Submarine Channel

“The cake is bigger, but the slices are smaller” – Martin Koolhoven talks the streaming wars, the future of cinemas and COVID-19

Martin Koolhoven is one of the most prominent Dutch active filmmakers.

His work covers a wide range of genres. Over the years, he successfully directed a comedy (Schnitzel Paradise), a war film (Winter in Wartime) and a very much grisly western (Brimstone – his first film shot in English). He is now working on a thriller set in Jakarta in 1946.

In October, Koolhoven was at We Are Playgrounds – The Art Department, an online fest dedicated to concept art and design, to talk about the essential ingredients of a memorable story and how to put together and work with a high budget (Brimstone cost around € 15 million, not too shabby for a European production).

We were at Playgrounds as well and we seized the opportunity to pick Koolhoven’s brains on the future of cinema, the streaming wars and how COVID-19 is impacting the film industry. Enjoy the interview!

At Playgrounds, we talked with other traiblazing creators, too. Over the next weeks, we’re gonna publish a series of inspiring video interviews with them about the future of storytelling, the impact of the Coronavirus on cinema, animation and video games, and how to make it in the creative industry. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to not miss them!