{"id":956333,"date":"2026-07-24T14:24:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T14:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/956333\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T14:24:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T14:24:15","slug":"oscar-doc-contender-house-of-hope-secures-north-american-distribution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/956333\/","title":{"rendered":"Oscar Doc Contender House Of Hope Secures North American Distribution"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tEXCLUSIVE: <\/strong>Toronto-based distribution company New Mountain Films<\/a> has acquired North American theatrical and streaming rights for Marjolein Busstra\u2019s award-winning documentary House of Hope<\/a> about a pacifist Waldorf school in the occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe agreement was negotiated by Khaled Sabbour, founder and CEO of New Mountain Films, and Esther van Messel and Shiran Shmerling at Zurich-based international sales company First Hand Films.<\/p>\n

\n\tWorking with a Palestinian crew, including Dutch-Palestinian cinematographer Abu Mosab, Amsterdam-based filmmaker Busstra followed Manar and Milad, a couple who run a pacifist Waldorf elementary school in al-Eizariya, a Palestinian town on the outskirts of Jerusalem under pressure from Israel\u2019s expansion of its illegal settlements.<\/p>\n

\n\tAgainst this tinderbox backdrop, they strive to protect their students\u2019 innocence and sense of possibility amid escalating regional conflict.<\/p>\n

\n\tHouse of Hope world premiered at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam in 2025, and then went on to screen at the Hot Docs<\/a> Canadian International Documentary Festival in Toronto this May. There, it won the Hot Docs Best International Feature Documentary award.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe award, which is supported Donner Canadian Foundation, qualifies the film for consideration in the Best Documentary Feature category at the 99th Academy Awards<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt is produced by Ruby Deelen and Olivia Sophie van Leeuwen for 100% Film in coproduction with Ossama Bawardi and May Jabareen for Palestine-based Philistine Films.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHouse of Hope is exactly the kind of film that New Mountain was built to champion \u2014 a story with real stakes, told with craft, that deserves an audience beyond the festival circuit,\u201d said Sabbour.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhat you think you know does not survive the ninety-one minutes,\u201d added Annette Warring, President & COO of New Mountain Films. \u201cManar and Milad are not arguing with anyone. They are teaching children to read and to imagine, and watching them do it rearranges something.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNew Mountain Films will bring House of Hope to theatres in select major North American markets in mid-October 2026, ahead of its move to NM+, New Mountain\u2019s purpose-driven streaming platform. The platform will convert audience watch-time on the title directly into charitable giving, extending the film\u2019s impact well beyond its theatrical run.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: Toronto-based distribution company New Mountain Films has acquired North American theatrical and streaming rights for Marjolein Busstra\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":956334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[28],"tags":[15797,2147,171,309465,258576,179423,53,384726,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-956333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-academy-awards","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-hot-docs","tag-house-of-hope","tag-idfa","tag-movies","tag-new-mountain-films","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116975413894644916","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=956333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/956334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=956333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=956333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=956333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}