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. Lotte Salomons graduated in 2021 with her film Verlangen (Longing).
By Michael Oudman25 June 2024
“Wow, that’s a big question! It made me fall in love with film. I was sixteen when I applied to the Academy, so I didn’t really have much idea yet what I was signing up for. It was only after I got there that I found out what a documentary really is, what film can do, and how I could discover who I am as a maker within this. It also helped me develop as a human being, as you spend a lot of time during the course reflecting on yourself. So yeah, it really did a lot for me.”
Lotte Salomons (© Erwin Van Amstel)
“It doesn’t actually make all that much difference whether you direct animation, documentary or fiction. It’s all about the story you want to tell and the motivation you feel to tell it. The form follows on from this. In the case of Verlangen, it very quickly became clear that we could only tell that story in the form of an animated film; this also became its strength.”
still Verlangen (Lotte Salomons, NL 2021)
still Verlangen (Lotte Salomons, NL 2021)
“People tend to forget that everything is subjective, and every film is seen through the eyes of the maker.”
Lotte Salomons
“Nothing is pure, raw reality. People tend to forget that everything is subjective, and every film is seen through the eyes of the maker. But there is a kind of rule, when you make a documentary, that people automatically believe – particularly in observational documentaries – that it’s close to the truth. We have to live up to this assumption, especially for the characters we put in front of the camera. If you clearly show the agreement you have made in terms of form to the viewer, you can allow yourself some freedom within this.”
“It would be the parent-child relationship. This is a theme that’s gripped me for a while now. All of my films till now deal with this in one way or another. About suppressing emotions, for example.”
still In Kropsdam is iedereen gelukkig (Joren Molter, NL 2016)
The Nederlandse Filmacademie will celebrate its 65th anniversary this year. Stream a special selection of graduation films from 65 years of Film Academy history. A new film is added every month.
