lesson in intimacy. The Debut Competition jury — Edith van der Heijde, Sophie Dros and Arno Willemstein — called the short “an original, multi-layered and daring approach” that “pulls back the curtain on the adult industry,” and singled out the lead performance as “intense, believable and compelling.”
In the student competition, seven awards and seven Film Fund Wildcards were presented across multiple categories.
The EY Talent Award, which comes with a €5,000 grant toward the director’s next project and a coaching program, went to Tim Smink for his animated horror short “Closing Hour.” The project, produced at Utrecht School of the Arts, follows a night-shift gas station attendant whose quiet shift takes a violent turn. jurors praised its “beautiful, understated style” and Japanese anime influences, calling it “a well-made horror film that keeps you watching until the gruesome ending.”
The Topkapi Film Award for best fiction graduation project, accompanied by a €5,000 contribution, went to fellow HKU student Mickey Minnaar for “Depronima,” a magical-realist horror in which a late-night teenage party is consumed by repressed emotions made flesh. Jurors noted the ensemble cast and genre control that sustained tension throughout.
Julia Buijs received the Shalky Screenplay Award (€5,000 cash prize) for “Als de zon in de maan verandert en niemand het ziet,” described by the jury as “a unique and surreal world where absurdism and melancholy intertwine movingly.”
The Dutch Film Critics (KNF) prize was presented to Alanis Neva Bani for “HAUSFRAU,” produced at the Willem de Kooning Academy. The film follows a woman whose ambitions vanish after art school graduation, leaving her trapped in domesticity. Jurors described the piece as satirical, absurdist and melancholic, showing “how dreams, fears and societal roles collide and explode in scenes full of humor and discomfort.”
Evan Frijters earned the VPRO Documentary Prize for “I Didn’t Get Into Berghain but I Did Meet Vica,” another HKU entry. The documentary explores displacement through the story of Vica, a young woman who fled Ukraine during Russia’s invasion. Jurors described it as “uncompromising and instinctive.”
Elsewhere, Juliette van Ardenne won the Cam-A-Lot & Filmmore Live Film Pitch Award for her project BESS, which comes with €10,000 in production services, while Naomi Wills was honored with the NAPA Award “as a producer with an innovative vision for the future.”
In addition to the jury prizes, the Netherlands Film Fund handed out seven Wildcards across four categories, each designed to support recent graduates with funding toward their next projects.
In the LAB (Digital Culture category), the Wildcard went to Willem de Kooning Academy graduate Young-Ju Yoo for “When Yin Meets Yang.” In Animation, Utrecht School of the Arts graduates took both awards: Livia May for “Dad Said” and Tim Smink for “Closing Hour.” The Documentary Wildcards went to “De gitaar van mijn vader” (“The Feeling of Emptiness”) by HKU graduate Mipham Chhowing and “Vaders zijn ook zonen” by Sammy Shefa Idris of the Netherlands Film Academy. In Fiction, prizes were awarded to “De jongenskamer” by Dijk Booy (HKU) and “Zie, zo” by Kris van Melle, a graduate of the Gerrit Rietveld Academy.
The 45th edition of the Netherlands Film Festival continues in Utrecht through Oct. 3.