NFF Student Competition Nominations 2026

The Netherlands Film Festival 2026 is approaching, and with ticket sales now live, we would like to highlight the eight WdKA graduation films selected for this year’s Student Competition.

Each year, the competition brings together some of the most promising emerging filmmakers from film and art academies across the Netherlands, offering graduating students the opportunity to present their work to a wider audience and to be recognised within the Dutch film industry. For WdKA graduates, being selected for the competition is an exciting recognition of the work developed throughout their graduation projects. The eight nominated films represent a range of perspectives, styles and filmmaking practices, and offer a glimpse into the ideas and voices emerging from the academy.

Becoming the Warden

Directed by Tijmen Snoep, produced by Mia Tseboeva - Audiovisual Design

Becoming the Warden is a short documentary about Joeri who is, by nature, a timid IT consultant. When he decides to overhaul his life and take up acting, he lands a role as a roaring prison guard in a prison escape experience. The only problem: he's anything but intimidating. As he takes acting lessons to come across as more dominant, this short documentary explores what authority actually means. With his son's help, he practises coming across as more menacing. The harder Joeri tries to command authority, the more visible his fragile grip on it becomes, in this graduation film.

Nothing is Everything

Directed and produced by Joris Voeten - Advertising & Beyond

Nothing is Everything is a non-narrative Super 8 film about attention, presence, and the unnoticed richness of everyday life. In a world where silence is quickly filled and empty moments are treated as problems to solve, the film explores what happens when we stop searching for stimulation and begin observing what is already around us. Beginning in a state of sensory overload, the film reflects the fragmented nature of modern attention. Out of this chaos emerges a moment of stillness. From that moment onward, the film drifts through encounters, observations, and everyday experiences that would normally pass unnoticed. Shot on Super 8, nothingiseverything embraces slowness, chance, and imperfection. Inspired by Guy Debord’s concept of the dérive, Jonas Mekas’ attention to the ordinary, and the Taoist principle of Wu Wei (non-forcing), the film becomes an exploration of what can be discovered when we stop trying to control our experience and instead remain open to it. Rather than telling a story, nothingiseverything invites the viewer to look again. To linger a little longer. To notice what is usually overlooked. “Keep looking for things in places where there is nothing.”

The Endless Voyage

Directed by Rada Skumova en Suzanne Lub, script by Rada Skumova, produced by Umali Pattirua - Animation & Audiovisual Design

The Endless Voyage is about a grand ark that drifts through an endless, fantastical sea in a flooded world. The wealthy guests on board revel in their luxury, until greed sets the ship rocking. An experimental animation about spirituality, nature and greed.

Fantastical waters and mythical creatures swirl around a large, luxurious ark. On board, everything seems perfect. Servants polish shoes, glasses are refilled, and mermaids are served up as snacks. As the wealthy guests lose themselves in their greed, nature begins to strike back. The sea grows wilder, the weather turns, and the birds fly low. Slowly, the illusion of the ark begins to crumble. With richly detailed animation, this graduation film tells a story about entitlement, power and nature.

Metamorfose

Directed by Jochem van Velzen en Jacob Noordegraaf, script by Jacob Noordegraaf, produced by Adit Ram - Advertising & Beyond

Metamorfose is a film about a radical experiment: for their graduation project, art students Lisa and Victor decide that Lisa will live in a terrarium for two weeks, while Victor cares for her and documents the process. What begins as an artistic performance slowly turns into something neither of them seems fully in control of anymore. As Lisa continues to change, Victor is confronted with an uncomfortable question: where's the line between dedication to art and responsibility for another person? A tense graduation film about moral boundaries, obsession and the thin line between art and reality.

Overcast

Directed, produced and written by Job Jovanovic - Advertising & Beyond

Loss and acceptance take centre stage in this handcrafted graduation film, which conjures a mystical fantasy world through stop-motion techniques. Bertram hasn't been the same since his son's death. Though his tears dried up years ago, time still hasn't healed his loss. Bertram remains stuck in his grief, wandering the forest alone on solitary hunts. Then, one day, he spots a mysterious cloud hovering above his house, giving his grief-stricken life an unexpected new spark. Will Bertram finally find peace?

Paradise

Directed and written by Anastasia Goncharova, produced by Kira Malinovskaia - Audiovisual Design

Paradise is a visually striking graduation film that gives an inventive twist to the biblical story of Adam and Eve. In a world built entirely out of paper, Adam and Eve live amid advertising, propaganda and carefully crafted ideals. When Eve comes into contact with a forbidden fruit, her sense of reality slowly starts to shift. What follows is a surreal search for the line between illusion and truth, poetically questioning media, consumption and beauty standards.

WELP

Directed and written by Abel van Essen, productie: Cheyenne Schackmann - Audiovisual Design

In an abandoned boxing studio, Nova searches for traces of who he once was. A poetic short film about friendship, identity and the vulnerable sides of masculinity. Growing up, memories, and lost innocence. An older Nova wanders through empty spaces as memories of a shared past slowly resurface. Against a backdrop of city and nature, fragments of sun-drenched days with his friends Keanu and Julian, and his love for Kyra, give shape to a search for identity, connection and the meaning of masculinity.

Ygara-Apé

Directed and produced by Rebeca Cabral de Oliveira, Willem de Kooning Academie

An animation in which a young woman relives childhood memories, sparked by a rediscovered object from her hometown. With nostalgia, she looks back on old pieces of herself, coming to realise that life carries on regardless.

This autobiographical animation reflects on the path to adulthood, longing, and childhood memories. In her attempt to hold on to her youth, she comes to realise that life will always move forward. Ygara-Apé is a graduation film about the longing to return to a once-familiar time and place that are no longer the same.

All films will be screened at the Netherlands Film Festival. See the NFF website for programme and tickets. On September 28, the Student Competition Award Ceremony will take place where the winners will be announced. We wish them the best of luck in the competition!

Graduation Interview Series - Manan Gadhia (llustration)

Graduation Interview Series - May Kedem (Spatial Design)

Graduation Series - Lena Grøtting (Transformation Design)

Apply now