North Sea Port Audience Award - Top 10
1
The Other Side of the Sun
Tawfik Sabouni
From the shadows of Syria’s infamous Sednaya prison, five survivors return to the place where years of their lives were stolen. Through powerful re-enactments, Tawfik Sabouni explores memory, trauma and the struggle to reclaim silenced voices, revealing how human connection can ...
4.86/5
2
Jonah Was Here
Nathalie Teirlinck
When grieving neurologist Bob moves into his late son's student room, the fifty-something finds himself living among his son's friends, habits and half-finished life. Nathalie Teirlinck's sophomore feature, with a captivating Koen De Bouw in the lead role, turns a father's ...
4.85/5
3
Tegenwoordig heet iedereen Sorry (9+) (Everyone’s Sorry Nowadays)
Frederike Migom
On a sweltering summer day, almost 13-year-old Bianca finds an unlikely confidante in her idol Billie King, a soap star who suddenly appears on her sofa. Frederike Migom, whose previous film Binti (2019) won the Ensor for Best Youth Film, turns Bart Moeyaert's beloved novel into ...
4.79/5
4
The Illusion of an Everlasting Summer (La ilusión de un verano sin fin)
Alessandra Sanguinetti
Best friends Guille and Beli live on the vast Argentian pampas, where they give free rein to their imagination. For 25 years, photographer Alessandra Sanguinetti followed them—from their lives as a prolonged children’s game to adulthood, which comes with a script of its own. ...
4.75/5
4
Memory
Vladlena Sandu
In the deeply personal, poetic documentary Memory, Crimea-born filmmaker Vladlena Sandu seeks to deal with the war trauma from her Chechen childhood. She longs to transform fear into love using the power of imagination as her weapon, rooted in her memories and directed towards a ...
4.75/5
4
Nostalgia for the Future
Brecht Debackere
Who was Chris Marker, really? The enigmatic filmmaker behind La Jetée spent a lifetime hiding behind pseudonyms, images and cats. In Nostalgia for the Future, Brecht Debackere dives into his vast archive, with Charlotte Rampling as his guide. An idiosyncratic, essayistic journey ...
4.75/5
5
Gugu's world (9+) (Feito Pipa)
Allan Deberton
Colourful twelve-year-old Gugu loves football … and his caring but increasingly frail grandmother Dilma with whom he shares a house. But when Dilma’s age catches up, Gugu is determined to keep their world intact. A radiant queer coming-of-ager from Brazil, Gugu’s World proves ...
4.73/5
5
Shaun het schaap: het beest op de boerderij (5+) (Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom)
Steve Cox, Matthew Walker
At Mossy Bottom Farm, Halloween preparations take an unexpected turn when the Farmer destroys Shaun's pumpkins. Determined to save the celebration, Shaun experiments with daring fixes that soon spiral out of control. When the Farmer disappears and a strange creature appears in ...
4.73/5
6
Coward
Lukas Dhont
Following the international success of Girl and Close, Lukas Dhont heads to the trenches of the First World War with his most ambitious film to date. Behind the lines, young soldier Pierre (Emmanuel Macchia in a striking debut) discovers an unexpected world of theatre, music and ...
4.72/5
7
Mumbo (4+) (Da Mumbo Jumbo blev kæmpestor)
Karsten Kiilerich
When the little hippo Mumbo grows to giant size, he has to go on a dangerous journey with his three friends to find the witch Baba Yaga so she can turn him small again. Based on Jakob Martin Strid’s children’s book, this adventure might make Mumbo small again, but a whole lot ...
4.7/5
8
La Libertad Doble (Double Freedom)
Lisandro Alonso
Surrounded by the endless pampa, Misael chops wood for a living. For the time being, his days still unfold to a fragile cadence as soothing as the little radio resting on his chest while napping. La Libertad Doble marks both a return to the universe of Alonso’s debut film ...
4.6/5
9
Everybody Digs Bill Evans
Grant Gee
What happens when the music suddenly stops? In 1961, jazz pianist Bill Evans loses his bassist and closest musical companion, Scott LaFaro. Evans stops playing too. Grant Gee turns that silence into the starting point for an unconventional biopic, led by a phenomenal Anders ...
4.59/5
10
Rehearsals for a Revolution
Pegah Ahangarani
In her compelling directorial feature film debut, actress and filmmaker Pegah Ahangarani intertwines her personal story with over four decades of Iranian history. Through five portraits of family members and mentors, she combines personal archives, family footage and historical ...
4.58/5