Now in their second year working together within the dual leadership structure of the International Film Festival Rotterdam, festival director Vanja Kaludjercic and managing director Clare Stewart are confidently looking into the future. The duo is heading into the festival’s 54th edition, taking place between Jan. 30 – Feb. 9, having just secured funding for the next four iterations and thinking of ways to deepen their connection to local audiences and their wide net of international filmmakers.
In the year and a half since being appointed, Stewart says she has “properly become a Rotterdam resident and got much more of a connection with the spirit of the city and how the festival is embedded in it.” In the last year, she and Kaludjercic have worked on a five-year strategy following the success of the 2024 edition, which the managing director says “has met all financial challenges [despite] quite a large business remodeling” that had as one of its main focuses not to make the process “visible or palpable” to filmmakers and audiences.
On top of working on the festival’s business strategy with Stewart, Kaludjercic has been busy with a year-long program of activities designed to feed into audience development. “We run film club initiatives with different organizations across the city that serve very different purposes, from street culture crowds to the Buddy Film Foundation, which supports refugee filmmakers,” the festival director tells Variety.
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“We have events almost every week. This way, we collaboratively work on the program, bringing people together to create a dialogue around the films and excitement around what is to come with the festival,” she continues. “Rotterdam is one of the most diverse cities, not only in the Netherlands, but in Europe, and that is a big imperative for us when creating the festival. Being the biggest film event in the Netherlands, it’s important that a lot of different people can recognize themselves in the program.”
This connection with the city and the country is made even stronger this year with the festival having a Dutch opener in Michiel ten Horn’s “Fabula.” “It’s a delight to have a Dutch film opening the festival,” says Kaludjercic. “It creates even more of a celebratory feeling within the Dutch community. Michiel ten Horn is an exceptional storyteller who can connect with broader audiences as well as the more demanding ones.”
“Fabula” (Courtesy of IFFR)
“If you look throughout the program, there are many great Dutch filmmakers,” she adds. “We have managed to look into a nation, specifically the Netherlands, and see how we can best display their range of production within our program.” On top of several Dutch films in the lineup, IFFR also hosts the RTM Day, a day dedicated to spotlighting the best in Rotterdam filmmaking alongside a host of talent from the city’s creative scene.
Other countries heavily featured in this year’s program include Malaysia, building up on the country’s exceptional presence in 2024, and Indonesia. The country features 17 works in the 2025 edition including the festival closer, Mouly Surya’s “This City Is a Battlefield,” an Indonesian-Dutch co-production supported by IFFR’s Hubert Bals Fund.
“This City Is a Battlefield” (Courtesy of IFFR)
“For quite a few years now, we have been deliberately working on creating and carrying out a bigger space within the festival to show how rich the national production of Indonesia is,” says the festival director. “We did the same with India for many years and can now confidently say that IFFR is the most important film festival when it comes to Indian cinema internationally.” It’s important to note that, last December, the Netherlands and Indonesia signed an audiovisual co-production agreement at the inaugural JAFF Market in Yogyakarta. The treaty recognizes qualifying co-productions as national productions in both countries, opening access to subsidies including support from the Netherlands Film Fund and a potential 35% cash rebate through the Netherlands Film Production Incentive.
Speaking about the challenges festivals face at times of political unrest, Stewart says that “the notion of the ethical framework for the business side of the organization” is at the top of her mind.
“We also see the environment in the Netherlands changing politically and financially,” she adds. “Our financial challenge this year has shifted in the sense that we’ve secured funding for the next four editions but the cultural purse is tightened and discussions are being made about funding cuts to other cultural organizations. The Netherlands has a strong philanthropic tradition but foundations are also under increasing pressure to fund more organizations. We see that this significant shift, to a certain degree, aligns with what is happening politically.”
Talent-wise, while last year Stewart and Kaludjercic said Debbie Harry and Marco Belocchio were their Zendaya and Timothée Chalamet, this year, the festival director jumps to say, “Cate Blanchett is our Cate Blanchett!” in response to welcoming the Oscar-winning actor to the festival for an in-conversation event with “Rumours” director Guy Maddin. Blanchett also recently announced a refugee-focused short film grant in partnership with IFFR’s Hubert Bals Fund called the Displacement Film Fund.
“Cate Blanchett is a wonderful supporter of independent cinema and her discussion with Guy Maddin means so much to us because he is one of the filmmakers we supported very early on,” says Kaludjercic. Other in-conversation guests include Cheryl Dunye, Alex Ross Perry, Miike Takashi, and Oscar-nominated “The Brutalist” cinematographer Lol Crawley.