Ticket sales for InScience science film festival have started. Assistant programmer Rob van den Bergh, the true film expert of the festival, gives four must-sees.

Arrival (Dennis Villeneuve)

‘To get straight to the point: Arrival is this year’s science fiction film and gets its Dutch premier at InScience. The story is about a linguist who gets recruited to contact aliens, after a space ship lands on earth. Considering Villeneuve’s earlier work like Prisoners (2012), Enemy (2014) and Sicario (2015), this is really something to look forward to: a true crowd pleaser that also has depth.’

The Happy Film (Stefan Sagmeister, Ben Nabors & Hillman Curtis)

‘The most fun film out of this list and my personal favorite. Artist Stefan Sagmeister tries the three ways to become happy, according to science – meditation, medication and therapy. I try not to give any spoilers, but it does not really make him happier. He does learn a lot about himself and changes his life in a very unexpected way. It is a surprising and refreshing film, with the dry humor that I love.’

Peacemaker (James Demo)

‘A biographic film about the Irish peace scientist Padraig O’Malley. Peacemaker is especially beautiful because O’Malley is a remarkable person and the film maker brings him very close to you. He is one of the most famous peace scientists with a lot of books and prizes behind his name, but only when you watch this intimate portrait of him, you see what drives him to do this work. That is something completely unexpected, his alcohol problem, something you can only truly comprehend when you watch the whole film.’

Maratus (Simon Cunich)

‘The undisputed favorite at the InScience office. Maratus is a short documentary about a garbage man who discovers a spider during a run, and starts a search for the little creature. The film has a nice human interest side: the garbage man is funny and has a very colorful character. It is one of the few short films that we built a complete film block around, the story raises so many questions about citizen science that we want to make room for at least thirty minutes of questions from the audience.’

In the InScience timetable, you can see which films are suitable for an English-speaking audience. You can buy tickets on the website.