Top 10 Dutch Films to Watch in 2026

Paul Verhoeven's Soldier of Orange (1977) follows a group of Leiden student friends whose lives split apart under the German occupation — some into the resistance, some into collaboration — and it made stars of Rutger Hauer and Jeroen Krabbé. Adapted from Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema's memoir, it drew around 1.5 million Dutch admissions and remains one of the best-attended Dutch films ever made.

Alex van Warmerdam's 2013 film follows a vagrant who talks his way onto a wealthy family's property and then dismantles the household from inside, never explaining what he is or what he wants. It competed for the Palme d'Or at Cannes.

Halina Reijn's directorial debut, with Carice van Houten as a therapist in a forensic clinic who becomes entangled with a convicted sex offender played by Marwan Kenzari. It was the Netherlands' official submission for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.

George Sluizer's Spoorloos, adapted from Tim Krabbe's novella The Golden Egg, follows a Dutch man who spends three years hunting for the girlfriend who vanished at a French motorway service station — until her abductor offers to show him exactly what happened. Sluizer remade it in Hollywood in 1993 with the ending replaced, which is why the original is the one people mean.

Marleen Gorris's Antonia's Line follows a widow who returns to her Dutch village after the war and builds a matriarchal household across four generations. It won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1996, the first winner of that award directed by a woman.

Jasmila Zbanic's Quo Vadis, Aida? reconstructs the fall of Srebrenica in July 1995 through a UN translator trying to get her own family inside the Dutchbat compound before it is overrun. It was Bosnia and Herzegovina's Oscar submission and was nominated for Best International Feature. Its connection to this list is as a Dutch co-production, and through the Dutch UN battalion whose failure sits at the centre of the story.

Do Not Disturb (2023) was among the year's best-performing Dutch comedies. Director Michiel ten Horn uses a single-holiday setting to unpack family secrets, and at 89 minutes it stays lean, with sharp dialogue and a light tone that keeps clear of heavy subject matter.