EXCLUSIVE

Beyonce bitching about Jay Z's alleged affair wasn't even her idea ... according to a filmmaker who says Bey's visual album copies a movie he made more than a year before "Lemonade" dropped.

Matthew Fulks is suing Beyonce and her record label, saying much of the "Lemonade" trailer completely rips off his 2014 short film, "Palinoia." In the suit, he says his project also depicted a "tumultuous relationship."

He says his beef is really over 39 seconds of the trailer, which have a slew of images similar to his movie. Specifically ... characters in front of graffiti-covered walls, red tinted images, dimly lit parking garages and closeup shots of "overgrown grass." There are more ...

Fulks says he knows a Senior VP at Columbia Music, Bey's label, saw "Palinoia" sometime in 2015 -- and he thinks the exec stole his ideas for "Lemonade" ... which started shooting at the end of 2015.