On 25 March, the Movies that Matter Festival announced the winners of its 21st edition during the award ceremony at Theater Aan het Spui in The Hague.
The Grand Jury Documentary Award (€ 5,000) went to Traces, directed by Alisa Kovalenko and Marysia Nikitiuk, a psychological portrait telling the stories of six women who survived sexual violence and torture during Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. Led by farmer captive turned activist Iryna Dovgan, they fight for justice and recognition. In the face of massive trauma, Iryna encourages them to rebuild their lives. The jury, which consisted of Debra Zimmerman (executive director, Women Make Movies), Joëlle Alexis (editor), and Tommy Gulliksen (filmmaker), stated that the film left them “deeply affected — both by its difficult and challenging subject matter, and by its thoughtful and composed form”. The award also makes this film eligible for nomination for the Academy Award® for Best Documentary Film.
The Grand Jury Fiction Award (€ 5,000) went to Aisha Can’t Fly Away, directed by Morad Mostafa. Set in the Ain Shams neighbourhood of Cairo, the film follows Aisha, a 26-year-old Sudanese caregiver. She is stuck between an undefined relationship with a young Egyptian cook, a gangster that blackmails her, and a new house she’s assigned to work in. Craving a better life, Aisha’s dreams are continually confronted with reality. Jury members Jolein Laarman (film professional), Khalid Shamis (documentary director and producer), and Mandy Chang (filmmaker and producer) said it “surpassed their expectations on all levels of craft and storytelling execution”. A Special Mention was awarded to Lost Land by Akio Fujimoto, the first ever feature shot in the Rohingya language.
Cutting Through Rocks by Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni received the main award (€5,000) in the Activist Lens programme, a section showcasing the work of human rights activists made possible in part by the vfonds. As the first woman ever elected to the council of her small Iranian village, Sara Shahverdi aims to break long-held patriarchal traditions. She trains teenage girls to ride motorcycles, encourages them to pursue an education and tries to stop child marriages. But Sara’s resilience and combative style bring her many enemies – mostly men. The jury praised its protagonist and called it “a ravishing film — beautifully shot, exquisitely crafted, and damn near perfect.” A Special Mention went to The Woman Who Poked the Leopard by Patience Nitumwesiga, an intimate portrait of Ugandan poet-academic Dr. Stella Nyanzi.
In the Justice Frame section, made possible by Gemeente Den Haag and vfonds, the award (€5,000) went to This Is My Body by Jérôme Clément-Wilz. In this raw, first-person documentary, the filmmaker revisits the abuse he suffered as a child at the hands of a Catholic priest, documenting six years of legal proceedings through to the 2024 trial. The jury stated the film is “poetic, subtle and authentic.” A Special Mention went to The Alabama Solution by Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman.
The €5,000 Dutch Focus programme award, made possible by copyright organisation for directors VEVAM, went to Between Brothers by Tom Fassaert. Fassaert follows his father and uncle, who can neither live with, nor 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. The jury described it as a “delicate exploration of how familial trauma spirals down through the generations”. A Special Mention was awarded to Gedwongen Geloften by Eva Strating and Roxanne Herder.
Rahhala: Hayya ala Hayya by Lujain Jo received the award for Best Short, endowed with €1.500. Set against ethereal visuals from the natural world, snippets of text stitch together memories of domestic abuse inflicted upon a set of sisters over a period of more than a decade. Seen through the eyes of one sister, the project takes viewers behind the closed doors of an unsafe home, as she flashes through a lifetime of terrifying and chaotic scenes. The jury highlighted the “courage, clarity, and emotional resonance” of the film. A Special Mention went to What If They Bomb Here Tonight by Samir Syriani.
