News

Wednesday, November 9 2011
Preliminary shooting for the Pal AV feature film production 'Escuadra' commenced last Saturday on the moorlands near Mook, in the Dutch province of Limburg. Director Tim Klaasse, DoP Peterjan van der Burgh and a crack team of over fifty cast and crew members set out to bring to life screen writer Marc Veerkamp's vision of an original story by producer Jos van der Pal and himself.
Against the historical backdrop of the independence wars between the protestant Dutch and their catholic Spanish rulers, the film tells the late 16th century tale of a rebel and former mercenary who ends up being hunted by both the Spanish army and an ever growing horde of Dutch rebels.

Saturday, August 13 2011
We're entering the final stages of post-production for "Album/Stone", a visually stunning experimental feature film by Spanish helmer Pablo Diartinez. It's based on award winning poetry by his countryman Jorge Díaz Martínez and was partly shot in Rotterdam, with PJ van der Burgh behind the camera. The people at Sonic Picnic are currently working on foley, as they are getting things together for the final sound mix. Filmbank intends to distribute.
Meanwhile, pre-production on our historical action drama "Escuadra" is in full swing. Preliminary shooting will start in September, with the highly talented Tim Klaase directing.
Shooting for our feature film "Kauffman's Organizer" is expected to commence in the early months of 2012. Joodse Omroep will broadcast in late 2013.

Thursday, February 24 2011
Today a special presentation of "Farewell; the ballad of a lucky man" will take place in Vila do Conde, Portugal. Film lovers in Chicago (Illinois) get their chance to see it during the Chicago European Film Festival that runs from March 4 to 31 at the Gene Siskel Film Center. In New York the film will be screened at noon on March 20th at the Lithuanian cultural centre there. First time feature film director Tomas Donela will be present. The international premiere took place last November at the renowned film festival of Mannheim-Heidelberg, where it was in competition. As usual hospitality was great and theatres were filled to capacity.

Tuesday, August 17 2010
On September the 2nd of 2010 theatrical distribution for "Zara" in Switzerland will kick off at the Keller Kino in Bern. Director Ayten Mutlu Saray and award winning composer Marcel Vaid will be present for a Q&A right after the screening, which is to be hosted by professor for Islamic Studies Reinhard Schulze.

Monday, May 10 2010
Now in it's third week of theatrical distribution, our international co-production of Tomas Donela's first feature film "Atsisveikinimas" ("Farewell") has received 5 nominations for this year's Silver Cranes.
Here they are:
Best Picture, Best Actor (Dainius Kazlauskas), Best Composer (Kipras Masanauskas),
Best Supporting Actress (Dalia Storyk), Best Supporting Actor (Albinas Keleris).
You can visit the film's website for more updates. In doing so, don't forget to check out the excerpts from Masanauskas' stunning sound track.

Friday, February 12 2010
After the Dutch ministry of social affairs and employment, the NCDO fund has followed suit in financially supporting Jacco Groen's feature film 'Lilet never happened'. Principal photography is expected to commence in Manila later this year. Danny Elsen will head the photography department. The award winning script is co-authored by seasoned Philipino screen writer Roy Iglesias. Line producer is Soc José, who has worked with Groen on many an earlier occasion.

Tuesday, November 3 2009
Today is the official starting date of DVD and VOD (video on demand) distribution for "Ode Ober" at www.indieflix.com.
Meanwhile, both "Spoorweg" and "Ode Ober" were selected for this year's international film festival of Big Bear Lake, in the mountains just east of Los Angeles. The latter of these two short fiction films is currently in competition at the inaugural 540 Film Fest in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Wednesday, October 14 2009
Rotterdam-based editor Jasper Verhorevoort has just finished work on our trailer for "Zara". Here's the link. The film itself is about to be theatrically released in Switzerland (by Cineworx) and it's currently making its rounds on the international festival circuit. On November 4th the film can be seen in Uganda, at the week long Amakula Kampala film festival, starting November 20th it will be screened at the London Kurdish Film Festival, on December 10th at the Calabria Film Festival in southern Italy and from January 25th to February 4th, 2010 at the Fajr International Film Festival in Teheran.

Thursday, July 30 2009
At the Action On Film festival in Pasadena (California) our feature film project "Lilet Never Happened" has won the award for Best Screenplay in the social drama category. This film - currently still in its development stage - is written by Jacco Groen and Roy Iglesias and deals with the broken life of a child prostitute in Manilla. Groen, who was in Pasadena to accept the award, will also direct. His earlier work includes the short film "Solina", which was nominated for a Golden Bear at the Berlinale.
"Lilet Never Happened" is supported by Childwise in Australia as well as Holland Film and Stichting Stop Kindermisbruik.

Wednesday, July 1 2009
Our pleasantly successful Super 16mm production "Ode Ober" had already been selected as one of the 337 'shorts' (out of well over 3.000 submitted films from 92 countries) to battle it out in the on-line competition of the I've Seen Films festival in Milano, Italy. Now, after one month of worldwide voting, out of those 337 the most appreciated films - including "Ode Ober" - are to be judged by the likes of Ridley Scott, Robert Rodriguez, Anton Corbijn, Rutger Hauer, Christopher Nolan and Paul Verhoeven to determine which will be awarded the 20th Century Fox H.E. International Jury Award. We keep our fingers crossed!

Monday, June 15 2009
Our international co-production "Farewell" from Australian-Lithuanian director Tomas Donela is selected for the Works In Progress section of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2009. Earlier - in its development stage - the project won a Eureka Audiovisuel proof reading award and went on to become one of the semi-finalists at the Sundance NHK international filmmakers awards. At the proceedings in the Czech Republic Tomas Donela and Jos van der Pal will represent the film, which is a co-production between Donelos Studija in Lithuania, Pal AV - motion pictures in the Netherlands and Wytwórnia Filmów Dokumentalnych i Fabularnych (WFDiF) in Poland.

Sunday, April 19 2009
On Saturday, the Pal AV production "Spoorweg" ('Losing Track') has won the award for Best Editing at the closing night gala of the California Independent Film Festival in Livermore. Editor Boelie Vis was present to accept the award. The film was also nominated for Best Cinematography (by Peterjan van der Burgh) and in the overall category of Best Short. Director/script writer Jacco Groen couldn't be more thrilled with the ongoing succes of his brainchild on the international festival scene. A mere three weeks ago he himself presented the film at CinéRail in Paris.
For those of you who would like another chance to see the film: Between the last week of July and the first week of October "Spoorweg" will be presented on a boat in Lake Ohrid, Macedonia, at the cinema of the Tirana film academy in Albania and at the City cultural centre in Belgrade, Serbia (supervised by Holland Film).

Saturday, March 7 2009
Tonight, at the award gala of the Swiss Film Awards in Luzern, composer Marcel Vaid won for best music score with his work on 'Zara'. Earlier this year that film - our and Kurdish director Ayten Mutlu Saray's first feature - was selected for the main programme of the International Film Festival Rotterdam.
Photograph © Copyright 2005-2007 eddymotion.ch - All rights reserved

Wednesday, November 12 2008
In the coming four days director Tomas Donela and Jos van der Pal will be at the 57th filmfestival of Mannheim-Heidelberg to introduce a latest edit draft of Donela's new feature film "Farewell" and in the process meet lots of colleagues from across the globe to discuss film and exchange ideas. About the director: His very first fiction film "Sonnet" was immediately selected for the competition of the international film festival of Berlin and his most recent film "The Boy and the Sea" received worldwide acclaim. In 2005 and 2007 the Australian-Lithuanian director was hired as dubbing director for Dreamworks' "Shrek the Third" and Warner Brothers' "Racing Stripes". His screenplay for "Farewell" reached the semi-finals of the Sundance NHK International Filmmakers competition in 2004. Post-production is expected to be completed in June of 2009.

Monday, September 29 2008
"Ode Ober" has won the award for 'best edited short' last night at the awards ceremony of the Manhattan Short filmfest in New York. Director Hiba Vink and novelist and radio personality Arjen Lubach - one of the film's actors - were present to accept the award on behalf of editor Annelies van Woerden and all those who worked on the successful end result.
In May of this year, in the same week the film was screened at Cannes, it had already won the Binger audience award at NFTVM Vers.

Tuesday, September 16 2008
Our feature film "Zara", a co-production with Gabriele Kranzelbinder's KGP in Austria and M.A. in Switzerland, is selected for the competition of the Middle East International Film Festival in Abu Dhabi. The October 18th screening there, at the auditorium of the dazzling Emirates Palace, will be the film's official world première. "Zara" is co-financed by the Hubert Bals Fund of the International Film Festival Rotterdam.

Sunday, September 7 2008
The annual Manhattan Short filmfest has selected 'Ode Ober' as one of its 12 finalists for the 2008 edition. Within a single week - from September 21st to September 28th - the 12 films will be screened in over 200 theatres world wide. On the last day, the overall winner will be announced during a closing ceremony in New York.

Saturday, August 2 2008
Apart from being in competition at the Netherlands Film Festival 2006, 'Losing Track' (original Dutch title: "Spoorweg") has been selected for the international film festivals of Rotterdam (Rotterdam Perspective), Santiago de Chile (Santiago Festival del corto metraje), Bucharest, De Reel (Australia), Osnabrück, Münster (Filmspiegel programme), Szolnok, Rouen (Nordic Film Festival), Kerala, Pasadena (Action On Film), Sapporo and Skopje (Dutch Film Days).

Tuesday, March 11 2008
The Rotterdam Film Fund has agreed to provide funding for two more of our feature films:
- Development money will be made available for the Dutch-Moroccan road movie ‘Safi’ (Arabic for ‘enough’, ‘a good moment to stop’). It tells the story of the end of a life long friendship. The municipality of Dordrecht also supports. Cinema Delicatessen intends to distribute.
- The other film is the experimental feature ‘Stone’, produced in co-operation with Taurus Productions in Brussels. The new funds, in addition to an earlier grant by the Flemish Audiovisual Fund (VAF), are to be used for the production and post-production stages.
The film’s story line is inspired by the award winning poetry of Jorge Díaz Martínez (‘La piel de la memoria’, IV Premio Vicente Núñez). The Filmbank intends to distribute.

Friday, October 19 2007
Bea de Visser and Hans Eijses of Anotherfilm have come on board as lead producers for Stefanieke Veenstra’s feature film project ‘Real Estate’. At the Muenster Film Festival’s 2007 screen writing competition, they were very much impressed by Veenstra’s unique vision and screen writing skills.
De Visser, an acclaimed visual artist in her own right, and Eijses, a hands-on art film facilitator, have collaborated on several projects. One of them being Ben van Lieshout's most recent film 'The Muse' (2007), featuring Belgian star Matthias Schoenaerts.

Thursday, July 26 2007
Actor Joop Keesmaat, winner of the prestigious Louis d'Or 2006, has agreed to play the lead role in Hiba Vink's 'Ode Ober' ('Awaiterpraise'). Shooting is set to begin on August 21st.
Keesmaat's stage career is spanning more than four decades. Next to roles in 'Angels in America', 'MacBeth' and 'Anna Karenina', it includes such socially engaged highlights as 'The Others', about the persecution of gays during World War II, Peter Handke's 'Publikumsbeschimpfung' and lately 'Hersenschimmen' ('Phantasmagoria'), in which he subtly portrayed a dementing civil servant.
Photo courtesy of theatercentraal.nl

Friday, June 15 2007
Pal AV has received a grant from the Thuiskopie fund for the development of director Jacco Groen's next fiction project 'Furiël'. This pilot for a 13 part tv-series tells the story of the troublesome young 'Sci-Fi freak' Simon, who learns to look after other people for a change. But hey, did I say 'people'? Looks more like some sort of alien to me..

Monday, December 4 2006
Today, just outside the city of Batman in eastern Turkey, we wrapped up shooting for "Zara", Ayten Mutlu Saray's first feature film. As in her short film "La Mort en Exil", selected for the 2002 Cannes film festival, the film's storyline deals with the consequences of a life away from home. The film is a co-production with Amour Fou Filmproduktion in Vienna and Pantheon Film in Istanbul, with financial support from the Initiative Authoren Kino, the Rotterdam Film Fund and the Hubert Bals Fund.

Monday, July 17 2006
The Thuiskopie fund will financially support Hiba Vink's 'Ode Ober'. This short experimental film on the communication (or lack thereof) between waiters and their clients, will be shot on Super 16 by talented cameraman Wouter Westendorp. A-Film ('The Lord of the Rings', Paul Verhoeven's 'Black Book') intends to distribute.

Friday, June 30 2006
NPS Television has bought the national broadcast rights for Jacco Groen's 'Losing Track'. Shooting for that film - on 35mm cinemascope - has been successfully completed. In no small part thanks to the people at Museum Railroad Goes-Borsele and the excellent film crew. Post production is currently underway (CoArt CGI is working on the special effects and Soundpalette is designing and mixing the sound tracks).

Thursday, March 2 2006
The project 'Hoffman's Organizer; on the relative meaninglessness of events in real space' has received financial support from the Stimuleringsfonds as well as the Rotterdam Film Fund. The money is to be used for developing Jos van der Pal's script for a 24 minute short into a feature length film script. Eveline Verwoerd has been contracted as script editor. Co-producer the Joodse Omroep will broadcast the completed film in three episodes.

Wednesday, October 5 2005
Pal AV's 'Losing Track', a co-production with Spring Film in Amsterdam and the Belgian production company Cinelight, has received financial support from the Rotterdam Film Fund (in addition to an earlier grant by the Dutch Film Fund). The film by writer-director Jacco Groen is the first internationally co-produced short in years. Belgium's Kinepolis group guarantees its distribution throughout the Benelux region.

Monday, July 12 2004
The project 'Men with Brains' is selected as one of nine Dutch entries in the Netherlands Production Platform. This international co-production 'market' is held annually as part of the Dutch Film Festival. 'Men with Brains', to be directed by Saskia Diesing, is being written by Marc Veerkamp and Jos van der Pal who will take this opportunity to pitch their project to an audience of potential European co-producers.

Monday, June 14 2004
On July 1st, Pal AV will move into its new office in Rotterdam. The purpose of that initiative is to better facilitate the recent drama activities, as well as to survey possible alliances with other filmmakers. The office space, a former grocery store and Turkish coffee house, offers workspaces for up to 4 employees. Moving here was made possible through support of the OBR development board and film commissioner Jacques van Heijningen.

Tuesday, November 4 2003
After the International Scientific Film Festival in the Hungarian town of Szolnok, 'The Frog in the Coffee Grinder' has also been selected for the Film Spiegel-program of the Muenster Film Festival 2003. The film is screened in the animated section of the program, which focuses on the theme of artificial intelligence. Some of the other Dutch films to be seen at the festival are 'Godforsaken' ("Van God Los"), 'Interview' and 'Yes Nurse, No Nurse'.

Friday, August 22 2003
Today the world premiere of 'The Frog in the Coffee Grinder' took place at Space Expo, the visitor's center of the European Space Agency in the Dutch beach resort of Noordwijk. A fitting back drop, since part of the 24 minute film is set in a solar observatory that orbits our Sun. The space age fairy tale was received with the proper mixture of enthusiasm and confusion by the invited guests, crew members and cast.