iCM Forum's Favourite Movies from the Benelux

[Lonewolf2003]

iCM Forum's Favourite Movies from the Benelux
Nominations



It's time to chose our favorite movies from Belgium, the Netherlands and/or Luxembourg, often know under the portmanteau Benelux.

The deadline is August 30th

• Shorts, mini-series and TV-episodes from anthology series where the episodes are unrelated, are allowed. Tv-series aren't allowed.*
  *Imdb will be leading in this, but if you have good arguments exceptions to the rule can be made in consultation
• Imdb-lists or iCM-lists are accepted. (If you can't make one of those, ask another user to help you out.)
• Lists can be any length.
• Each nominee can only be named once (of course)
• Lists can be ranked or unranked or partially-ranked. In a partially-ranked list, the top X films are ranked and everything after that point is unranked. When not specified I will consider a list as ranked.

Some help:
Movies from Belgium you rated on IMDb
Movies from the Netherlands you rated on IMDb
Movies from Luxembourg you rated on IMDb
Like always these do include co-productions, so you have to filter those out according to your own judgement. Of course you can always ask others here for their opinions.

Participants (27)Show

72allinncallme
Carmel1379
jvv
beavis
Ivan0716
albajos
Onderhond
Traveller
rnilsson19
mathiasa
Lakigigar
Perception de Ambiguity
Fergenaprido
Caracortada
Coryn
russa03
Gordon_Gekko
joachimt (unranked36)
mjf314
zzzorf
hurluberlu (unranked10)
Mysterious Dude
Jimi Antiloop
Gorro
John Milton
maxwelldeux
Lonewolf2003

Please check if your list is stated and linked correctly. So there won't be any hassle with having to recalculate the results after we have started. Any volunteer who wants to count participants with me?

[72allinncallme]

A short list from me. Ranked.
https://www.icheckmovies.com/lists/my+f ... inncallme/

[Carmel1379]

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls048404426/ (ranked)

[jvv]

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls048404203/ (RANKED)

[beavis]

https://www.icheckmovies.com/lists/icmp ... is/beavis/

there is some rare stuff with very few checks on there, Dirty Picture even has only one
but I hope that inspires others to look out for my favorites
(and it is also ranked)

EDIT: I just made my Benelux watchlist on Letterboxd public
https://letterboxd.com/beavis/list/watchlist-benelux/
so you know why some movies are absent from my list, and I really need to give Spoorloos a rewatch (has been ages and I didn't greatly connect with it back then…)

[Coryn]

How are 4 months, 3weeks, 2 days and the house that jack built Belgian?

Never mind, I see they are coproductions.

[beavis]

I left out a lot of great co-productions, simply because these movies aren't really from Benelux filmmakers. European cinema is known to work a lot with co-financing across borders, so it can be hard to figure out sometimes, but I hope people will make a little more effort than simply looking at imdb and ranking anything that has a Benelux country attached to it...

[Ivan0716]

https://www.icheckmovies.com/lists/benelux/ivan0716/

[Coryn]

I left out a lot of great co-productions, simply because these movies aren't really from Benelux filmmakers. European cinema is known to work a lot with co-financing across borders, so it can be hard to figure out sometimes, but I hope people will make a little more effort than simply looking at imdb and ranking anything that has a Benelux country attached to it...

True, I was really confused at first. A lot of movies have nothing to do with Benelux except for financing

[joachimt]

How are 4 months, 3weeks, 2 days and the house that jack built Belgian?

Never mind, I see they are coproductions.

You mean somebody voted for them or you wondered why they popped up on your search results?

4 months, 3weeks, 2 days = Romanian
the house that jack built = eh.... Danish? Hard to say these days with Lars.

Don't vote for these in a Benelux poll.

[albajos]

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls048450004/ ranked

I have seen more favorites on IDFA but they were never added to imdb

[Onderhond]

List: https://www.icheckmovies.com/lists/best ... onderhond/ (ranked)
Visual stimulant & inspiration: https://www.onderhond.com/toplist/benelux

Hot tip: Nuite Noir. A bit of Lynch (Eraserhead), a bit of Cronenberg (Naked Lunch), a whole lot of cool.

[Traveller]

Ranked.

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls048450849/

Could only come up with a short list as well.

[rnilsson19]

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls048457335/

I've yet to decide whether to include Akerman or not.

[TraverseTown]

Has this poll ever been run before?

[mathiasa]

ranked: https://www.icheckmovies.com/lists/mats ... /mathiasa/

[Lakigigar]

https://www.icheckmovies.com/lists/top+ ... lakigigar/

ranked, will see some belgian movies and spoorloos before the deadline, so possibly some changes expected.

Will do some advertising on moviemeter.nl

[Perception de Ambiguity]

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls048453006/

[joachimt]

Has this poll ever been run before?

No

[joachimt]

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls048453006/

Profit & Nothing But! is Haitian.

[Fergenaprido]

Here's my list: https://www.imdb.com/list/ls048454054/ (ranked)

Submitting early for once. May get a chance to watch a few more before the deadline, but will be travelling most of the month (including maybe through Benelux itself!) so it's also probable that nothing will change. There are a lot of notable films I've yet to see, so looking forward to the results of this list to help me prioritize.

Also, this is one of the few countries/regions for which we do polls that has a decent-sized userbase here on the forum; would be interesting to see the biggest differences in the results from Beneluxers and non-Beneluxers.

[beavis]

only difference might be the chance to have seen more (because of the local releases and no need for subtitles). I have seen 114 Belgian movies and 284 Dutch movies (and 0 from Luxemburg it seems, although the MovieMeter database gives me 27 movies if I select co-productions… but then, I get 406 movies for the Netherlands and 244 for Belgium... the point is, I've seen a fair share of movies from these countries). But looking at the Benelux-users here, the taste seems to diverge just as much as between them and the rest of the users here, so it won't really give you any useful statistiscs or results I think...

[Caracortada]

Great that there's finally a Benelux poll! Dutch movies will probably get much more entries than Flemish, and the brothers Dardenne will probably dominate the Belgian part. I will include some old Flemish comedies and farmer movies, but I don't think those will get much support. It's certainly a part of the world that deserves its own poll.

[Caracortada]

ICM Poll: Big in the Benelux

The top 4 contains one movie from the Netherlands, one from Flanders, one from Wallonia and one from Brussels.

1930s 03
1940s 02
1950s 04
1960s 08
1970s 15
1980s 22
1990s 16
2000s 28
2010s 33

[Coryn]

ICM Poll: Big in the Benelux

The top 4 contains one movie from the Netherlands, one from Flanders, one from Wallonia and one from Brussels.

RIP German part of Belgium.
little rip for Luxembourg

[Coryn]

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls048414384/

Ranked

Only voting for movies I rated 7 or higher.

[Caracortada]

ICM Poll: Big in the Benelux

The top 4 contains one movie from the Netherlands, one from Flanders, one from Wallonia and one from Brussels.

RIP German part of Belgium.
little rip for Luxembourg

These two regions don't really seem to have a movie industry. I included Girl with a Pearl Earring low in my list, which is a British film, but shot in the three Benelux countries.

[joachimt]

It's hard to decide when a movie by Joris Ivens still counts as Dutch and when it is French. He made a lot of movies living in France. I think I'll draw the line there with subject matter and/or filming locations.

[joachimt]

Lonewolf, do you think De zevensprong is allowed? It's a continuous story, one season, 13 episodes.

[Ebbywebby]

I don't know nuttin' about movies from...Luxembourg (??), but IMDb cites films including:

Match Point
JCVD
The Pillow Book
More [1969]
Sunset Song
Free Willy 2
An American Werewolf in Paris
Feardotcom
Shadow of the Vampire
Hysteria
Rescue Dawn
Girl with a Pearl Earring

Really?

[Teproc]

Sample #456786123 in the case of "IMDB is not a good way to determine what country a movie is from unless you're interested in the fine mysteries of coproduction financing".

[albajos]

Anyway. The Pillow Book is not like the others. Greenaway get most of his movies funded in the Netherlands nowadays

[joachimt]

I don't know nuttin' about movies from...Luxembourg (??), but IMDb cites films including:

Match Point
JCVD
The Pillow Book
More [1969]
Sunset Song
Free Willy 2
An American Werewolf in Paris
Feardotcom
Shadow of the Vampire
Hysteria
Rescue Dawn
Girl with a Pearl Earring

Really?

Check every movie one by one. If it's the only production country, it's fine. If it's the third or forth, very probably not eligible. But then check content, director, cast, filming locations, etc..... and decide for yourself. Country/region-polls are a bit more work because of this, you can't just rely on IMDb advanced search.
And check if it's on a certain country list on iCM.

[russa03]

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls048462096/ ranked

[Gordon_Gekko]

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls048413983/ Ranked

[joachimt]

Anyway. The Pillow Book is not like the others. Greenaway get most of his movies funded in the Netherlands nowadays

Does that make those movies Dutch? They don't feel Dutch enough to me.

[albajos]

Anyway. The Pillow Book is not like the others. Greenaway get most of his movies funded in the Netherlands nowadays

Does that make those movies Dutch? They don't feel Dutch enough to me.

If Celine Dion can win the Eurovision for Switzerland, then Peter Greenaway can make movies in the Netherlands. I would think it's easier for him to get full artistic control outside of the UK.

[Teproc]

I don't know nuttin' about movies from...Luxembourg (??), but IMDb cites films including:

Match Point
JCVD
The Pillow Book
More [1969]
Sunset Song
Free Willy 2
An American Werewolf in Paris
Feardotcom
Shadow of the Vampire
Hysteria
Rescue Dawn
Girl with a Pearl Earring

Really?

Check every movie one by one. If it's the only production country, it's fine. If it's the third or forth, very probably not eligible. But then check content, director, cast, filming locations, etc..... and decide for yourself. Country/region-polls are a bit more work because of this, you can't just rely on IMDb advanced search.
And check if it's on a certain country list on iCM.

I mean, it seems easier to just look at the movies and go "is this Dutch/Belgian/Luxembourgian ?"... admittedly some cases can be tough especially for Wallonia, but that will wade through most of it quicker than checking for production countries. the IMDB filter gives you a manageable list to start with though.

[Onderhond]

Belgium is pretty eager to fund international cinema, especially with French films like Grave or animation like Les Triplettes de Belleville it can get a little muddy.
Imo, it's better to be more conservative when choosing what to enter, but that's personal. I sure hope nobody is going to submit Free Willy 2 or Feardotcom though.

[joachimt]

I don't know nuttin' about movies from...Luxembourg (??), but IMDb cites films including:

Match Point
JCVD
The Pillow Book
More [1969]
Sunset Song
Free Willy 2
An American Werewolf in Paris
Feardotcom
Shadow of the Vampire
Hysteria
Rescue Dawn
Girl with a Pearl Earring

Really?

Check every movie one by one. If it's the only production country, it's fine. If it's the third or forth, very probably not eligible. But then check content, director, cast, filming locations, etc..... and decide for yourself. Country/region-polls are a bit more work because of this, you can't just rely on IMDb advanced search.
And check if it's on a certain country list on iCM.

I mean, it seems easier to just look at the movies and go "is this Dutch/Belgian/Luxembourgian ?"... admittedly some cases can be tough especially for Wallonia, but that will wade through most of it quicker than checking for production countries. the IMDB filter gives you a manageable list to start with though.

"Is this...?" is enough to ask for a lot of movies. So yeah, I didn't mean to check everything for every movie. I can safely mark a lot of movies as Dutch, simply because I know the movies are Dutch by language, filmmaker, etc... But you can't simply ask the question for everything and be done with it like that.

To me "Is this...?" is often a tough question to answer. If a movie has a French title, I often don't know if it's from France or French part of Belgium or even from Canada. There are also movies with an English title and spoken in English, which can still be considered Dutch. If I wouldn't look closely, I would probably dismiss Brimstone for example. It's in English. The leading actors are Engilsh/American. It is shot in lots of countries, but not the Netherlands. It looks to me like it is set in USA. Etc... But... the director is Dutch and more importantly, it won a Gouden Kalf at the Dutch film festival. So who am I to consider this NOT Dutch.
Mr. Nobody is a Belgian example. Without looking at the iCM page, I wouldn't have thought of this as a Belgian movie.