Sprouts Film Festival
ecocinema & debut films
For five editions now, the team behind Sprouts has developed a recurring platform for fictional ecocinema and socially critical debut films. We have steadily grown into an interdisciplinary film festival, now present across six venues in three of Amsterdam’s city districts: Studio/K, Kriterion, De Uitkijk, Droog, MidWest, and QRU.
While a five-year anniversary calls for celebration, each day we are reminded of why we felt the need for a festival like Sprouts in the first place. Autocrats, tech bros, and far-right factions continue to wreak havoc on our planet, disrupting ecosystems and undermining international law and human dignity. This is why we cherish the brave filmmakers of our 2026 edition so deeply: they defy systems to share bold, uncompromising visions. We also support the shaping of a new generation of green storytellers by hosting our very first Sprouts Eco Shorts Pitch and Industry Day.
From 1 - 7 June, let us focus on bringing people together and inspiring one another to resist. Whether by visiting our free Eco Expo, joining our community dinners, attending outdoor screenings, supporting our fundraiser for Sudan, or simply watching a film together.
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About the festival
Everyday our lives are flooded by crises, not least of all a seemingly ever-growing climate crisis. It is therefore no surprise that Dutch society has seen a proliferation of protests. Sprouts wants to make the cinema a site of protest by addressing these crises at hand through fiction film, because the power of the imagination can help us battle polarization and foresee effective ways of living together harmoniously with one another and the more-than-human world.
As a festival we strive towards a greener and more diverse alternative to the regular films on offer in Amsterdam. Cinema can make tangible how our current global extinction crisis is never isolated. Battling racism and xenofobia, fighting for LGBTIQ+ and women’s rights, decolonizing Europe, adressing mental health, these issues and more all intersect and find a voice at Sprouts.
French philosopher Gaston Bachelard wrote of our imagination as being botanical. Like a rooted tree that can connect the sky and the earth, the real and the dreamed. At Sprouts we could not agree more. Fiction makes up our festival DNA. That many of our selected eco films are also first works attests to the importance felt by a new generation of filmmakers to better take care of what we have. Sprouts wishes to nurture these brave trailblazers. We hope that you too will give them your full support.
Throughout the year Sprouts is dedicated to offer more. This website functions as a running archive voor fictional ecocinema in order to broaden the category, because there is more than The Day After Tomorrow (2004). Now we need it more than ever.
Contact & info
︎ veerle@sproutsfilmfestival.com
︎ Instagram
︎ Newsletter
Festival locations
Studio/K
Timorplein 62
Amsterdam Oost
Filmtheater Kriterion
Roetersstraat 170
Amsterdam Oost
De Uitkijk
Prinsengracht 452
Amsterdam Centrum
Droog
Staalstraat 7B
Amsterdam Centrum
MidWest
Cabralstraat 1
Amsterdam West
QRU
Spaklerweg 1,
Amsterdam Oost
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Artistic Director & Film Programmer Thomas Streekstra
Managing Director & Societal Programmer Veerle van Lieshout
Cultural Programmer Sarah Saleh
Graphic Designer & Marketeer Ella Gijselhart
Partners & Industry Emma Broholm
Print Traffic Fenna van Halsema
Guest Programmer Sarah Teixeira St-Cyr
Contact
For general inquiries e-mail Veerle: veerle@sproutsfilmfestival.com
For film related questions e-mail Thomas: thomas@sproutsfilmfestival.com
For questions regarding marketing contact Ella: marketing@sproutsfilmfestival.com
For questions regarding partnerships contact Emma: publicity@sproutsfilmfestival.com
For questions around the Eco EXPO and AV-show contact Sarah: programming@sproutsfilmfestival.com
Board
President Elin Boijens
Secretary Dominique Geerts
Treasurer Jeroen Groot
General member Jeroen de Goeij
KvK 92198600 - Stichting Sprouts Film Festival
Sponsored by Stichting Onderlinge Studentensteun
Managing Director & Societal Programmer Veerle van Lieshout
Cultural Programmer Sarah Saleh
Graphic Designer & Marketeer Ella Gijselhart
Partners & Industry Emma Broholm
Print Traffic Fenna van Halsema
Guest Programmer Sarah Teixeira St-Cyr
Contact
For general inquiries e-mail Veerle: veerle@sproutsfilmfestival.com
For film related questions e-mail Thomas: thomas@sproutsfilmfestival.com
For questions regarding marketing contact Ella: marketing@sproutsfilmfestival.com
For questions regarding partnerships contact Emma: publicity@sproutsfilmfestival.com
For questions around the Eco EXPO and AV-show contact Sarah: programming@sproutsfilmfestival.com
Board
President Elin Boijens
Secretary Dominique Geerts
Treasurer Jeroen Groot
General member Jeroen de Goeij
KvK 92198600 - Stichting Sprouts Film Festival
Sponsored by Stichting Onderlinge Studentensteun
