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 [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Alexandra Makarová
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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 [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Wilhelm Sasnal
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intervista: Albert Oehlen
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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 [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Lois Patiño
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intervista: Lois Patiño
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intervista: Jaime Rosales
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scheda film]; 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 [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] 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 [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Sandro Aguilar
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The Tree of Authenticity [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] - Sammy Baloji (Democratic Republic of Congo/Belgium)
Vitrival – The Most Beautiful Village in the World [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Noëlle Bastin, Baptiste Bo…
scheda film] - Noëlle Bastin, Baptiste Bogaert (Belgium)
Fiume o morte! [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] - 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 [+leggi anche:
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Guo Ran - Li Dongmei (China)
Im Haus meiner Eltern [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Tim Ellrich
scheda film] - Tim Ellrich (Germany)
Perla [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Alexandra Makarová
scheda film] - Alexandra Makarová (Austria/Slovakia)
Tears in Kuala Lumpur - Ridhwan Saidi (Malaysia)
Wondrous Is the Silence of My Master [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Ivan Salatić
scheda film] - Ivan Salatić (Montenegro)

Big Screen Competition

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