18/05/2021 - The closing chapter of this year's edition of the festival is set to take place online and in select cinemas in Rotterdam

During today’s press conference, International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) presented the full programme for the second instalment of its celebratory 50th edition, set to run from 2-6 June 2021. The first instalment took place online from 1 to 7 February, and included the usual awards announcement for the various competitions (read news). Owing to current governmental regulations, the closing chapter of the festival will take place both online (accessible only to audiences across the Netherlands) and in select cinemas in Rotterdam.

Venice-selected US title The World to Come by Mona Fastvold will open the event on Wednesday 2 June. The film will be shown as a timed premiere online, to celebrate the opening of the June chapter of the festival, followed by physical screenings in Rotterdam cinemas during the festival. Japanese animation film Poupelle of Chimney Town by Hirota Yusuke will mark its close on Sunday 6 June, with on-demand viewings available until 9 June.

This IFFR June edition will boast a full offering of 128 new titles within the Harbour, Bright Future, Cinema Regained and Short and Mid-length Film strands. The Harbour section will welcome newly-announced titles such as The Belly of the Sea [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Spain’s Agustí Villaronga and A Man and a Camera [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (Netherlands) by Guido Hendrikx, as well world-premiering films such as Au jour d’aujourd’hui [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (France) by Maxence Stamatiadis and Capitu and the Chapter by Brazil’s Júlio Bressane. The Bright Future section includes more European films screening in their world premiere, such as Phoenix [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Belgium/France/UK) by Bram Droulers, Lumina [+see also:
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film profile] (Italy) by Samuele Sestieri and BERG [+see also:
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film profile] (Netherlands) by Joke Olthaar. All feature length films are eligible for the BankGiro Loterij Audience Award, provided their first public screening took place after 1 January 2020.

Three Big Talks are also presented in the programme: there will be conversations with Mona Fastvold, German director Dominik Graf (whose latest title Fabian – Going to the Dogs [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Albrecht Schuch
film profile], selected in this year’s Berlinale, will be showing as part of the Harbour section) and Indian filmmaker Pallavi Paul, respectively.

Finally, IFFR Classics, a programme of four iconic titles from the festival’s history, will be available online and in cinemas. The four movies are Jane Campion’s debut Sweetie which screened at IFFR 1990, Jim Jarmusch’s Night on Earth from IFFR 1992, Nanni Moretti’s Caro diario from IFFR 1995 and Fukasaku Kinji’s Battle Royale from IFFR 2001.

Ticket sales for the June festival dates go live on 21 May. The full programme is accessible here.