Movies that Matter Festival 2026, News

Dutch Focus Competition Announced

With the Dutch Focus competition, we create space for the Dutch film landscape and shine a spotlight on filmmakers from the Dutch film sector who, with courage and craftsmanship, tell stories about human rights, freedom, and social justice within and beyond the Netherlands. by Staff 25 February, 2026

Movies that Matter today announces the nominees of the Dutch Focus competition for the 20th anniversary edition of the festival, which will take place this year from 20 to 28 March. No fewer than five films by Dutch filmmakers will have their world premiere during the festival: Gedwongen Geloften (directed by Roxanne Herder, Eva Strating), Indische tafel, jongens van de Japanse kampen (Pieter van Huystee), Soldier’s Bones (Kasper Verkaik), The Winning Generation (Marco De Stefanis) and Voix Invisibles (Bart van den Aardweg). Also screening are Paikar, Tussen broers and Truly Naked.

The nominated documentaries and fiction films for the Dutch Focus Award are judged by an international jury. At the festival’s Award Night, among other prizes, the ‘Dutch Focus Award’, accompanied by €5,000 in prize money made possible by VEVAM, will be presented to the director of the winning film.

Dutch Focus Night

This year, the Dutch Focus Night revolves around the already much-discussed film Truly Naked by Dutch director Muriel d’Ansembourg. This coming-of-age film is the feature debut of the Dutch director Muriel d’Ansembourg, who with her first feature-length film was immediately selected for the debut competition of the Berlinale Film Festival 2026, a rare honor for Dutch filmmakers.

D’Ansembourg, who previously received a BAFTA nomination for her short film Good Night and won a Golden Calf with Fuck-A-Fan, is regarded as an emerging, fearless talent within European cinema. Her work is characterized by a female gaze and an unconventional approach to sexuality, in which she does not shy away from explicit imagery but always places it in service of the story and the search for authentic intimacy.

The evening will be further shaped by an additional programme focusing on themes such as intimacy, youth, and social perceptions.

  1. Gedwongen Geloften

    Eva Strating, Roxanne Herder

    Documentary about sexual violence and forced marriage, focusing on women who were coerced, abducted or imprisoned by their own families. Central figure is Dutch-Pakistani human rights activist Shirin Musa (Femmes for Freedom), tirelessly fighting for their rights.   Forced marriage, being trapped in a marriage that was...

  2. Indische Tafel, jongens van de Japanse Kampen

    Pieter van Huystee

    A group of men in their nineties gather weekly for an Indonesian lunch. They look back on their Indonesian childhood, something they’ve never spoken about. Several of them were imprisoned in Japanese internment camps in Indonesia during World War II, and they share their memories and their parents’ diary entries. After...

  3. Paikar

    Dawood Hilmandi

    Afghan artist-filmmaker Dawood Hilmandi returns home from Amsterdam after suffering a great loss to restore his relationship with his aging, authoritarian father. But has the gap between father and son grown too wide to bridge? Afghan artist-filmmaker Dawood Hilmandi is called paikar – the Persian word for ‘war’ or ‘w...

  4. Soldier’s Bones

    Kasper Verkaik

    In 1971, 27-year-old Newsweek reporter Alec Shimkin discovers a secret US-led military campaign in Vietnam. The story is about to reveal war crimes on an immense scale, undeniably Pullitzer-worthy material. But the Scoop never got the exposure it deserved: though published in Newsweek, Shimkin’s findings were tucked aw...

  5. The Winning Generation

    Marco De Stefanis

    Filmed over a decade, 14-year-old Armenian activist Shahen Harutyunyan grows into a rising political leader. While he fights to reshape Armenia’s democratic future and counter Russian influence, he also carries the weight of his father and grandfather – legends of the Armenian struggle for freedom. Shahen Harutyunyan ...

  6. Truly Naked

    Muriel d'Ansembourg

    When porn has become the norm, intimacy is the new taboo. Introverted teenager Alec only experiences intimacy through the lens working for his father’s pornography business. When a classmate challenges him to embrace real connection, he’s forced to step out from behind the camera. Alec, a soft-spoken, introverted teen...

  7. Tussen broers

    Tom Fassaert

    Elderly brothers Rob and René – father and uncle of filmmaker Tom Fassaert – cannot live with, but also not without each other. René lives like a recluse in a cluttered, congested house, his brother Rob intervenes. But then Tom begins to suspect that something else lies beneath the dynamic between the brothers. Filmma...

  8. Voix Invisibles

    Bart van den Aardweg

    A visual poem by Bart van den Aardweg on alienation, pain, and the search for meaning in the shadows. How does trauma embed itself in silence? How does a person become disconnected from the world outside, and turn to violence as the only way out?   Voix Invisibles is a psychological journey into the minds of angry, dis...