The Taste of Johannes

As a restaurant critic Johannes van Dam was both famous and infamous. He could make or break a restaurant in Het Parool newspaper. De keuken van Johannes (Johannes' kitchen) is an intimate portrait of the food writer who passed away last year.

Food Chains NL Premiere

Never in the history of the United States has there been so much interest in food. Is it healthy, is it sustainable? At the same time, an important aspect of food is being forgotten: the people who pick, prepare and process it.

Growing Cities NL Premiere + Q&A

During tough economic times, Americans start growing their own food. But something has changed. Growing Cities visits projects around the US and discovers that urban farming has put down roots. In a country where (mostly unhealthy) food is abundant, urban farming also has an increasingly social function.

Tomorrow's Food World Premiere + Q&A

The best way of knowing where your food comes from is to grow it yourself. Chef Jonathan Karpathios grows his own vegetables, tends his own greenhouse and keeps his own pigs. Anything he can’t produce himself, he sources locally. It’s his way of saving the world.

Raw Herring

Herring fishing is deeply rooted in Dutch cultural and culinary identity. The arrival each year of 'Hollandse Nieuwe', the first herring of the season, is eagerly anticipated. The silvery catch is even celebrated on Flag Day in June.

Inside the Best Restaurant in the World: El Celler de Can Roca NL Première + Q&A

As the title suggests, Inside the Best Restaurant in the World: El Celler de Can Roca gives us a peek into the lives of the three Roca brothers, who run the best restaurant in the world. 

My Name Is Salt

It is the most widely used seasoning in our kitchens. In this magical documentary, filmmaker Farida Pacha follows a family of seasonal labourers who head into the relentless Indian desert to extract salt. 

No Land No Food No Life + Q&A

Agribusinesses and investors are increasingly driving small farmers off their land, particularly in the world’s poorest countries. According to local leaders, the farmers do not own the land, although they have often lived on it for generations. These farmers are dependent on the land and its loss also means the loss of their home and livelihood.

Perú Sabe: Cuisine as an Agent of Social Change NL Première + Q&A

Something remarkable is happening in Peru. More than 80,000 young people have chosen to study gastronomy. In Perú Sabe we see how this mass move towards cooking is driving change in the Latin American country.

Salmon Confidential NL Premiere

A growing number of wild salmon in British Columbia, on the west coast of Canada, are being found dead before they have spawned. Biologist Alexandra Morton says the salmon farms in the area are to blame, but can she prove it?

Seeds of Time

The diversity of edible crops is declining rapidly and putting the future of our food at risk. But who is responsible for biodiversity and who owns the seeds? American scientist Cary Fowler stays out of the discussion and gets on with the work. His ‘Doomsday Vault’ is an enormous facility for storing and preserving all the world’s crop seeds.

Soul Food Stories

In the Bulgarian village of Satovchka, problems are solved around the table. The village’s aging population have formed alliances which, despite their different religions and beliefs, coexist more or less peacefully. In this microcosm, they are linked by a common past and something simpler: food. 

The Knights of the Lagoon NL Premiere + Q&A

The fishermen of the Orbetello bay in Tuscany still fish in much the same way as their ancestors. While they posture and poke fun at each other, in typical male fashion, their traditional fishing methods maintain a balance between people and planet.

The Moo Man + Q&A

There is a special bond between a farmer and his cows. British dairy farmer Stephen Hook spends every day with his ladies. The family business and the herd are everything to him and so he does everything to avoid cost-cutting supermarkets and large, impersonal production methods.

Love and Lemons

Agnes’ perfect life is turned upside down when she is fired from the restaurant where she works and dumped by her boyfriend on the same day. She has little more to lose when the chance to open her own restaurant comes along.

The Green Butchers Classic

After falling out with their boss, friends Bjarne and Svend decide to go into the butchery business together. Bankruptcy looms, however, until a tragic accident provides them with a dubious new cut. The butcher’s shop suddenly becomes the busiest place in town. But how long can it last?

The Lunchbox

The lunchbox delivery system of Mumbai’s dabawallahs connects thousands of cooks and hungry workers each day; strangers who will never meet unless something goes wrong. In The Lunchbox, two lives cross unexpectedly in a most delightful way.

Zone Pro Site: The Moveable Feast

Hsiao Wan has her heart set on becoming a model, but her father has other ideas and is grooming her to take over the family catering business. Years later, and up to her neck in debt, Wan finds two strange men at her door, demanding she pay back the money she owes them.

Bycatch World Premiere

Bycatch is a comic anecdote about the amount of bycatch unintentionally caught in fishing nets for each plate of fish. In less than a minute, the film underscores both the need to debate fishing methods and the scale of the problem.

Caballeros del cafe

"A cup of coffee in your country costs more than a pound of coffee here,” says Colombian coffee grower Ivan in the opening seconds of Caballeros del cafe. Prices have plummeted in the coffee-producing country and growers are struggling to survive.

Impromptu NL Premiere

Impromptu is an American animated short about the power of food, wine, music and love, seen through the eyes of a modern man. While preparing a gourmet dinner for his young family, Chuck gets a phone call from his euphoric wife to say that her colleagues are coming for dinner to celebrate a success at work.

Jamón

Jamón is an animated short about the life of José, a teenage pig growing up in a human family. With his somewhat peculiar habits and vegetarian lifestyle, he seems to be the family misfit. When a new neighbour moves in next door, José begins to realise who he is.

Kars Honey

Eastern Turkey is famous for its pure honey. The nectar comes only from wild mountain flowers and the native Caucasian bees are never given any sugar to increase production. But this bee and way of life are under threat from non-native species and over-commercialisation. 

Checkout 9

How many people make real contact with the person at the supermarket checkout counter? And vice versa? Cashier Olga operates on autopilot. Dressed in a pale red sweater and dark body warmer, she absently scans milk, eggs and organic products and prints off receipts.

L'Universelle des Pourcel World Premiere + Q&A

The famous culinary twins Jacques and Laurent Pourcel were inseparable. That was until they decided to conquer the world, 10,000 kilometres apart.

Hodgepodge Shorts Block

Sometimes a short is so beautiful, timely or downright appetising that we simply have to programme it. The shorts in this block have nothing in common, except that they are all mini masterpieces.

Little Miss Piggy

Eleven-year-old Brechtje Jans lives on a pig farm. There’s plenty of space to play, but Brechtje is unhappy. She thinks pigs are disgusting and meat even more so. She dreams of living in Amsterdam, where she can shop all day.

Pescherecci Classic

Although fishing practices may have changed in recent years, life at sea has not. Pescherecci takes you on board an Italian fishing in the 1950s, where despite high waves the fishermen bravely cast their nets in the Mediterranean.

Sausage Dutch Premiere

Sausage is an animated film that critically examines the value consumers attach to food. The film is set in a village with two artisan stallholders, whose livelihoods are threatened by the arrival of a devious fast-food vendor.

Sweet Dreams

A cupcake who lives in a town made of sugar and biscuits is shipwrecked with his sugar cube boat and washes up on an island of fruit and vegetables. He befriends the pumpkins, limes and turnips, who teach him how to build sturdier houses and vessels from carrots and kale leaves.

Table d’Hote EU Premiere

The act of putting a piece of meat in your mouth is the final stage of a long production process. In this simple but striking short animation, student Alexandra Levasseur of the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema in Montreal shows that eating meat is more than sticking your fork into a juicy steak.

The Lonely Planet Omelette Shop EU Premiere

Ramkishan Gawlani and his son Shaum scraped a living selling street food from a tiny stall in Jodhpur, India. That all changed with a listing in Lonely Planet. Scores of local and international customers now flock to ‘The Omelette Shop’, which goes through some 1,500 eggs a day. 

Pig Dutch Premiere

Who is the pig? How does it live? What happens to it? From sty to sausage, the Dutch short Pig silently follows one of the most widely eaten animals. 

Pigs Shorts Block + Q&A

From bacon to sausage, the pig is one of the most widely eaten animals in the Netherlands. This block of shorts is dedicated to the amiable porker with a curly tail and explores our relationship to it.

Watermelon

In the middle of nowhere on the hottest day of the year, a man sells watermelons at the side of the road. A handful of tourists stop to take photos of this unusual attraction but there are no buyers. Then the worst happens: a rival watermelon seller sets up a stall on the other side of the road! The men become embroiled in a watermelon war. 

Wild Boar

Wild Boar highlights the peculiar relationship between wild boars and people. In this Dutch short, we see how the boars impinge on our territory and our sometimes surprising response to the invasion.