Plot
Abel is a 31-year-old man who still lives with his parents. Due to agoraphobia, he hasn't been out for over 10 years, much to the chagrin of his father, Victor. On the other hand, he gets spoiled by his mother, Duif. He spends most of his days spying on the neighbors, setting up his parents against each other, knowingly or unknowingly, and fruitlessly trying to cut flies in two with an enormous pair of scissors.
His father enlists a psychiatrist who deduces the cause of problems are the parents' unhealthy relation with Abel. He then summons a mesmerist who gets frustrated by Abel. Victor then tries to set up his son with a girl in his theater society, it too fails. After a lot of planning, the mother and son secretly buy a TV-set against Victor's wishes. When Victor discovers this deception he gets furious and runs his son out on to the streets.
Abel meets Zus, who works at a peepshow called "De Naakte Meisjes" (The naked girls). She takes pity on him and starts a relation with him. Abel finds out Zus has a relationship with a married man and it turned out to be his own father. In the meantime, his mother finds out Abel's whereabouts and informs her husband. When Victor knows his Son is in a relationship with his favoured prostitute, he becomes enraged and goes into a psychotic fit. A confrontation with Abel and his parents takes place at Zus' place. The drunken Victor tries to chase Zus. His son informs Duif that Victor had an extramarital affair with Zus. Duif threatens to commit suicide. Though when she finds neither her beloved son or husband takes her seriously, she calms down and finally leaves her son with the prostitute and takes her husband home. Finally Abel laughs at all this with Zus and cuts a fly into two with his scissors.
Running with Scissors is a 2002 memoir by American writer Augusten Burroughs. The book tells the story of Burroughs's bizarre childhood life after his mother, a chain-smoking aspiring poet, sent him to live with her psychiatrist. Running with Scissors spent eight weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.
Alex van Warmerdam is a Dutch screenwriter, film director, and actor. He is also a painter.
The Golden Calf is the award of the Netherlands Film Festival, which is held annually in Utrecht. The award has been presented since 1981, originally in six categories: Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Feature Film, Best Short Film, Culture Prize and Honourable mention. In 2004, there were 16 award categories, mainly because in 2003 the categories Best Photography, Best Montage, Best Music, Best Production Design, Best Sound Design were added.
Carice Anouk van Houten is a Dutch actress and singer. Her first leading role in the television film Suzy Q (1999) won her the Golden Calf for Best Acting in a Television Drama; two years later, she won the Golden Calf for Best Actress for Miss Minoes (2001).
Halina Reijn is a Dutch actress, writer and film director.
Willem Kalf was one of the most prominent Dutch still-life painters of the 17th century, the Dutch Golden Age. We first get acquainted with Willem Kalf through Arnold Houbraken, in his Groot Schilderboek, who speaks very highly of him. In fact, Kalf was a highly regarded and celebrated artist during his own lifetime. This was due to his extensive art knowledge and what we gain from Houbraken, his affable personality. His claim to fame now rests mostly on his mature still lifes, pronkstilleven in Dutch, which feature the most exotic and luxurious objects. This can be seen in for example, Still life with nautilus beaker and porcelain lidded bowl from 1662, which became an iconic piece of western art.
Suzy Q is a 1999 Dutch film starring Carice van Houten and directed by Martin Koolhoven. It is based on the childhood memories of Frouke Fokkema, who wrote the script together with Koolhoven. The film featured van Houten in her first leading role; she worked again with Koolhoven on the films AmnesiA and Brimstone.
The Northerners is a 1992 Dutch film by Alex van Warmerdam. The film was selected as the Dutch entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 65th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee. This black comedy takes places in the 1960s, in a surreal Dutch new town consisting of only a single street. It is a darkly amusing satire of bourgeois life and its repressions, pursuit of fantasies through a Freudian forest are all executed with visual and dramatic flair. Van Warmerdam himself has said that he considers this his best film.
The following is a list of winners of the Golden Calf for best actor/actress at the Nederlands Film Festival. From 2021 onwards the award became a gender-neutral award.
Jakob Smits or Jacob Smits was a Dutch-Flemish painter.
Little Tony is a 1998 Dutch comedy film drama directed by Alex van Warmerdam. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival.
The Flying Liftboy is a 1998 Dutch film directed by Ben Sombogaart. The film was based on the 1953 Dutch children's book Abeltje by Annie M. G. Schmidt. It won the Golden Calf for Best Feature Film.
Adriaan van Dis is a Dutch author. He debuted in 1983 with the novella Nathan Sid. In 1995 his book Indische Duinen, which in its narrative is a follow-up to his debut novella, was also awarded several prestigious literary awards.
Yolanthe Cabau is a Spanish-Dutch actress, model and television host.
Borgman is a 2013 Dutch psychological thriller drama film directed by Alex van Warmerdam. It was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. It was screened in the Vanguard section at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival. The film was selected as the Dutch entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 86th Academy Awards, but it was not nominated.
Schneider vs. Bax is a 2015 Dutch comedy thriller film directed by Alex van Warmerdam, starring Tom Dewispelaere and Warmerdam. It tells the story of a contract killer who has one day to assassinate a reclusive writer.
The Silent Historian is a 2011 Dutch documentary film by Simonka de Jong, shown as part of the January 2012 New York Jewish Film Festival, presented in partnership with Jewish Museum and Film Society of Lincoln Center.
Jamal Ouariachi is a Dutch writer. He was born in Amsterdam to a Dutch mother and a Moroccan father. He studied psychology at university and worked as an online therapist, before turning to writing full-time. His first novel The Destruction of Prosper Morèl appeared in 2010. His second novel Tenderness was nominated for the BNG Bank Literatuurprijs and the Gouden Uil. He contributed the first volume of 25-45-70, a trilogy written together with Daan Heerma van Voss and David Pefko. He won the EU Prize for Literature in 2017 with his novel A Hunger.
Peter Paul Muller is a Dutch actor and voice actor. In 2017, Muller won the Golden Calf for Best Actor award for his role as South African lawyer Bram Fischer in the film Bram Fischer.
Olga Zuiderhoek is a Dutch actress. She graduated in 1970 from the Amsterdam Theater School. After having been associated with the cooperative association Het Werkteater for many years, she worked for the theater companies De Mexican Hond and Orkater and played mainly in new plays by homegrown, sometimes written for her.
