During the Golden Calves Gala of the 40th edition of the Netherlands Film Festival in Utrecht, the family film Romy’s Salon was declared the big winner of the evening. The film won four prizes! Beppie Melissen received a Golden Calf for Best Actress for her portrayal of Oma Stine. Her co-star Noortje Herlaar received the Golden Calf for Best Supporting Actress. The director of the film, Mischa Kamp, was also awarded Best Director and Tamara Bos received a Golden Calf in the category Best Screenplay for her work. Romy’s Salon only failed to cash in on the nomination for Best Picture.

The psychological thriller Marionette also won a Golden Calf. Anne Winterink won the Golden Calf for Best Production Design. Marionette also had nominations in the category Best Direction and Best Sound Design.

The Golden Calves are the grand prizes of Dutch cinema, equivalents of the British BAFTAs, French Césars and German LOLAs.

The Golden Calves, the most prestigious accolades within the Dutch audiovisual sector, have been awarded by independent juries since the start of the festival in 1981. Since 2015, a broad group of professional colleagues is in charge of the allocation in the categories Feature Film and Long Documentary through an Academy system. For the categories Short Documentary, Short Film, TV Drama and Interactive, Golden Calf juries select nominees and winners from a preselection made by the NFF. Yearly by the beginning of September, the candidates are revealed. The prizes are awarded during the Golden Calves Gala, on October 2nd in 2020.