“You can definitely say the Tiger has returned,” said festival director Vanja Kaludjercic this morning, as she unveiled the full line-up for the 2023 IFFR, taking place from 25 January-5 February, its first edition in its standard late-January slot since the pandemic hit. With more than 400 feature, mid-length and short films slated to premiere or take part in the retrospective sections, she hailed the fact that “after two enforced online editions, IFFR 2023 will mark our full return to cinemas and to an in-person event all across the city”.

Kaludjercic went on to introduce the year’s programme in more depth, saying, “We stay committed to the path we set out for ourselves: celebrating great cinema in all its splendour and looking where others don’t look. Our entire programme, full of surprises, is a testament to that. In addition to those film cultures which traditionally are strongly present at IFFR, we are expanding to cover films from Sri Lanka, Cameroon, Ukraine, the Dominican Republic, Morocco and Taiwan, to name just a few. From remarkable debuts to cinematic grand masters and our specially commissioned Steve McQueen artwork [the installation Sunshine State, postponed from the 2022 event], it is our true pleasure to share IFFR 2023's wildly varied line-up.”

The opening-night film, Munch [+lee también:
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entrevista: Henrik M. Dahlsbakken
ficha de la película], a biopic of the iconic Norwegian artist by Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken, will screen out of competition. Backed by Nordic streamer Viaplay, its experimental approach will see four actors – Alfred Ekker Strande, Mattis Herman Nyquist, Ola G Furuseth and Anne Krigsvoll – depicting the painter throughout his life.

This year, the Tiger Competition, the festival’s platform for emerging film talent, will showcase 16 titles from a vast national spread, including One Last Evening [+lee también:
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entrevista: Lukas Nathrath
ficha de la película] by Lukas Nathrath, Numb by Amir Toodehroosta and Notes on a Summer [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Diego Llorente. The jury, composed of president Lav Diaz, Sabrina Baracetti, Anisia Uzeyman, Christine Vachon and Alonso Díaz de la Vega, will grant three prizes: the Tiger Award, worth €40,000, and two Special Jury Awards.

The Big Screen Competition, “bridging the gap between popular, classic and arthouse cinema”, will have its winner selected by an audience jury. The victor will receive a guaranteed theatrical release in the Netherlands, followed by a TV broadcast by VPRO and NPO. “For us, popular and avant-garde are not entirely contradictory ideas,” Kaludjercic concluded.

The two feature competition line-ups are as follows:

Tiger Competition

100 Seasons [+lee también:
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entrevista: Giovanni Bucchieri
ficha de la película] - Giovanni Bucchieri (Sweden)
Gagaland - Teng Yuhan (China)
Geology of Separation [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] - Yosr Gasmi, Mauro Mazzocchi (Tunisia/Italy/France)
Birdland [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] - Leïla Kilani (Morocco/France)
One Last Evening [+lee también:
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entrevista: Lukas Nathrath
ficha de la película] - Lukas Nathrath (Germany)
Mannvirki [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] - Gústav Geir Bollason (Iceland/France)
Munnel - Visakesa Chandrasekraram (Sri Lanka)
New Strains - Artemis Shaw/Prashanth Kamalakanthan (USA)
Notes on a Summer [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] - Diego Llorente (Spain)
Numb - Amir Toodehroosta (Iran)
The Breath of Life [+lee también:
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entrevista: Guido van der Werve
ficha de la película] - Guido van der Werve (Netherlands)
La Palisiada [+lee también:
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entrevista: Philip Sotnychenko
ficha de la película] - Philip Sotnychenko (Ukraine)
Playland - Georden West (USA)
Le Spectre de Boko Haram [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] - Cyrielle Raingou (Cameroon/France)
Thiiird - Karim Kassem (Lebanon)
three sparks [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] - Naomi Uman (Albania/Mexico)

Big Screen Competition

Before We Collapse [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] - Alice Zeniter/Benoît Volnais (France)
Before the Buzzards Arrive - Jonás N Diaz (Mexico)
Copenhagen Does Not Exist [+lee también:
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entrevista: Martin Skovbjerg
ficha de la película] - Martin Skovbjerg (Denmark)
Drawing Lots [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] - Zaza Khalvashi/Tamta Khalvashi (Georgia)
Endless Borders [+lee también:
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entrevista: Abbas Amini
ficha de la película] - Abbas Amini (Czech Republic/Germany/Iran)
Mida's Ants [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] - Edgar Honetschläger (Austria/Italy)
Four Little Adults [+lee también:
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entrevista: Selma Vilhunen
ficha de la película] - Selma Vilhunen (Finland)
La Hembrita - Laura Amelia Guzmán Conde (Dominican Republic)
Joram - Devashish Makhija (India)
Luka [+lee también:
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entrevista: Jessica Woodworth
ficha de la película] - Jessica Woodworth (Belgium/Italy/Netherlands/Bulgaria/Armenia)
My Little Nighttime Secret - Natalya Meshchaninova (Russia)
The Nothingness Club - Não Sou Nada [+lee también:
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entrevista: Edgar Pêra
ficha de la película] - Edgar Pêra (Portugal)
Okiku and the World and the World - Sakamoto Junji (Japan)
One Win - Shin Yeon-Shick (South Korea)
La Sudestada - Daniel Casabé/Edgardo Dieleke (Argentina)
Voyages en Italie [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] - Sophie Letourneur (France)