Cine Curaçao

Cine Curaçao is a creative hub that brings together filmmakers from the Netherlands and the Caribbean. The aim is to build a lasting bridge between the two regions and to help local creators tell local stories authentically. It is an initiative of NL Film, run together with producer Fiction Valley and the Curaçao Film Office, and supported by CINEX, the Ministry of OWCS, Corendon and Het Cultuurfonds Caribisch Gebied.

The first edition is a free, intensive writers' workshop for people on Curaçao who want to write a film or television series. Applications ran from 7 August to 21 September 2026 and drew 30 entries in Dutch, Papiamentu and English, from family drama and magical realism to stories about memory and loss and sharp takes on today's Curaçao. On 26 October the ten selected writers were announced. Registration is closed; the ten are introduced one by one on cinecuracao.com and Instagram.

All eight workshop days take place at the Curaçao Innovation Hub at Villa Maria in Scharloo, which hosts the program as its home for the full 52 hours: two blocks, 19 to 22 November and 26 to 29 November 2026. Participants work on their own film idea with experienced professionals and a group of like-minded peers. The curriculum covers scenario structure, character building, writing a strong scene, how actors read a scene, giving and receiving feedback as a writer, and production insight.

The mentors are screenwriter and documentary maker Chris Westendorp (head writer of Penoza, two Gouden Kalf awards), screenwriter and director Pieter Bart Korthuis (Penoza, Het Jaar van Fortuyn, Dirty Lines), Wynand Chocolaad (Head of Productions, NL Film), producer Annemieke van Vliet (Fiction Valley) and the Curaçao-born actors Everon Jackson Hooi and Jasmine Sendar.

For the Curaçao Innovation Hub, Cine Curaçao sits in the creative sector track of the National Export Strategy: it builds screenwriting capacity on the island, connects Curaçao's storytellers to the Dutch film and television industry, and feeds the pipeline of local productions that the Curaçao Film Office works to attract and enable.