Matthijs van de Sande Bakhuyzen to Headline Survival Thriller The Art of Survival
Dutch actor Matthijs van de Sande Bakhuyzen will headline The Art of Survival, a survival thriller directed by Bart Schrijver, Deadline reported on 10 November 2026.
The film follows a survival game show that goes badly wrong. Van de Sande Bakhuyzen plays Daniel, who takes on a 50-day challenge in the Arctic wilderness. The prize for the challenge is €500,000 ($561,000). Partway through, Daniel's shelter burns down, and no rescue team arrives.
The project comes from Amsterdam-based Tuesday Studio, the company behind the earlier film The North. Arnold Janssen, a co-founder of Tuesday Studio, is leading international sales. The film will be introduced to buyers at the AFM, the American Film Market, the annual trade event where sales companies present films to distributors from around the world.
Two distribution deals are already in place. Dutch FilmWorks has signed to distribute the film in Benelux, the region covering Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Gutek Film has signed for Poland. Distribution deals signed before release tell the trade which territories have committed in advance, and they often come together during markets like the AFM.
Van de Sande Bakhuyzen's recent credits include the Netflix drama The Perfect Lie and Billy the Kid, a series for MGM+, the US premium channel and streaming service.
For readers following the film, the next pieces of information to watch for are a release date and additional sales deals. Neither has been announced so far.
