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Dutch distributor Huub Roelvink, founder and managing director of Cherry Pickers Filmdistributie, has been selected for the inaugural EFM Distributor Award recognizing his contribution and commitment to arthouse distribution.
He was chosen by three-person professional jury consisting of Natalie Jeung at French sales company Kinolgy, Kim Foss at Danish distributor Camera Film and Leila Hamid at Germany’s X-Verleih.
Created in 2016, Cherry Pickers is a major force in arthouse distribution in the Netherlands with recent titles including Hard Truths, The Kingdom and 2024 Berlinale titles No Other Land and My Favourite Cake.
The €7.5k ($7.8k) prize, sponsored by the Netherlands-based film and TV rights management company Fintage House, will be presented to Roelvink at the European Film Market (EFM) kick-off event on Febuary 12.
Incoming Berlinale Pro director and EFM head Tanja Meissner has spearheaded the award.
“I wanted to introduce an award within the EFM to recognise the crucial societal and cultural value of the work of European Arthouse Distributors which is often undervalued,” she said.
“While awards mostly go to filmmakers and producers, films only truly exist once they’re distributed and reach their intended audiences. We often discuss the importance of fostering cultural exchange by upholding diversity and showing different perspectives, and cinema has a really powerful role to play in that. Arthouse Distributors contribute not only culturally, but also economically and politically by reinforcing the foundation of European democracy.”
The jury said they has chosen Roelvink for his passionate and pragmatic approach to curating his slate.
“Huub Roelvink from Cherry Pickers Film Distribution in the Netherlands might be working in one of the most thriving territories of them all, but that also means harsh competition for content – with steeper prices than in many other territories,” they said.
“In his approach to curation, Huub demonstrates a careful balance of passion and pragmatism. He evaluates films based on their artistic merit and their potential to engage viewers, understanding that successful distribution requires both quality content and audience appeal.”
Cherry Pickers releases approximately 12 to 15 titles per year. Prior to creating the company, Roelvink was managing director of Imagine Filmdistributie Netherlands and founder of Cinema Delicatessen, a distributor specialised in documentaries.
He also has extensive experience in cinema programming and exploitation, starting his career as a student in the Kriterion cinema in Amsterdam, and subsequently programming various arthouses and being managing director of arthouse LUX in Nijmegen. He holds a Master’s in Social Anthropology from the University of Amsterdam.
