The International Film Festival Rotterdam revealed the lineups of its Tiger, Big Screen and Tiger Short competition sections Tuesday, and the first tranche of speakers for the Talks program, who include Cate Blanchett and Guy Maddin.
IFFR’s 54th edition will take place from Jan. 30 – Feb. 9. with Variety publishing digital daily newsletters during the event in partnership with the festival (subscribe here).
“Bad Painter” stars Udo Kier (above), Kim Gordon and Charlotte Tasche
Courtesy of Albert Oehlen, Sven Kirsten
The 14 titles in the Big Screen Competition “bridge the gap between arthouse and popular cinema through genre-blurring stories of rebellion, tradition and expression,” the festival said. The lineup includes “Bad Painter,” in which Albert Oehlen presents a cinematic self-portrait, with the German artist played by actor Udo Kier, and musician Kim Gordon performing as his inner self, interviewer and judge.
The Tiger Competition section, which showcases emerging voices from across the globe, has 14 world premieres. The films explore “personal stories and profound connections to history, identity, and place – spanning Montenegro to Malaysia and Congo to India,” the festival said in a statement.
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The 20 titles in the Tiger Short Competition “represent the most exciting and refreshing film art of today, featuring a Slovenian climate sci-fi, a re-appropriation of Myanmarese government broadcasts, and a Georgian photomontage,” IFFR said.
The IFFR Talks lineup includes Blanchett and Maddin, who – following their recent collaboration on “Rumours” – will come together for “an expansive dialogue about creative collaboration, the role of film festivals, and the enduring power of the short film form.”
IFFR will also welcome Robby Müller Award recipient Lol Crawley, in conversation with writer and film critic Peter Bradshaw to discuss his cinematography, including his work on “The Brutalist” and other highlights from his career.
Alex Ross Perry will talk about his documentary “Videoheaven,” part of the Focus program “Hold Video in Your Hands,” celebrating the community spirit of VHS culture. Perry will also discuss his other new film, “Pavements,” featured in the Harbour section.
In another Talks highlight, Cheryl Dunye and Albertina Carri will explore radical queerness and cinema as a means to “challenge normative pressures, gender, and identity.”
As previously announced, the festival will open with “Fabula,” a compelling dark comedy from the Dutch director and screenwriter Michiel ten Horn, and close with the historical epic “This City Is a Battlefield” from Indonesian filmmaker Mouly Surya, which was also supported by IFFR’s Hubert Bals Fund.
Vanja Kaludjercic, festival director at IFFR, said: “Since our very first festival in 1972, IFFR has been a space for bold creativity, where the unexpected finds a home, and where cinema in all its splendor is celebrated. As we step into this next chapter, we remain steadfast in our belief that cinema flourishes when it is free – free to experiment, cross boundaries, and voice truths that often go untold.”
The IFFR program is available on IFFR.com, including the latest lineups in Bright Future, Harbour, Limelight, Cinema Regained, Art Directions and more.
Tiger Competition
Jury: Yuki Aditya, Soheila Golestani, Winnie Lau, Peter Strickland and Andrea Luka Zimmerman.
“L’arbre de l’authenticité,” dir. Sammy Baloji (Democratic Republic of Congo, Belgium)
“Bad Girl,” dir. Varsha Bharath (India)
“Blind Love,” dir. Julian Chou (Taiwan)
“Fiume o morte!,” dir. Igor Bezinović (Croatia, Italy, Slovenia)
“La gran historia de la filosofía occidental,” dir. Aria Covamonas (Mexico)
“Guo Ran,” dir. Li Dongmei (China)
“Im Haus meiner Eltern,” dir. Tim Ellrich (Germany)
“Perla,” dir. Alexandra Makarová (Austria, Slovakia)
“Primeira pessoa do plural,” dir. Sandro Aguilar (Portugal, Italy)
“Tears in Kuala Lumpur,” dir. Ridhwan Saidi (Malaysia)
“Vitrival – The Most Beautiful Village in the World,” dir. Noëlle Bastin, Baptiste Bogaert (Belgium)
“Wind, Talk to Me,” dir. Stefan Djordjevic (Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia)
“Wondrous Is the Silence of My Master,” dir. Ivan Salatić (Montenegro)
The 14th title in the Tiger Competition will be revealed closer to the festival due to sensitivities surrounding its release.
Big Screen Competition
“The Assistant,” dir. Wilhelm Sasnal, Anka Sasnal (Poland, United Kingdom)
“Back to the Family,” dir. Sharunas Bartas (Lithuania)
“Bad Painter,” dir. Albert Oehlen (Germany, United States)
“¡Caigan las rosas blancas!,” dir. Albertina Carri (Argentina, Brazil, Spain)
“Gowok: Javanese Kamasutra,” dir. Hanung Bramantyo (Indonesia)
“De idylle,” dir. Aaron Rookus (Netherlands, Belgium, Estonia)
“Macai,” dir. Sun-J Perumal (Malaysia)
“Orenda,” dir. Pirjo Honkasalo (Finland, Estonia, Sweden)
“L’oro del Reno,” dir. Lorenzo Pullega (Italy)
“Our Father – The Last Days of a Dictator,” dir. José Filipe Costa (Portugal)
“The Puppet’s Tale,” dir. Suman Mukhopadhyay (India)
“Raptures,” dir. Jon Blåhed (Sweden, Finland)
“Soft Leaves,” dir. Miwako Van Weyenberg (Belgium)
“Yasuko, Songs of Days Past,” dir. Negishi Kichitaro (Japan)
Tiger Short Competition
The jury: Angela Haardt, Frank Sweeney, and Yaoting Zhang
“Baby Blue Benzo,” dir. Sara Cwynar (United States, Germany)
“BAN♡ITS,” dir. Omar Chowdhury (Belgium, Bangladesh, South Korea)
“Bury Us in a Lone Desert,” dir. Nguyễn Lê Hoàng Phúc (Vietnam)
“Capitol Limited,” dir. Lily Ekimian Ragheb, Ahmed T. Ragheb (United States)
“Common Pear,” dir. Gregor Božič (Slovenia, United Kingdom)
“La durmiente,” dir. Maria Inês Gonçalves (Portugal, Spain)
“Empty Rider,” dir. Lawrence Lek (Switzerland, United Kingdom)
“The Garden of Electric Delights,” dir. Billy Roisz (Austria)
“Hepingli Playthrough,” dir. Zheng Yuan (China)
“I Wan’na Be Like You,” dir. Margit Lukács, Persijn Broersen (Netherlands, France, Belgium, United Kingdom, Germany)
“Memory Is an Animal, It Barks with Many Mouths,” dir. Eva Giolo (Belgium, Italy)
“Merging Bodies,” dir. Adrian Paci (Italy)
“A Metamorphosis,” dir. Lin Htet Aung (Myanmar)
“Now, Hear Me Good,” dir. Dwayne LeBlanc (United States)
“Les rites de passage,” dir. Florian Fischer, Johannes Krell (Germany)
“The Rock Speaks,” dir. Amy Louise Wilson, Francois Knoetze (South Africa, Spain)
“Suspicions About the Hidden Realities of Air,” dir. Sam Drake (United States)
“Temo Re,” dir. Anka Gujabidze (Georgia)
“Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World,” dir. Kevin Walker, Irene Zahariadis (Greece, United States)
“World at Stake,” dir. Susanna Flock, Adrian Jonas Haim, Jona Kleinlein (Austria)