History
editRialto was founded in 1920 by Anton Pieter du Mée (1881) who had always been a great movie lover and a successful entrepreneur. The building has been designed by architect Jan van Schaik. One year later the cinema opened and Mée named it Rialto, named after the famous Rialto-bridge in Venice. At first the cinema had two rooms, the first room called Rialto primarily showed movies for children, while the other room, Rivoli, showed movies more suited for adults. In total the two rooms had place for a total of 591 people. During the seventies however, Rialto started to lose money and it closed down. In the mean time an organisation, Stichting Amsterdams Filmhuis, formed. It is an organization with the goal to show “better” non commercial movies. In 1981 they settled down in the building of old Rialto. At first they only had volunteers, under whom, Raymond Walravens. Nowadays Rialto is much more professional, with around twenty permanent employees. Though, Rialto still relies on volunteers, having about a hundred of them who now and then do something for it. Also did Walravens become the manager of Rialto. Since 1920 the building has been renovated three times. The latest time (2006) being the most extensive renovation, creating an entirely new third screening room, and a room which now holds a bar. The three rooms now offer place for 275 visitors. Currently, Rialto has around 80,000 to 100,000 visitors a year.
Annual Program
editRialto has an unique program of movies. About 50 percent of all the movies they show, come from Latin America, Africa or Asia. During their ten day long World Cinema Amsterdam festival they only show these kinds of movies. In August 2012 the festival will be held for the third time. Just like previous years it will take place in Rialto itself, and on the Marie Heinekenplein. Unlike previous times however, it will also take place at several other places in Amsterdam. The movies on the outdoor locations are only played during the evening. Per evening about 700 people visit the festival. Also, two awards are given away during the festival, one of them being chosen by a professional jury, and the other one being voted for by the visitors. Both of them are € 7,500. Also is Rialto a Première Theatre, about fifty movies have their première in Rialto each year. Most of them are European art house movies.
During normal weeks Rialto has five different programs.
- Rialto Stage: A movie is played and afterwards a special guest, often the director, will tell something or do a q&a.
- Rialto Classic: A classic movie is played.
- Rialto Late: A suprising movie played on a late evening with a party afterwards.
- Rialto Young: Movies for children.
- Rialto Next: Scholars think of a program themselves and fill one evening with it.
Although Rialto is meant to be an all age theatre, demographics have shown that mostly women around the age of 50 visit Rialto, however more younger people have been seen since the research was done. Now the estimated age lies around 35 years old.
International Connections
editSince Rialto has the annual World Cinema Amsterdam its reputation has grown a lot in foreign countries. During the festival Rialto has to work with people in other countries in order to create a program. Also the festival itself offers opportunities for non well known directors to show their movies to people in another country.
National Connections
editAbout 35 percent of all earnings come from subsidies. Besides that, Rialto also has a number of projectsponsors, for example the Prins Claus Fonds, the Rabobank, the Parool and the Vrije Universiteit. Rialto has an even greater number of partners in the programming section. Rialto is also part of Cinnevile, a greater organization of thirteen art house cinemas in Amsterdam. Rialto also has connections with two schools, the Montessori Lyceum, and the IVKO. Together they oraganize the Rialto Next program. The number of schools with which Rialto has connections is expected to grow in the next couple of years.