Dutch film gets Oscar nomination

28 January 2004

AMSTERDAM — Dutch film De Tweeling (The Twins) has been nominated for an Academy Award in the category “best non-English language film” and is competing against four other productions, distributor RCV has announced.

“Tremendous, tremendous, tremendous,” leading actress Thekla Reuten said on Tuesday when informed of the nomination as cast and crew started immediate celebrations, news agency ANP reported.

De Tweeling, known as Twin Sisters in the US, is competing against The Barbarian Invasions (Canada), Evil (Sweden), The Twilight Samurai (Japan) en Zelary (Czech Republic). The prestigious Oscar awards will be presented on Sunday 29 February in Hollywood.

Director Ben Sombogaart was extremely pleased with the nomination: “I really did not expect this. According to various surveys, we had a good chance and I already thought that was an honour. I have printed out all of the polls and have hung them above my bed. It has not yet sunk in that my film is evidently one of the best of the world”.

De Tweeling is based on the successful book by author Tessa de Loo and tells the story of two German sisters who were separated at the end of the 1920s. Thekla Reuten, Ellen Vogel, Jaap Spijkers and Betty Schuurman play the main roles.

About 670,000 people have seen the film in the Netherlands and due to the Oscar nomination, RCV said it would release additional copies so that it can return to the big screen. The film will also be released to cinemas in the US.

Subject: Dutch news + Academy Awards