30/09/2002 - Arnold Heslenfeld is the new Features Section director. Lots of novelties and an additional Euros6.8 million

Following the appointment of Arnold Heslenfeld as the new chief of the Features Section, the Netherlands Film Fund (Nederlands Fonds voor de Film) is taking on a bigger role in the way Dutch cinema is managed.
The Dutch Secretary of State for Culture set aside an additional Euros6.8 million for the Fund for 2002-2003-
This money will be spent on supporting screenplay and theatrical distribution. From 1 January, 2003, the Fund will assign additional grants to the authors of films that received a positive reception either by audiences or at festivals, to help with their forthcoming projects. Speaking at the Utrecht Film Festival, DFF director, Toine Berbers, said he intends focusing more on marketing and promotion.
Berbers’ goals include contrasting Dutch cinema’s bad reputation, whose 1994 share of the national market was just 0.8 per cent, although it stood at 9.3 per cent in 2001. One possible solution is to rationalise theatrical release dates.
The Fund joined with other institutions like Holland Film, the Netherlands Film Festival and the Filmmuseum film library to launch a new Internet data base dedicated to Dutch film from 1985 to the present day, with fully comprehensive information on 20,000 films, documentaries and dramas, with a search-by title, name or institution engine.