Name and Meaning
The name refers to an animal as is common in names of European film awards, such as the Golden Bear of the Berlin Film Festival and the Golden Lion of the Venice Film Festival, and cattle is one of the most common types of livestock in the Netherlands. The name of the award also refers to an incident in the Hebrew Bible where a golden statue of a bull (intended to represent God) was made by Aaron, which was later destroyed by Moses because the Torah prohibits making any physical representations of the god of Israel. Jury member in 2002 Martin Koolhoven says the Dutch Calvinist culture is more relativizing than proud: "This is why the Golden Calf is such a good prize, because of the wink that is included. Real foreign countries have golden lions and golden bears. We have a golden calf and after all it is sinful to worship it."
In 1995 Rijk de Gooyer threw his Golden Calf statuette on the street in the reality TV series Taxi (the Dutch version of Taxicab Confessions), when he was picked up by a taxi after a dissatisfying closing ceremony at the Netherlands Film Festival. In 1999 he let Maarten Spanjer, the host of Taxi, throw his Golden Calf for Krassen in het Tafelblad out of the window.
Read more about this topic: Golden Calf (award)
Famous quotes containing the words name and and/or meaning:
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