The Platinum Goats
At this year’s Golden Calf Gala (Dutch, Gouden Calf) – the equivalent of the French César or Polish Eagles – one of their latest films took home four awards, including the awards for the best screenplay and best director.
In Poland, this has raised a few eyebrows – such a distinction, for a film for children! Well, in the Netherlands they would probably think it is not only a great movie, but even more importantly, a great movie for children…
This high standard had been set since the very beginning, dating back to 1989. Presented three years later, ‘The Penknife’ not only won the Golden Calf Award for directing, but was also awarded several European festival prizes, whereas the series based on the original movie received the television Oscar, the Emmy Award. It also delighted us here in Poznań as a model image, representing an extremely child-friendly ‘cinema for the small ones’, rich with multilevel values. In the years that followed, Ale Kino! Festival participants had the chance to marvel at such of their productions as ‘The Boy who Stopped Talking’, ‘The Flying Liftboy’, ‘Miss Minoes’, ‘Winky’s Horse’, ‘Pluck and his Tow Truck’, ‘Where is Winky’s Horse?’, ‘Ben X’, ‘Morisson Gets a Baby Sister’, ‘The Indian’, ‘Alfie, the Little Werewolf’, ‘Fidgety Bram’, ‘The Zig Zag Kid’, ‘The Amazing Wiplala’, ‘Mr. Frog’ – and last but not least, this year's laureate of four Golden Calves and last year's winner of the Golden Goats – ‘Romy’s Salon’. One would say that this film, directed by Mischa Kamp with screenplay by Tamara Bos, is the capstone of their thirty-year career. But that is not the case, as they keep on filming and we can be sure that their future productions will bring even more delight, excitements and joy to young viewers.
For all these charming and clever films, made with passion and awareness of children’s needs, with a professionalism that does not obscure the honesty and sincerity of film expression, we award Platinum Goats 2020 to the BosBros production company of Amsterdam, and we give particularly deep bows and send our greatest regards to the boss of this crew, Burny Bos, and the extremely creative producer and screenwriter, Tamara Bos.
Jerzy Moszkowicz, director of the Ale Kino! Festival
