MtM 26

The Netherlands-based Italian filmmaker discusses his new feature documentary, selected for Movies That Matter, about the ongoing febrile political situation in Armenia. “The moment I got interested in Shahen was when I realised the pressure this young guy was under,” recalls director Marco De Stefanis. “He was keeping up the fight while his father was in prison. I felt really sorry for a guy that age that doesn’t have the same youth I had.”

Dutch filmmaker Kasper Verkaik’s new film tells the story of US journalist Alec Shimkin who went missing in action in Vietnam just as he was threatening to lift the lid on the US Operation Speedy Express atrocity of 1968/69, which had an estimated body count of over 30,000, many thousands of them unarmed Vietnamese civilians. In researching Shimkin, Verkaik realised “there was so much more to find out about the Speedy Express story,” and that the journalist’s scoop “was way bigger” than even the journalist himself had known.

The NEFTi International Short Film Comp and Movies That Matter Festival announced March 23 a new partnership to support displaced filmmakers living in the European diaspora and across the African continent. The organisations have together launched the 2026 NEFTi Competition, aimed at identifying and supporting emerging filmmakers whose perspectives are shaped by global displacement.

Movies that Matter will “move forward with a single-director structure” as of 16 April 2026, the festival says in an online post. Margje de Koning will take on the role of Managing Director-Trustee. Laurens Korteweg, who has served as Business Director-Trustee since September 2023, will leave the organisation following a carefully planned transition period. The decision has been taken in response to ongoing financial pressure and is aimed at safeguarding the organisation’s future, the festival writes.