Film in Friesland

What Film in Friesland does

Stichting Film in Friesland is a non-profit foundation (ANBI status, fiscal number 8031.77.549) headquartered at Wilhelminaplein 92 in Leeuwarden, Netherlands, dedicated to promoting and preserving film culture in the Friesland region. The organization operates three integrated pillars: Slieker Film, the regional arthouse cinema embedded in the Fries Museum; the Fries Film & Audio Archief (FFAA), established in 1988 and described as the oldest regional audiovisual archive in the Netherlands, which collects, preserves, and provides access to films, videos, and audio recordings made in and about Friesland; and the Noordelijk Film Festival (NoFF), a five-day annual festival held each November in Leeuwarden focused on Northern European cinema.

The foundation employs approximately 22 permanent staff alongside 10 freelancers, with operational execution heavily reliant on a volunteer network of more than 350 people distributed across the three pillars (220 festival, 120 cinema, 10 archive). Leadership is provided by Directeur-Bestuurder Hester Terpstra, with independent oversight from a five-member Raad van Toezicht (Supervisory Board) chaired by Johan van Oijen. The foundation is governed under the CAO Welzijn collective labor agreement.

The business model combines transactional and recurring revenue streams: cinema ticket sales at Slieker Film, festival attendance and merchandise at NoFF, archive digitization services, corporate sponsorship, and — since April 2, 2025 — a unified FilmVriend annual membership priced at €35 that bundles benefits across all three pillars, including ticket discounts, archive service discounts, exclusive preview screenings, and a member newsletter. Distribution is regional and physical-first, anchored in Leeuwarden venues, supplemented by dedicated websites and an email newsletter. No proprietary technology, AI capabilities, or external funding rounds are disclosed.

Name

Film in Friesland

Legal name

Stichting Film in Friesland

Website

https://filminfriesland.nl

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Stichting Film in Friesland is a Dutch non-profit foundation that operates three integrated film culture pillars — the Slieker Film arthouse cinema, the Fries Film & Audio Archief (established 1988), and the annual Noordelijk Film Festival — serving film enthusiasts, researchers, and the wider Friesland community through screenings, preservation, and festival programming.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Cultural Film Services

NAICS

Motion Picture Theaters (except Drive-Ins) (512131), Motion Picture and Video Exhibition (51213), Museums (712110)

SIC

Services-Motion Picture Theaters (7830), Services-Amusement & Recreation Services (7900)

akta.pro primary industry

Screening Rooms & Cinematheques (Nonprofit/Institutional) (MPADAKAF)

Keywords

• Arthouse cinema operations
• Film festival management
• Audiovisual archive services
• Film culture preservation
• Membership program

Headquarters

HQ city

Leeuwarden

HQ country

Netherlands

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. FilmVriend Membership: Annual membership program bundling benefits across Slieker Film, Noordelijk Film Festival, and Fries Film & Audio Archief. Members receive ticket discounts, archive discounts, exclusive previews, and newsletter access.
2. Film Exhibition: Ticket sales for Slieker Film cinema screenings throughout the year.
3. Festival Attendance: Revenue from the annual Noordelijk Film Festival in November, including tickets and merchandise.
4. Archive Services: Digitization services for video tapes at Fries Film & Audio Archief, with 25% discount for members.
5. Sponsorship: Corporate sponsorship program for businesses supporting film and culture in Friesland.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Stichting Film in Friesland is a non-profit foundation that promotes film culture in Friesland through three pillars: Slieker Film, a year-round arthouse cinema located in the Fries Museum in Leeuwarden; the Fries Film & Audio Archief, the oldest regional audiovisual archive in the Netherlands (est. 1988), which collects, preserves, and provides access to films, videos, and audio recordings from/about Friesland; and the Noordelijk Film Festival, a five-day annual film festival held in November focused on Northern European cinema. The FilmVriend membership program (€35/year, launched April 2, 2025) bundles benefits across all three pillars including ticket discounts, archive digitization discounts, exclusive previews, and a member newsletter.

Product overview

Film in Friesland (Stichting Film in Friesland) is a foundation dedicated to promoting and sustaining film culture in Friesland. The organization operates through three core pillars: Slieker Film (the regional film house in Leeuwarden), the Fries Film & Audio Archief (the regional audiovisual archive established in 1988), and the Noordelijk Film Festival (an annual five-day film festival in November). Additionally, the FilmVriend membership program bundles benefits from all three pillars, launched in April 2025.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Slieker Film: The arthouse cinema of Fryslân, located at Wilhelminaplein in the Fries Museum in Leeuwarden
• Fries Film & Audio Archief (FFAA)
• Noordelijk Film Festival (NoFF)

Products and services

• Slieker Film Year-round arthouse cinema in Leeuwarden showing films beyond mainstream cinema, with a socially engaged programming approach and active volunteer support, bringing people together through film culture.
• Fries Film & Audio Archief (FFAA) Regional audiovisual archive collecting, preserving, and providing access to films, videos, and audio recordings made in and about Friesland; offers video tape digitization services (25% discount for FilmVriend members).
• Noordelijk Film Festival (NoFF) Five-day annual film festival held in November in Leeuwarden focused on broad Northern European cinema, supported by 220 volunteers among 260 contributors.
• FilmVriend Membership Annual membership program at €35.00/year bundling benefits across Slieker Film, Noordelijk Film Festival, and Fries Film & Audio Archief, including €3.00 discount per cinema ticket, 25% discount on video digitization at FFAA, four exclusive preview screenings per year, festival merchandise discounts, and the Vrienden newsletter.

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Eye Filmmuseum: Amsterdam-based nonprofit combining a museum, arthouse cinema, and film heritage activities. Closest structural analog to Film in Friesland at larger scale: cinema + cultural foundation + heritage programming from a single brand, supported by public and member funding.
• Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum (DFF): Frankfurt-based nonprofit combining German film archive, museum, and cinematheque programming. Strong international analog to Film in Friesland's three-pillar model under a single foundation, focused on national/regional audiovisual heritage.
• International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR): Major Dutch film festival operating as a public-benefit foundation in the Netherlands. Directly comparable to Noordelijk Film Festival in governance, audience model, and reliance on volunteers and subsidies, though at substantially larger scale.
• Cinémathèque Française: Paris-based nonprofit combining cinematheque screenings, a major film museum, and a curated archive. Closest European peer to Film in Friesland as an integrated cinematheque + museum + heritage nonprofit in a continental European regional/capital context.
• Netherlands Institute for Sound & Vision (Beeld en Geluid): Dutch national audiovisual archive and media museum. Direct archival peer to Fries Film & Audio Archief: similar preservation mandate, public-benefit status, and digitization services for audiovisual media — relevant benchmark for FFAA's archive operations and scale.
• Imagine Film Festival: Amsterdam-based genre and fantasy film festival, also a foundation-led event with volunteer operations. Closest Dutch festival peer to NoFF in organizational structure, with thematic overlap in curated niche cinema.

Broad incumbents

• Pathé Nederland: Largest cinema operator in the Netherlands. Compares to Slieker Film on the cinema exhibition function but differs as a commercial multiplex chain; relevant as the dominant commercial incumbent whose strategy shapes the audience Slieker competes against.
• Kinepolis Nederland: Belgian-Dutch cinema chain operating large multiplexes across the Netherlands. Same exhibition business as Slieker Film but at much greater scale and with commercial orientation; relevant competitive benchmark in Dutch cinema exhibition.
• British Film Institute (BFI): UK-wide charity operating BFI Southbank cinematheque, BFI IMAX, the BFI London Film Festival, and the BFI National Archive — a direct three-pillar analog to Film in Friesland's model, but at national scale and with public-funding support.

Regional players

• Nordisk Film (Egmont): Nordic-region film production, distribution, and cinema operator under Egmont. Strategic relevance lies in shared Northern European cinema identity with NoFF's programming focus, though Nordisk operates commercially rather than as a nonprofit foundation.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/centrum-voor-film-in-friesland

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Subsidiaries3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Film in Friesland