_{Yasmine's Wedding by Johan Nijenhuis}

DFW International Cannes Marché slate is as diverse as it is dynamic, comprising six films, two of which are new to buyers, a further two of which are receiving their physical market premieres.

First up is the romantic comedy Yasmine’s Wedding**, by Johan Nijenhuis, about a Moroccan Dutch girl who is torn between her own ambition to become a successful lawyer and her family's expectation that she should find herself a husband (because after all, she's already 26!). 

The film, which will be released in Dutch cinemas in June, is reminiscent of much-loved films such as My Big Fat Greek Wedding, says DFW international sales director Charlotte Henskens, who is targeting countries that have large diaspora communities that recognise and understand the clash of cultures evident within the film. These include territories such as France, Spain and Germany.

“Yasmine’s Wedding taps into the experiences of many young women whose parents or grandparents left their homeland to start a new future in the global West. The struggle between the values within their families, and the lifestyle in the countries they grew up in, often clash, but as is the case with this film, can also create a beautiful, heartwarming new reality,” Henskens comments.

The company also has high hopes for Costa!!* by Jon Karthaus, the long-awaited revival of the 2001 Dutch cult classic Costa! by Johan Nijenhuis. In the sequel Anna (Abbey Hoes) and her best friend Bibi (Stephanie van Eer) travel to the Spanish coast to visit the famous Costa club where her mother Frida (Katja Schuurman) used to work as a club promoter. But when they arrive they discover that the place is now a run-down karaoke bar. So Anna and her new friends go all-out to win the Battle of the Bars and make Costa once again the hottest club on the strip.

The film opened in The Netherlands late April to a rapturous reception, reaching Golden Film status (100,000 admissions) within a few days. “Costa!! is this year’s perfect sunny cinema escape,” says DFW’s Henskens. “We had such a great premier because the audience was just clapping and shouting, and it was really fun. The energy was so high. That is something that we really see now, that people are looking for fun films after two years of Covid depression, and of course now the war in Ukraine. People are really looking forward to see something uplifting.”

The company’s other two market premieres include the love drama Sea of Time** by Theu Boermans which stars father and son Gijs and Reinout Scholten van Aschat, who play the same role but 35 years apart. The film, based on a true story, examines how a couple deals with the death of their son both after the tragic event and when they meet again more than three decades later.

Pim van Hoeve’s Ninjas Down the Street** is the sequel to the successful Pirates Down the Street* (2020) which sold to (among other territories) US, Germany,  Italy and France. All territories are available on the new film.

The DFW International Cannes Marché slate is completed by the teenage dramedy Bittersweet Sixteen (written and co-directed by 15-year-old Anna Verheyen, daughter of Belgian director Jan Verheyen) about Lotte who is looking forward to her sixteenth birthday after a difficult year; and Silverstar* (directed by Diede in‘t Veld) about the adventures of a young girl and her best friend, the white horse of the film’s title.

DFW International was launched in 2019 at AFM before the company attended EFM in February 2020. But then Covid happened. “We only had two film markets to get the DFW International brand known - and then everything basically collapsed. So this will be the first market that will be live again. We have seen over the past two years that it is also possible to find a new network online, but it is of course not the same as meeting in person. For the past two years we have been building a lot behind the scenes and now we are ready to conquer the world with our Dutch titles,” underlines Henskens.

For more information on DFW International, visit their official website here. For more information on Marché du Film, click here. You can read the full Dutch screening schedule here.
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*Film is supported by the Netherlands Film Fund
**Film is supported by the Netherlands Film Fund and Production Incentive