It is almost exactly a year since Bero Beyer took over as CEO of the Netherlands Film Fund. He had just left his job as director of the International Film Festival Rotterdam and came into the Fund full of energy and ideas…and then Covid hit.

“In late January, I had still been running IFFR. We had an important segment on Hong Kong cinema…the first rumours of something else appearing were just starting to dribble in [from there],” Beyer remembers of how he heard a pandemic could be on its way. A week or two later, Mike Goodridge, director of the Macao Festival, warned him about people in Asia who had been stuck indoors for weeks because of the virus. This, he realised, was going to be something very serious.

Beyer started at the Fund in the week that the World Health Organisation issued its first warnings about a global crisis. “It was all hands on deck. We created a corona crisis team which started meeting every morning to discuss what does it mean, how can we help,” he remembers. “We were slightly ahead even of our government which started to announce restrictive measures in the days after.”

One priority was to communicate with the producers who were reliant on the Fund, in order to keep their projects going. The crisis team were performing “triage” on productions that had been directly hit. At the same time, they were looking to the future.

The budget which would have been allocated to productions in the latter part of the year was quickly shifted. The priority was now to take care of those working in the sector whose livelihoods were suddenly under threat. In April, the Fund and Netflix (which stumped up €1million) announced a new relief fund for film and TV productions to help the hardest hit workers affected by the virus. “Hundreds of people were supported that way. It was a really quick and strong effort,” says Beyer.

The Government also rallied to the cause, providing €700 million in support to the cultural sector. 

As an experienced producer, Beyer realised that the safety requirements required to make shooting possible would add 10-20% to normal budgets. His predecessor at the Fund, Doreen Boonekamp, was overseeing the creation of a sound and workable Covid-19 protocol for filmmakers. It was essential that extra money was put aside to cover the added costs incurred.

By the early summer, it became apparent that another key problem had to be addressed. Producers could not secure insurance. That meant they couldn’t risk shooting. There was too great a danger that the government might shut down their productions or that, if a crew or cast member fell ill with the virus, their films would fall apart.  

“If you have this Sword of Damocles hanging over your head, that would be irresponsible,” Beyer notes of the impossible situation in which producers were being put. The Fund therefore set up a “guarantee facility” to underwrite new movies. At this stage, in May and June 2020, it wasn’t clear how long the pandemic would last, but the facility had to be designed with longevity in mind.

There was also a reality check. Fund staff realised it would be impossible for producers or festivals to deliver on the promises they had made when originally securing their funding. They could see the cash flow problems that producers were already experiencing. It was therefore decided to bring forward their next payment instalments so they still had money flowing.

Exhibitors needed help too. Art house cinemas and cultural centres were usually locally financed, but €4.5 million in extra public money was secured to tide them over in a year in which venues were either shut altogether or operating at limited capacity. The Fund also came up with a programme to help distributors, some of whom had had to pull their movies from theatres at the last minute. They had already spent their marketing budgets but the Fund provided support to re-launch their films when it was safe to do so.

There were also upsides. It soon became clear that the hiatus caused by Covid would allow filmmakers to take more time to develop their projects. “We launched Film Fast Forward for writers and writer-director teams. This was basically R&D (research and development) grants.” Forty-four of these of grants of €10,000-€15,000 were issued.

Another initiative was “Lockdown Cinema” which encouraged filmmakers to come up with bold new works addressing the challenges caused by Covid. Through this, the Fund supported 11 new projects including shorts, features, animation and documentaries. These included films by major directors, among them Paula van der Oest’s Love In A Bottle and Urszula Antoniak’s Splendid Isolation.

Yes, Beyer had begun his new job with firm ideas about what new policies the Fund should be pursuing. “All the things I wanted to move the Fund toward became blatantly obviously because of the crisis. We were more inclined to double down, accelerate and push through rather than to put everything on hold.” 

He cites issues like diversity and inclusivity as well as the fast shifting relationship between producers, distributors and the huge new streaming platforms. It was time anyway for the industry to pivot and the Fund has been able to use Covid to accelerate the process.

“We used the time to hire more people,” the Fund head explains. In September, four new consultants were welcomed aboard; Robil Rahantoeknam, Rogier de Blok, Urias Boerleider and Sherin Seyda. They were brought in to work alongside Suzanne van Voorst, Signe Zeilich-Jensen, Nathalie Alonso Casale, Dick Tuinder, Erik van Drunen and Iwana Chronis. Their task was to broaden and revitalise the commissioning process.

At the same time as supporting established filmmakers during the Covid crisis, the Fund is also looking to encourage young, untested talent. Film Fast and Furious for aspiring directors and screenwriters; Cypher Cinema for self-taught creatives; and Music Mayday for projects based around music in all its forms, were among the programmes designed to fast track projects from newcomers who might otherwise have struggled to get started in the industry. Meanwhile, documentary makers whose plans have been thrown awry by Covid are supported through the Doc Lock programme. The Fund is also assisting the many freelance workers who fall between the cracks of the various financing schemes, but who remain vital to the long term health of the sector.

Twelve months on, as he looks on what has, by any measure, been a turbulent first year at the Fund, Beyer is in guardedly optimistic mood. 

“Basically, we’re all zooming our butts off,” he says of the constant online video meetings he has been holding. “Let’s state first that the death toll is tremendous, the tragedy is huge, the economic impact is unbearable and the social impact will be seen in the next few years,” he adds but also points to the new found solidarity within the Dutch industry. “There is a more communal sense of realising what cinema can be - and that is a good thing.”