Every year, we organise a film project in cooperation with the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. All Dutch embassies are given a menu of films about human rights for screenings on or around 10 December, International Human Rights Day.

This year, no fewer than 53 embassies take part in the project. They will screen one or more of the following five films offered by Movies that Matter: Fly So Far, Nasrin, Once Upon a Time in Venezuela, Seyran Ates: Sex, Revolution and Islam and A Thousand Cuts.

With our grant programme we support human rights film events in Africa, Latin America, Asia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East with an impact grant or start-up grant.

We are proud to present nine projects in the second selection round of this year. The selection includes a travelling film festival in Morocco, a mobile cinema project in Sahrawi refugee camps and a feminist film festival in Ukraine.

In October, our programmer Maarten Stoltz was part of the jury for the Silver Eye Award 2021 for feature-length documentaries at the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival together with Rebecca De Pas (Visions du Réel) and Cintia Gil (film curator).

The award went to Mara by Sasha Kulak: „The jury has unanimously decided to award a film that elaborates Mythology to confront an urgent political context with bravery unifying the fight for freedom and the constitution of beauty.“

Dying To Divorce by Chloe Fairweather has been selected as the UK’s entry to the Academy Awards’ Best International Feature Film category. The documentary takes a deep dive into Turkey’s gender-based violence crisis and the political events that have damaged democratic freedoms across the country.

Dying to Divorce had its world premiere during the online Movies that Matter Festival 2021 in April, and competed in the Camera Justitia and Grand Jury Documentary competition.