email print share on Facebook share on Twitter share on LinkedIn share on reddit pin on Pinterest

IFFR 2025

IFFR reveals its main competition line-ups

by 

- The Dutch festival has announced the Tiger and Big Screen Competition titles for its 54th edition, in addition to some eclectic and star-studded Talks events

IFFR reveals its main competition line-ups
Perla by Alexandra Makarová

In an online press conference hosted this morning by festival director Vanja Kaludjercic, International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) unveiled its Tiger Competition and Big Screen Competition line-ups, with the 14 titles in each spanning emerging voices from across the globe. Kicking off the year’s elite festival calendar, the Dutch event will celebrate its 54th edition, taking place from 30 January-9 February 2025.

Unlike previous years, regular festival watchers may not recognise the filmmakers in this year’s Tiger Competition, yet its multi-continental selection is encouraging, with Southeastern Europe and East Asia well represented. The festival describes the 14 world premieres as “exploring personal stories and profound connections to history, identity and place”, with one title still to be announced owing to “sensitivities surrounding its release”. Among them are Stefan Djordjevic’s Wind, Talk to Me [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
, which has just been picked up for worldwide sales by Heretic; Alexandra Makarová’s Perla [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alexandra Makarová
film profile
]
, whose arresting key image can be seen above; and Varsha Bharath’s Bad Girl, continuing India’s run of high-profile festival appearances. The films will compete for the Tiger Award, worth €40,000, and two Special Jury Awards, worth €10,000 each.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)
lessismore2025internal

The Big Screen Competition is dedicated to paving the way for its titles to secure distribution in the Netherlands, and showcases movies with popular and traditional arthouse appeal. In the festival’s words, the section’s 14 titles express “genre-blurring stories of rebellion, tradition and expression, covering territories from Lithuania to Japan and the Netherlands to Argentina”. Again, the global spread is large, with two films by acclaimed painters immediately catching the eye: these are The Assistant [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
by Wilhelm Sasnal, assisted in direction by his wife Anka Sasnal; and Bad Painter [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
by Albert Oehlen, made in collaboration with alternative icons Udo Kier, Kim Gordon and Grace Zabriskie.

Several world premieres in Harbour and Limelight are important to note, whose directors have won critical acclaim and wide distribution in the past few years: these are Lois Patiño’s Ariel [+see also:
film review
film profile
]
, following up his mind-bender Samsara [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lois Patiño
film profile
]
; the new feature by veteran Spanish filmmaker Jaime Rosales (Solitary Fragments [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, Petra [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jaime Rosales
film profile
]
), titled Morlaix [+see also:
film review
film profile
]
; Courtney Stephens and Michael Almereyda’s John Lilly and the Earth Coincidence Control Office; Wei Shujun’s I Dreamed a Dream, coming after his Cannes 2023 Un Certain Regard selection Only the River Flows was a major box-office hit at home; and Alex Ross Perry’s Videoheaven, an epic celebration of US VHS culture, with a voice-over from Maya Hawke.

The IFFR Talks line-up also whets the appetite, with Cate Blanchett joining Guy Maddin on stage after premiering their very funny political satire Rumours [+see also:
film review
film profile
]
last year; their conversation will broach the subjects of creative collaboration, film-festival culture as a whole, and the short-film form. Lol Crawley will receive the Robby Müller Award after his sublime VistaVision work in The Brutalist [+see also:
film review
film profile
]
and will be feted in conversation with The Guardian critic Peter Bradshaw. Music-video pro and cult filmmaker Joseph Kahn, genre master Fabrice du Welz and the aforementioned Ross Perry complete the well-curated line-up.

The festival’s two feature competition line-ups are as follows:

Tiger Competition

First Person Plural [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sandro Aguilar
film profile
]
- Sandro Aguilar (Portugal/Italy)
The Tree of Authenticity [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
- Sammy Baloji (Democratic Republic of Congo/Belgium)
Vitrival – The Most Beautiful Village in the World [+see also:
film review
interview: Noëlle Bastin, Baptiste Bog…
film profile
]
- Noëlle Bastin, Baptiste Bogaert (Belgium)
Fiume o morte! [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
- Igor Bezinović (Croatia/Italy/Slovenia)
Bad Girl - Varsha Bharath (India)
Blind Love - Julian Chou (Taiwan)
La gran historia de la filosofía occidental - Aria Covamonas (Mexico)
Wind, Talk to Me [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
- Stefan Djordjevic (Serbia/Slovenia/Croatia)
Guo Ran - Li Dongmei (China)
Im Haus meiner Eltern [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Tim Ellrich
film profile
]
- Tim Ellrich (Germany)
Perla [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alexandra Makarová
film profile
]
- Alexandra Makarová (Austria/Slovakia)
Tears in Kuala Lumpur - Ridhwan Saidi (Malaysia)
Wondrous Is the Silence of My Master [+see also:
film review
interview: Ivan Salatić
film profile
]
- Ivan Salatić (Montenegro)

Big Screen Competition

Back to the Family [+see also:
film review
film profile
]
- Šarūnas Bartas (Lithuania/France/Poland/Latvia)
Raptures [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
- Jon Blåhed (Sweden/Finland)
Gowok: Javanese Kamasutra - Hanung Bramantyo (Indonesia)
White roses, fall! [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
- Albertina Carri (Argentina/Brazil/Spain)
Our Father - The Last Days of a Dictator [+see also:
film review
film profile
]
- José Filipe Costa (Portugal)
Orenda [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
- Pirjo Honkasalo (Finland/Estonia/Sweden)
Yasuko, Songs of Days Past - Negishi Kichitaro (Japan)
The Puppet’s Tale - Suman Mukhopadhyay (India)
Bad Painter [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
- Albert Oehlen (Germany/USA)
Macai - Sun-J Perumal (Malaysia)
The Rhine Gold [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
 - Lorenzo Pullega (Italy)
Idyllic [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
 - Aaron Rookus (Netherlands/Belgium/Estonia)
The Assistant [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
- Wilhelm Sasnal, Anka Sasnal (Poland/UK)
Soft Leaves [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
- Miwako Van Weyenberg (Belgium)

Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.

Privacy Policy