Still: Cycle - Amit Palgi & Matunda Groenendijk

Among the standout Dutch selections is Cycle by Amit Palgi and Matunda Groenendijk, selected for the XR Experience Competition. Produced by the duo themselves and with sales handled by Nienke Huitenga Broeren, the immersive VR poem reveals life’s hidden patterns through dance, animation and music. Following its world premiere at SXSW earlier this year, the project now travels to London as part of the festival’s XR line-up. Ahead of the Austin premiere, SEE NL spoke with Amit Palgi about creating the work together with Groenendijk. Read the interview here.

Dutch XR storytelling is further represented by Lesbian Simulator, the interactive artwork and video game by Iris van der Meule selected for the XR Experience Spotlight section. Produced by Studio Biarritz, the work immerses audiences in the experiences of a lesbian girl navigating love, identity and discrimination. Combining playful interaction with urgent social themes, the project continues the festival journey it began at IDFA and Kaboom Animation Festival. Earlier, SEE NL joined Van der Meule aboard the ferry to Eye Filmmuseum to discuss the making of the project.

The Dutch presence extends into the shorts programme with two films. In Nico van den Brink's Feedback, produced by Brink Film, an indie band’s final studio session spirals into paranoia as they search for the source of a mysterious crackling sound disrupting their recording. Meanwhile, How To Dance by Aileen Ye turns movement into a language of resistance, exploring how bodies express desire and freedom under systems of surveillance and control. Festival distribution for the film is handled by Purple Ray Film.

A range of Dutch co-productions is also represented at the festival.

Amoeba by Singaporean filmmaker Siyou Tan, co-produced by Volya Films and with sales by Diversion, follows four teenagers at an authoritarian girls’ school whose secret rebellion uncovers buried desires and the muted violence behind growing up in Singapore.

Volya Films is also attached to Becoming, the debut feature by Kazakh director Zhannat Alshanova. Sales are handled by Films de Force Majeur. Set in modern-day Kazakhstan, 17-year old Mila joins an open-water swimming team led by the enigmatic Vlad. When her place is threatened, she must decide how far she's willing to go to hold onto it. Before the film’s world premiere at the Locarno Film Festival, SEE NL spoke with Rotterdam-based co-producer Denis Vaslin about bringing the project to the screen. Read the interview here.

Documentary is represented through Gaza's Twins, Come Back to Me by Mohammed Sawwaf, co-produced by Een van de jongens. Filmed over sixteen months in Gaza, the documentary follows a family separated by war after the birth of triplets, capturing everyday survival, longing and resilience amid devastation. The film previously screened at CPH:DOX.

Also selected is Memory by Vladlena Sandu, a haunting hybrid of documentary and memory co-produced by Revolver Amsterdam and sold internationally by Loco Films. In the film, Sandu, a survivor of the war in Chechnya, studies her traumatic memories in order to transcend and transform them via cinema. It previously opened the Giornate degli Autori section at the Venice Film Festival and was later shortlisted for the 2025 European Film Awards.

Find out more about SXSW London here.