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. 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).
The Netherlands Film Festival is an annual film festival, held in September and October of each year in the city of Utrecht.
The Golden Film is a film award recognizing domestic box office achievements in the Netherlands. The Golden Film is awarded to films from the Netherlands once they have sold 100,000 tickets. The award is an initiative by the Netherlands Film Festival and the Netherlands Film Fund to increase media attention for Dutch films. For each awarded film there is one trophy for the film crew and another for the film cast.
Bluebird is a 2004 Dutch television film directed by Mijke de Jong. It is the first in a trilogy of films made by de Jong about young women becoming adults. The film was selected by the Netherlands as its official Foreign Language Film submission for the 78th Academy Awards, but was disqualified by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences because it had been shown on television.
The following is a list of winners of the Golden Calf for best long feature film at the NFF.
Little Crumb is a 1999 Dutch family drama film written and directed by Maria Peters, based on the 1923 novel by Chris van Abkoude. The film was produced by Shooting Star Filmcompany and KRO. it was released in the Netherlands on December 23, 1999, by Buena Vista International.
The Polish Bride is a 1998 Dutch film directed by Karim Traïdia and written by Kees van der Hulst. The film was selected as the Dutch entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 71st Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.
Maartje Nevejan is a Dutch documentary filmmaker, best known for multimedia productions like 14 and one stations, Couscous & Cola. and The National Canta Ballet
Emily Abigail Ashley Hoes Gauna is a Dutch film and television actress. She won a Golden Calf for Best Actress at the Netherlands Film Festival and a Shooting Stars Award at the Berlin International Film Festival for her role in Nena (2014).
Marwan Kenzari is a Dutch actor. Starting his career in 2008, he first came to prominence for his role in the 2013 film Wolf, which earned him a Golden Calf award for Best Actor. Since 2016, he has been starring in English-language films, including Aladdin (2019), The Old Guard (2020) and Black Adam (2022), which earned him international recognition.
Sonia Herman Dolz is a Dutch film director, screenwriter and documentary filmmaker, who gained international fame in 1993 with her documentary "Romance de Valentía" about the Spanish bullfighting.
Mijke de Jong is a Dutch film director, screenwriter and producer. She is known for creating films such as Bluebird (2004), Frailer (2014), Layla M. (2016) and God Only Knows (2019). Layla M. was selected as the 2018 Dutch entry for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.
Ena Sendijarević is an Amsterdam-based Bosnian filmmaker and screenwriter. She is best known for her short film Import (2016) and her debut feature Take Me Somewhere Nice (2019). The latter was part of the Cannes ACID programme at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival and won the Heart of Sarajevo award for Best Feature Film at the 2019 Sarajevo Film Festival.
Narcosis is a 2022 Dutch drama film directed and co-written by Martijn de Jong. The film won 3 Golden Calf. It was selected as the Dutch entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards, but it was not nominated.
Sweet Dreams is a 2023 drama film written and directed by Ena Sendijarević, and starring Renée Soutendijk and Hayati Azis. An international co-production between the Netherlands and Sweden, the film is set on a plantation in the Dutch East Indies around the beginning of the 20th century and takes a critical look at the Dutch colonial past.
Baghdad Messi is a 2023 drama film directed by Sahim Omar Kalifa and written by Kobe Van Steenberghe. It is about an Iraqi boy who, after losing his leg in a terrorist attack, will fight to continue enjoying his passion: soccer. It is based on the 2012 short film of the same name by the same director. It is a co-production between Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Iraq.
Yasha and Leonid Brezhnev is a 2024 absurdist tragicomedy film written and directed by Edgar Baghdasaryan. Starring Mais Sarkisyan as a retired Armenian reluctant to accept the dissolution of the Soviet Union imagines conversations with former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and other communist leaders.
