First Floor Features

First Floor Features

Industry	Film
Founded	1984 (1984)
Founders	Laurens Geels Dick Maas Robert Swaab
Defunct	25 February 2004 (2004-02-25)
Fate	Bankruptcy
Products	Motion pictures

The Flodder set in 1986.

First Floor Features is a Dutch film production company founded by Laurens Geels and Dick Maas.

History

First Floor Features was founded in 1984

The first film the studio released was Abel in 1986. ^[1]

In 1991, Geels and Maas built a film studio in Almere. In March 1991, the studio complex was opened by Minister Hedy d'Ancona and the two studio spaces of 900 and almost 1700 m², respectively, could also be rented by other film producers. However, interest was disappointing, and the 10 million guilder Film Factory was sold to the NOB with First Floor Features becoming a tenant. The outside area of the studios consisted of the set houses of Zonnedael, used for filming Flodder. In 1999, the house for Big Brother was placed here.

In 1998, the company focused on the English-language market. The 1999 film Do Not Disturb attracted few viewers, and the 2001 English-language remake of the film The Lift, Down even became a flop. ^[2] Dick Maas left the organization in 2001.

The cost of the English-language film Resistance turned out to be much higher than expected, and FFF ran into financial problems from which the company was unable to recover. ^[3] On 25 February 2004, the company was declared bankrupt. ^[4]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Director	Distributor
1986	Abel	Alex van Warmerdam	Concorde Film
	Flodder	Dick Maas
1988	Amsterdamned
1990	Wings of Fame	Otakar Votocek	Cannon Film Distributors
	My Blue Heaven	Ronald Beer	Cannon Tuschinski Film Distribution
1991	Een dubbeltje te weinig	André van Duren	The Movies
	Oh Boy!	Orlow Seunke	Concorde Film
1992	The Northerners	Alex van Warmerdam	United International Pictures
	Flodders in America	Dick Maas
1995	Long Live the Queen	Esmé Lammers	Concorde Film
	Flodder 3	Dick Maas
1997	Character	Mike van Diem	Buena Vista International
1999	De Rode Zwaan	Martin Lagestee
	Do Not Disturb	Dick Maas
2001	Down
2002	Tom & Thomas	Esmé Lammers
	Valentín	Alejandro Agresti	Cinemien
2003	Resistance	Todd Komarnicki	A-Film Distribution

Television

• Flodder (1993-1999)
• Westzijde Posse (1996-1997)

References

1. Beerekamp, Hans (31 July 1985). "Film Alex van Warmerdam eerste produkt nieuwe studio" [Film Alex van Warmerdam first product new studio]. NRC Handelsblad (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 28 December 2024. Retrieved 28 December 2024.
2. Blokker, Bas; Berkhout, Karel (16 April 2004). "Al het geld is weg". NRC Handelsblad (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 26 August 2024. Retrieved 16 February 2025.
3. "Filmproducent in financiële nood". NRC Handelsblad (in Dutch). 11 November 2003. Archived from the original on 6 February 2025. Retrieved 6 February 2025.
4. Blokker, Bas; Berkhout, Karel (19 March 2004). "`Filmbedrijf Geels is failliet". NRC Handelsblad (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 5 February 2025. Retrieved 5 February 2025.