International Film Festival Rotterdam

International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) is an annual film festival held at the end of January in various locations in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, focused on independent and experimental films. The inaugural festival took place in June 1972, led by founder Huub Bals. IFFR also hosts CineMart and BoostNL, for film producers to seek funding.

International Film Festival Rotterdam
IFFR logo
LocationRotterdam, Netherlands
Founded1972
Founded byHuub Bals
Most recent2024
AwardsTiger Award
Artistic directorVanja Kaludjercic
Festival date25 January – 4 February
Websitewww.iffr.com
International Film Festival Rotterdam chronology

History

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The first festival, then called Film International, was organized in June 1972 under the leadership of Huub Bals. The festival profiled itself as a promoter of alternative, innovative, and non-commercial films, with an emphasis on the Far East and developing countries. Around 1983, the festival founded CineMart to serve as a "regular film market", and later modified the business model to serve instead as a "co-production market",[1][2][3] which helps a selected number of film producers connect with possible co-producers and funders for their film projects.[4]

After the festival founder's sudden death in 1988, a fund was initiated and named after him (Hubert Bals Fund), used for supporting filmmakers from developing countries.[5][6]

The non-competitive character of the festival changed in 1995, when the VPRO Tiger Awards were introduced—three yearly prizes for young filmmakers making their first or second film.[citation needed]

Directors

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In 1996 Simon Field, formerly cinema director at the London Institute of Contemporary Arts, became director of the festival. In 2004 Sandra den Hamer took over as director of the festival, and from 2007 to 2015 the director was Rutger Wolfson. Film producer Bero Beyer was the next director.[citation needed]

In 2020, Vanja Kaludjercic was appointed as the new director.[7]

Description

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Rotterdamse Schouwburg

Since its foundation in 1972, it has maintained a focus on independent and experimental filmmaking by showcasing emerging talents and established auteurs. The festival also places a focus on presenting cutting edge media art and arthouse film, with most of the participants in the short film program identified as artists or experimental filmmakers.[8][9] IFFR also hosts CineMart and BoostNL, for film producers to seek funding.[citation needed]

As of 2024, Vanja Kaludjercic is director of the festival.[10]

The IFFR logo is a stylized image of a tiger that is loosely based on Leo, the lion in the MGM logo.[11]

Festival screening locations

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The IFFR screens films at multiple locations, including the Pathé cinema at Schouwburgplein, De Doelen, Cinerama, WORM, Oude Luxor Theater, Rotterdamse Schouwburg, KINO, and LantarenVenster.[12]

Tiger Award winners

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The Tiger Award has had various sponsors over the years. In the years leading up to and including 2010 it was sponsored by the VPRO. In 2011 the award was presented by the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds and since 2012 by Hivos.[13]

Year Film Original title Director Country
1995 Postman Youchai Jianjun He   China
How Old Is the River? Fuyu no kappa Kazama Shiori   Japan
Thalassa, Thalassa, Ruckkehr Zum Mmer Thalassa, Thalassa Bogdan Dumitrescu   Germany
  Romania
1996 Sons Erzi Zhang Yuan   China
Like Grains of Sand Nagisa no Shindobaddo Ryōsuke Hashiguchi   Japan
Small Faces Gillies MacKinnon   United Kingdom
1997 Last Holiday Posledniye kanikuly Amir Karakulov   Kazakhstan
The Day a Pig Fell into the Well Daijiga umule pajinnal Hong Sang-soo   South Korea
Robinson in Space Patrick Keiller   United Kingdom
1998 Buttoners Knoflíkári Petr Zelenka   Czech Republic
Round the Moons Between Earth and Sea Giro di lune tra terra e mare Giuseppe Gaudino   Italy
The Inheritors Die Siebtelbauern Stefan Ruzowitzky   Austria
1999 The Iron Heel of Oligarchy Zheleznaya pyata oligarkhii Alexander Bashirov   Russia
More Than Yesterday Plus qu'hier moins que demain Laurent Achard   France
Following Christopher Nolan   United Kingdom
2000 Suzhou River Suzhou he Ye Lou   China
Crane World Mundo Grúa Pablo Trapero   Argentina
Bye Bye Blue Bird Katrin Ottarsdottír   Denmark
2001 Bad Company Mabudachi Furumaya Tomoyuki   Japan
The Days Between In den Tag hinein Maria Speth   Germany
25 Watts Juan Pablo Rebella & Pablo Stoll   Uruguay
2002 Sleeping Rough Tussenland Eugenie Jansen   Netherlands
Everyday God Kisses Us on the Mouth În fiecare zi Dumnezeu ne saruta pe gura Sinişa Dragin   Romania
Wild Bees Divoké vcely Bohdan Sláma   Czech Republic
2003 With Love. Lilya S lyubovyu. Lilya Larisa Sadilova   Russia
Strange Extraño Santiago Loza   Argentina
Jealousy Is My Middle Name Jiltuneun naui him Park Chan-ok   South Korea
2004 The Missing Bu jian Kang-sheng Lee   Taiwan
Summer in the Golden Valley Ljeto u zlatnoj dolini Srđan Vuletić   Bosnia-Herzegovina
En Route Unterwegs Jan Krüger   Germany
2005 Changing Destiny Nemmeno il destino Daniele Gaglianone   Italy
4 Chetyre Ilya Khrzhanovsky   Russia
The Sky Turns El cielo gira Mercedes Álvarez   Spain
2006 Walking on the Wild Side Lai xiao zi Han Jie   China
The Dog Pound La perrera Manuel Nieto Zas   Uruguay
  Argentina
  Canada
  Spain
Old Joy Kelly Reichardt   United States
2007 Love Conquers All Tan Chui Mui   Malaysia
The Unpolished Die Unerzogenen Pia Marais   Germany
Bog of Beasts Baixio das Bestas Claudio Assis   Brazil
AFR Morten Hartz Kaplers   Denmark
2008 Go With Peace Jamil Gå med fred Jamil - Ma salama Jamil Omar Shargawi   Denmark
Wonderful Town (เมืองเหงาซ่อนรัก) Aditya Assarat   Thailand
Flower in the Pocket Liew Seng Tat   Malaysia
2009 Be Calm and Count to Seven Aram bash va ta hatf beshmar Ramtin Lavafipour   Iran
Breathless Ddongpari Yang Ik-june   South Korea
Wrong Rosary Uzak ihtimal Mahmut Fazil Coskun   Turkey
2010 Cold Water of the Sea Agua fría de mar Paz Fábrega   Costa Rica
Alamar To the Sea Pedro González-Rubio   Mexico
Mundane History Jao nok krajok (เจ้านกกระจอก) Anocha Suwichakornpong   Thailand
2011 The Journals of Musan Musanilgi Park Jung-bum   South Korea
Finisterrae Sergio Caballero   Spain
Eternity Tee rak (ที่รัก) Sivaroj Kongsakul   Thailand
2012 Klip Clip Maja Miloš   Serbia
Thursday Till Sunday De jueves a domingo Dominga Sotomayor Castillo   Chile
  Netherlands
Egg and Stone Jidan he shitou Ji Huang   China
2013 My Dog Killer Môj pes Killer Mira Fornay   Slovakia
  Czech Republic
Soldier Jane Soldate Jeannette Daniel Hoesl   Austria
Fat Shaker Larzanandeye charbi Mohammad Shirvani   Iran
2014 Anatomy of a Paper Clip Yamamori clip koujo no atari Ikeda Akira   Japan
Something Must Break Nånting måste gå sönder Ester Martin Bergsmark   Sweden
Han Gong-ju Han Gong-ju Lee Su-jin   South Korea
2015 The Project of the Century La obra del siglo Carlos M. Quintela   Argentina
  Cuba
   Switzerland
Videophilia (and Other Viral Syndromes) Juan Daniel F. Molero   Peru
Vanishing Point Jakrawal Nilthamrong   Thailand
  Netherlands
2016 Radio Dreams Babak Jalali   Iran
  United States
2017 Sexy Durga Sanal Kumar Sasidharan   India
2018 The Widowed Witch[14] Xiao gua fu cheng xian ji Cai Chengjie   China
2019 Present.Perfect. Wan mei jin xing shi Shengze Zhu   Hong Kong
  USA
2020 The Cloud In Her Room Ta fang jian li de yun Zheng Lu Xinyuan   China
  Hong Kong
2021 Pebbles Koozhaangal Vinothraj P.S.   India
2022 EAMI Paz Encina   Paraguay
2023 Le spectre de Boko Haram[15] Cyrielle Raingou   Cameroon
2024 Rei[16] Tanaka Toshihiko   Japan

Tiger Short Award Winners

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The short films have their own competition at IFFR. What differentiates it from the Tiger Competition for feature-length films is the fact that it's not just for young and upcoming talents; all filmmakers have a chance at winning. Since 2005, The Tiger Short Competition[17] has had various sponsors over the years including Ammodo,[18] an institution in the Netherlands that supports the development of arts, architecture and science. In 2023, 24 shorts competed for three equal Tiger Short Awards, each worth €5,000.

Year Film Original Title Directors Country
2024 Crazy Lotus Naween Noppakun,   Thailand
Few Can See Frank Sweeney   Ireland
Workers’ Wings Ilir Hasanaj   Kosovo
2023 Human Nature[19] Natureza Humana Mónica Lima   Portugal

  Germany

Tito[19] Tito Kervens Jimenez & Taylor McIntosh   Haiti
What the Soil Remembers[19] What the Soil Remembers José Cardoso   South Africa

  Ecuador

2022 Becoming Male in the Middle Ages[19] Tornar-se Homem na Idade Média Pedro Neves Marques   Portugal
Nazarbazi[19] Nazarbazi Maryam Tafakory   Iran
Nosferasta: First Bite[19] Nosferasta: First Bite Bayley Sweitzer & Adam Khalil   USA
2021 Maat[19] Maat Foxy Maxy   USA
Sunsets, everyday [19] Sunsets, everyday Basir Mahmood   Italy
Terranova[19] Terranova Alejandro Pérez Serrano & Alejandro Alonso Estrella   Cuba
2020 Apparition[19] Apparition Ismaïl Bahri   France
Communicating Vessels[19] Communicating Vessels Maïder Fortuné & Annie MacDonell   Canada
Sun Dog[19] Sun Dog Dorian Jespers   Belgium

  Russia

2019 Wong Ping's Fables 1[19] Wong Ping's Fables 1 Wong Ping   Hong Kong
Ultramarine [19] Ultramarine Vincent Meessen   Belgium

  France   Canada

Freedom of Movement[19] Freedom of Movement Nina Fischer & Maroan el Sani   Germany

  Italy

2018 Mountain Plain Mountain[19] Mountain Plain Mountain Araki Yu & Daniel Jacoby   Italy
Rose Gold [19] Rose Gold Sara Cwynar   USA
With History in a Room Filled with People with Funny Names 4[19] With History in a Room Filled with People with Funny Names 4 Korakrit Arunanondchai   USA

Special Jury Award

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Source:[20][16]

Year Film Original title Director Country
2021 Pebbles PS Vinothraj   India
I Comete: A Corsican Summer Pascal Tagnati   Corsica
Looking for Venera Norika Sefa   Kosovo
2022 Excess Will Save Us Morgane Dziurla-Petit   France
To Love Again Gao Linyang   China
2023 Munnel மணல் Visakesa Chandrasekaram   Sri Lanka
New Strains Artemis Shaw, Prashanth Kamalakanthan   United States
2024 Kiss Wagon Midhun Murali   India
Flathead Jaydon Martin   Australia

Audience Award

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Source:[21][16]

Year Film Original title Director Country
2021 Quo Vadis, Aida? Jasmila Žbanić   Bosnia
2022 Freaks Out Gabriele Mainetti   Italy
2023 Love According to Dalva Emmanuelle Nicot   France
2024 Green Border Agnieszka Holland   Poland

See also

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  • 75B, Netherlands design studio

References

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  1. ^ Abbatescianni, Davide (8 February 2023). "REPORT: IFFR CineMart 2023". Cineuropa. Retrieved 26 April 2024.
  2. ^ "CineMart History" Archived 28 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine. International Film Festival Rotterdam. Retrieved 24 September 2011.
  3. ^ Mundell, Ian (13 January 2009) "CineMart thriving in tough times" . Variety. Retrieved 24 September 2011. (subscription required)
  4. ^ Smith, Nigel M. (17 December 2010). "Rotterdam's CineMart Selects 33 Projects for 2011" Archived 22 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine. IndieWire
  5. ^ "About the Hubert Bals Fund". IFFR. Retrieved 26 April 2024.
  6. ^ Sales Ross, Rafa (25 January 2024). "New Head of Rotterdam's Hubert Bals Fund Tamara Tatishvili Vows to 'Revamp and Revise All Schemes'". Variety. Retrieved 26 April 2024.
  7. ^ MacNab, Geoffrey (10 December 2019). "Vanja Kaludjercic to take over as director of International Film Festival Rotterdam (exclusive)". Screen. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
  8. ^ "Short Film Program IFFR: An Alternative Stage for Artists | ArtSlant". Archived from the original on 7 August 2017. Retrieved 10 December 2015.
  9. ^ "Shorts Circuit". artforum.com. Archived from the original on 7 August 2017. Retrieved 9 May 2018.
  10. ^ "The Team". IFFR. Retrieved 3 May 2024.
  11. ^ Heijs, Jan Heijs & Westra, Frans (1996). Que le tigre danse. Huub Bals: a biography. Otto Cramwinckel: Amsterdam.
  12. ^ "Locations, Screening Schedule & Box Office". IFFR. 15 August 2019. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
  13. ^ Hivos Tiger Awards Competition Archived 12 April 2016 at the Wayback Machine. IFFR.
  14. ^ "The Widowed Witch". iffr.com. 22 December 2017. Archived from the original on 22 March 2018. Retrieved 9 May 2018.
  15. ^ Roxborough, Scott (4 February 2023). "'Le Spectre de Boko Haram' Wins Rotterdam Festival". Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 7 February 2023.
  16. ^ a b c Calnan, Ellie (3 February 2024). "Japanese debut 'Rei' leads Rotterdam winners". ScreenDaily. Retrieved 3 February 2024.
  17. ^ "Tiger Short Competition | IFFR". iffr.com. Retrieved 17 December 2023.
  18. ^ "About Ammodo". Stichting Ammodo. Retrieved 17 December 2023.
  19. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r "Tiger Short Competition | IFFR". iffr.com. Retrieved 17 December 2023.
  20. ^ "Tiger Competition | Winners per edition". IFFR. Retrieved 25 November 2023.
  21. ^ "Audience Award | Winners per edition". IFFR. Retrieved 4 February 2024.
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