"When I was accepted, I was still a teenager and I thought I knew everything. So I was corrected well for four years. I learned how to work in departments. That you can't know everything as a director and that you don't aim the camera yourself, but that you work with a DoP and discuss together what the look and feel will be. It feels very privileged to have all those creative people around me, who help me."
65 Years of the Film Academy: Tim Oliehoek
The Film Academy turns 65 this year! To celebrate this landmark anniversary, Eye Filmmuseum has been given access to every graduation film ever made, right from the very start back in 1958 – some of these films haven’t been screened since then. The films will be incorporated into the Eye collection over the next few years, and a selection of them can be seen on the Eye Film Player. We spoke to some of the makers. Tim Oliehoek graduated in 2001 with his film Isabelle.
By Michael Oudman24 January 2025
What has the film academy meant to you?
"When I applied, I submitted an action film with lots of chases, while I actually thought that everyone at the Film Academy wanted to see in-depth arthouse films. In addition, I had failed high school by two tenths of a point, after I had actually already been accepted. Fortunately, I was able to start after all thanks to an intelligence test. In retrospect, that was a good thing, because I ended up in a fantastic class with Lennert Hillige, Diederik van Rooijen, Iris Otten and Rolf Dekens, the cameraman I always worked with."
Tim Oliehoek op de set van De Ballonvaarder (© Sem Berger)
Have you ever worried about income?
"On one of the first days of the course, a teacher said: 'Don't think you can make a living from this, the chances are very slim'. But when you're that young, you think 'yeah, of course I'll succeed'. It was only later that I realised how privileged I am to have been able to make a living from this since I graduated."
What's the biggest lesson you learned after graduating from the Film Academy?
"That has a lot to do with getting older, and that is the realisation that besides the absolute necessity of filmmaking, there is also a normal side of life that you have to look at. If you forget that, your frame of reference is only film, while you should draw inspiration from real life for your work. You lose people, you have friendships, you fall in love, you have to experience all those things to know how to put it in a film."
Series or film?
"Film used to be magical, you did it for cinema. But because of streaming services, there is now a huge shift in the supply; people devour series, it has almost become bigger than film. Sometimes you spend years on a feature film, which 200,000 people see in the cinema, while with Hendrik Groen we suddenly had a reach of 2.3 million people. I was confused by that for a moment. I am incredibly proud of the Dutch drama series that are being made now, those productions are so beautifully made, they are almost more cinema than the movies we make here now. Next year, a new feature film of mine will be released on Disney+, De Ballonvaarder, I am curious to see what it will do."
What do you want to tell future students?
"That you are in a privileged position where you can make films with few resources these days. With your iPhone you can, so to speak, shoot and edit a feature film that looks fantastic. So there is no excuse not to show what your talent is. By making things you can convince people for the really serious work. What you make is your calling card. And don't think you know everything, make use of all the talents around you. Be well prepared, but not too well, so that you are no longer open to things that could still happen."
Watch online
Watch Isabelle and other Film Academy films for free on the Eye Film Player.