The sixties and seventies
The arrival of the film academy dramatically changes the Dutch film landscape. Parallel to this is the rise of the "Vrije Circuit", with its own screening venues for small, independent and experimental films.
Dutch film history: the sixties and seventies

Samuel Meyering, Rem Koolhaas, Frans Bromet, René Daalder, Jan de Bont.
(c) Frans Bromet
Dutch Film Academy
In its first few months, the academy offered only two subjects: ‘Film trade’ and ‘screenplay writing and script technique’.

Good or Bad: WWII in Dutch Feature Films
In De overval (1962), the roles are still clear: resistance fighters, collaborators, Germans - they conform to the existing clichés. But in subsequent films that changes.

Kees Brusse: Underacting Does It
Brusse’s acting was ‘small’ and modest. It was at odds with the bombastic tradition prevalent at the time in which pompous actors loftily and loudly declaimed their lines.

Still from Retour d'enfance (NL, Mattijn Seip, 1970).
What is Experimental Film?
Experimental films have always formed the vanguard that goes on to determine the mainstream.

De korte fictiefilm in de jaren zestig
In the 1946 state budget, for the first time, a sum was set aside for short films.

Skoop and Skrien: A New Wind
Two new film magazines appeared on the market in the 1960s: Skoop in 1963 and Skrien in 1968. Both were founded by students of the Dutch Film Academy.

Pim & Wim: Scorpio Films
Verstappen and De la Parra both probably felt themselves to be outsiders; both of them had moved to the Netherlands just prior to attending the academy.

Turks fruit en het succes van de Nederlandse speelfilm
In 1971, Paul Verhoeven's debut film Wat zien ik? was released and Pim and Wim signed on for Blue Movie. These films marked the breakthrough of Dutch film in cinemas.

Poster for the Dag van de korte film ('Day of the short film'), held on October 5, 1975.
Day of the Short Film - The Hague, October 5, 1975
This 'Short Film Day' was organised on the initiative of the Government Information Service (RVD), which operated a large film library of short films.

Unfulfilled Promises
By the mid-1960s a fresh wind was blowing through the Dutch film world, and its future looked promising.

Matthijs van Heijningen
Matthijs van Heijningen is without a doubt one of the most influential feature film producers in the Netherlands.

Mariken van Nieumeghen (NL, Jos Stelling, 1974).
Jos Stelling
With his film Mariken van Nieumeghen, filmmaker Jos Stelling raised Dutch guerrilla film to a new level.

Children’s Films in the 1970s and 1980s: Kids Grow Up
In the early 1970s, children’s films started to change. The world was no longer portrayed as an idyll or a fantasy world, but a place in which everyday reality played a major role.

Poster for arthouse cinema ‘t Hoogt (1973-2018), July 2003.
’t Hoogt
The first arthouse cinema in the Netherlands was ‘t Hoogt in Utrecht.

Jacques Verbeek and Karin Wiertz: animated artwork
The filmmaker duo Jacques Verbeek and Karin Wiertz, active in the 1970s and 1980s, became known for their ingenious animated films.