Marjolein Busstra's 'House of Hope' Wins Best International Feature Documentary at Hot Docs 2026

Dutch director Marjolein Busstra's documentary House of Hope has won the Best International Feature Documentary award at the 2026 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, the jury announced May 1 in Toronto. The Netherlands-Palestine co-production, which follows a Palestinian couple running a small Waldorf elementary school in the occupied West Bank, also qualifies for Academy Awards consideration as a result of the win.

The Details

The Hot Docs Awards Presentation took place May 1, 2026, at El Mocambo in Toronto, according to Hot Docs official records. House of Hope, a 91-minute film completed in 2025, received a $10,000 cash prize from the Donner Canadian Foundation alongside the jury honor.

The film is a Netherlands-Palestine co-production directed by Busstra and produced by Ruby Deelen, Olivia Sophie van Leeuwen, May Jabareen, and Ossama Bawardi, according to Hot Docs. Its central subjects are Milad and Manar, a Palestinian couple who co-founded and run the House of Hope — a small alternative Waldorf school in Al Eizariya, a village just outside Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank — for children between the ages of 4 and 11, as reported by The Grind Magazine.

The school's curriculum centers on non-violent resistance, empathy, and peace, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Students recite a daily pledge inspired by Martin Luther King Jr., and teachers at the school help children process the trauma that comes with life under occupation, the Reporter noted.

In scenes documented by The Grind Magazine, Manar speaks directly about the weight of daily life in Al Eizariya. "Is this a life, even? There are no opportunities, no safety. Nothing is normal," Manar tells a fellow teacher in the film. In a separate moment captured in the documentary, Manar reacts to the escalation that followed October 7, 2023: "It feels like a new Nakba."

The Hot Docs jury was direct in its official statement explaining the award. "A powerful and unsentimental film that bears witness to a family-run Waldorf school in the West Bank and its profound commitment to nurturing the humanity of children," the jury wrote. "For its clear-eyed portrait of educators whose quiet everyday resilience stubbornly insists on hope under the shadow of occupation and genocide, the jury enthusiastically presents Marjolein Busstra with the Hot Docs Best International Feature Documentary award for House of Hope."

House of Hope world premiered at IDFA, the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, in November 2025, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The film then continued its festival run, arriving at Hot Docs as part of its international circuit before taking the top prize in Toronto.

Context

The 2026 Hot Docs Festival runs from April 23 to May 3 in Toronto, screening 115 films from 51 countries, according to Hot Docs official records and NOW Toronto. Hot Docs is North America's largest documentary festival, per Hot Docs.

Hot Docs is also an Academy Awards qualifying festival for both feature and short documentaries, according to Hot Docs official records. The win qualifies House of Hope for consideration in the Best Documentary Feature category at the Academy Awards without requiring a standard theatrical run, provided the filmmakers comply with Academy rules, The Hollywood Reporter noted.

Al Eizariya, the West Bank village where the House of Hope school operates, sits just outside Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank, as described by The Grind Magazine. The school follows the Waldorf model of education, The Grind Magazine reported.

Other major winners at the 2026 Hot Docs awards ceremony included Saigon Story: Two Shootings in the Forest Kingdom, which received the Best Canadian Feature Documentary prize, and The 49th Year, which earned the Joan VanDuzer Special Jury Prize for International Feature Documentary, according to Hot Docs official records. Ceremony received the DGC Special Jury Prize for Canadian Feature Documentary.

What's Next

House of Hope is now eligible for Academy Awards consideration in the Best Documentary Feature category without a standard theatrical run, per The Hollywood Reporter and Hot Docs official records. The filmmakers will need to comply with Academy rules to preserve that eligibility. No distribution deal information is currently available.

The Hot Docs Festival continues through May 3, 2026, in Toronto, with additional screenings scheduled across its remaining days, according to Hot Docs official records.