World Premieres at Movies that Matter Festival 2026

Alles moet beter (Do Better) portrays what it is like to grow up in a world shaped by systemic crises. The film follows several young people who are each affected by this failure in different ways, and traces their search for how things can—or must—be done better. Sam (27) is facing trial for actions linked to Extincti...

When director Emma Lesuis’s father-in-law hands her a suitcase that belonged to his late grandfather, Maarten de Niet, an unsettling family history is about to unfold. The suitcase contains an archive of photographs, political documents, newspaper articles and a double-faced doll: white on one side, black on the other....

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...

The once-exiled brewer John Christian Kavakure returns to conflict-scarred Burundi to fulfil his old dream: a brewery that frees Burundians from dependence on multinational Heineken. With locally brewed banana beer, made according to his grandmother’s special recipe. For brewer John Christian Kavakure, beer is not jus...

A magical-realist youth documentary series that follows children from around the world living aboard the cruise ship MS Galaxy, temporarily repurposed as an asylum seekers’ center. Surrounded by the surreal contrast of a lavish cruise liner turned refuge, Abdullatif, Nour, Laila, and Basel navigate an uncertain future...

The chaos at Kabul airport in 2021 is still vivid in many people’s memories and forms the starting point of the four-part docudrama series Holland Gate. What makes the series unique is its gripping reconstruction of the evacuation, in which Afghans themselves speak out - including people who were left behind, went into...

Observational documentary following newcomers in the Netherlands as they navigate their path through the integration process. The challenges of civic integration become tangible, and the audience is confronted with a mirror: a system that is efficient and client-focused in design, yet increasingly disconnected from hum...

In 1971, young Newsweek reporter Alec Shimkin discovered a secret US military campaign that committed war crimes on an enormous scale in the Mekong Delta. It was code-named Operation Speedy Express. Following the 1968 My Lai massacre on Vietnamese civilians, Alec believed this “Super My Lai” also had to be exposed.For ...

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...

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 ...