The first major European film festival of next year, the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), has announced its first Competition titles as well as the jury members for what will be its 38th edition. The IFFR runs from January 21-February 1 and showcases first and second films.

Most of the titles announced for the 2009 Competition thus far are from Asia. Ramtin Lavafipour’s Iranian film Be Calm and Count to Seven will compete against Dark Harbour by Naito Takatsugu from Japan, and Breathless by South Korean director Yang Ik-June.
Taiwanese title No puedo vivir sin ti from director Leon Dai and Dogging: a Love Story by Brit Simon Ellis are also part of the line-up, while the debut of Indonesian director Edwin, A Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly, had earlier been announced as one of the 2009 Competition titles.

Premieres in other sections include a new musical film composed of archive material by Austrian director Gustav Deutsch; Border from Armenian director Harutyan Khachatryan, and the US documentary Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi by Ian Olds.

From host country the Netherlands, there are new films by maverick filmmaker Cyrus Frisch, newcomers Diederik van Rooijen and Noud Heerkens and the duo Maartje Seyferth and Victor Nieuwenhuijs.

The three top prizes of the festival, the VPRO Tiger Awards, will be handed out by a jury that includes South African/Dutch artist Marlene Dumas, Hungarian filmmaker Kornél Mundruczó, Turkish director Yesim Ustaoglu, and Korean filmmaker and director of the Film Academy in Seoul, Park Ki-Yong. The IFFR will showcase the latest films of Mundruczó and Ustaoglu in the festival’s sidebars.