Dutch Chamber Film Shot in the Tyrolean Mountains

Our Girls (original title Voor de Meisjes) is a recent feature written and directed by Dutch filmmaker Mike van Diem. The project is officially listed as a co‑production between the Netherlands, Austria and Belgium. Producer and industry listings name Keplerfilm and Nuts & Bolts Film Company (Netherlands) alongside Austrian co‑producer Schubert Füm GmbH and Belgian company A Private View as the primary production partners. Those listings frame the film as an intimate, actor‑driven piece rather than a large commercial spectacle.

The casting information published by the producers identifies Thekla Reuten, Noortje Herlaar, Fedja van Huêt and Valentijn Dhaenens among the principal actors. Production notes also indicate that the film uses multiple languages—Dutch, German and English—reflecting its multinational production and narrative setting. This cross‑lingual approach is common for European co‑productions that intend to circulate across several national markets.

According to entries in the Austrian Film Institute’s database, shooting in Austria took place between August and October 2024. The record lists locations across several federal states: Tyrol (Tirol), Vienna, Salzburg and Lower Austria (Niederösterreich). In total, the Austrian portion of the shoot accounts for 32 production days. Local film offices recorded permits and logistic arrangements connected to these shoots, particularly where mountain settings were involved.

Tirol, in particular, served as a prominent backdrop for exterior scenes. The use of alpine landscapes for small‑scale, character‑focused films underscores the versatility of Austria’s remote locations for European auteurs. While production paperwork confirms the locations and number of shooting days, detailed day‑by‑day shooting reports and location‑specific economic impact figures are not part of the public project dossier and would need to be obtained from the production office or local authorities to quantify local effects precisely.

The film’s financing follows the typical European patchwork model: public film funds, regional support, and international co‑production finance. Public sources listed include the Netherlands Film Fund and, on the Austrian side, ÖFI+ (Austrian Film Institute support). The Austrian Film Institute’s documents record an ÖFI+ contribution of €1,376,100. The project also lists Eurimages and the Flemish Audiovisual Fund (VAF) among its funding partners.

Such multi‑source financing is designed to enable productions to access national resources—such as crew, local service providers and tax rebates—while also securing a broader festival and market strategy. The public records establish which institutions participated financially but do not disclose the project’s full budget breakdown or detailed contractual terms between partners, which are typically commercial in confidence.

Our Girls had its world premiere as the opening film of the Netherlands Film Festival (NFF) in 2025, according to festival and film fund announcements. Following its premiere, it received multiple Golden Calf awards at the 2025 Gouden Kalf ceremony, including prizes in key categories such as Best Feature, Best Screenplay and Best Lead Role. These awards were recorded in public listings of the festival and in coverage by Dutch industry outlets.

Recognition at the home‑market festival can increase a film’s visibility within distribution networks and among festival programmers. Nonetheless, festival awards do not automatically translate into box‑office success or widespread distribution in every participating co‑producer country. Further festival invitations and programming outside the Benelux region require separate confirmation from international festival schedules and the film’s sales agents.

For Austria the distributor listed is FILMLADEN Filmverleih, while international sales are handled through established European sales channels indicated by the producers. The Austrian Film Institute’s database notes a planned Austrian theatrical release date of 4 September 2026. As that date appears in public film registry information, it should be understood as the scheduled release; distributors sometimes adjust such dates for market reasons.

There are small factual discrepancies in technical metadata between producer pages and film databases—most notably a runtime listed at about 100 minutes in the Austrian registry and about 103 minutes on the producer’s page. These differences can arise from different rounding conventions or from final editorial adjustments in post‑production. Equally, information that is not yet publicly available includes the film’s box‑office performance in Austria and other territories, the full international festival itinerary beyond the Netherlands Film Festival, and any later edits made for specific markets.

An internationally recognized director choosing Austrian locations highlights how alpine and urban Austrian sites continue to attract European art‑house projects. For regional film industries, such productions can generate short‑term employment, provide case studies for location management and create promotional narratives that local tourism bodies sometimes leverage. The practical benefits for local crew and service companies depend on the scale of the shoot and the extent of local hiring; public project summaries do not systematically list all local hires.

From a cultural perspective, the project is an example of contemporary European auteur cinema’s reliance on co‑production networks to realize projects that sit between national traditions. While the film’s festival prizes lend it prestige, the broader measure of its success will include audience reception across the co‑producer countries and its path through the international festival circuit. Those outcomes will become clearer only after theatrical release and further festival appearances; for now, the public record robustly documents credits, funding participants, shooting locations and its initial festival reception.