International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) revealed the complete selection of 47 feature films from all over the world in its Bright Future section, the festival’s home for upcoming filmmakers with their own style and vision. All feature film debuts that have their world or international premiere in Bright Future are selected for the Bright Future Competition and vie for a €10,000 award.

Bright Future Competition selections include Turkish video artist Köken Ergun’s Heroes, focussing on the hordes of tourists commemorating fallen soldiers of the Battle of Gallipoli in World War I, and Historia de mi nombre, in which Chilean filmmaker Karin Cuyul goes looking for the origin of her name and finds the painful history of her country and her family. Other titles in competition are Azerbaijani filmmaker Elmar Imanov’s family drama Ende der Saison, Ramon Porto Mota’s A noite amarela, a ‘spiritual slasher’ from Brazil , and No Data Plan, a poetic film essay by Miko Revereza, who has lived in the United States without papers for over 20 years, about his train journey from LA to New York.

World premieres out of competition include independent filmmaker Brian Follmer’s Out of Sight, Out of Mind, a satirical yet genuine slice of life about American millennials by American millennials, and Winter After Winter by Chinese filmmaker Xing Jian, which follows the harsh life of a family during the Japanese occupation of Manchuria. Bright Future also selected Phuttiphong Aroonpheng’s mysterious Manta Ray, and Simon Jaquemet’s tense, enchanting drama Der Unschuldige.

Bright Future Competition:

• Alva, Ico Costa, 2019, Portugal/France/Argentina, world premiere
• Chèche lavi, Sam Ellison, 2019, Mexico/Haiti/USA, world premiere
• De nuevo otra vez, Romina Paula, 2019, Argentina, world premiere
• Doozy, Richard Squires, 2018, UK, international premiere
• Dreissig, Simona Kostova, 2019, Germany, world premiere
• Ende der Saison, Elmar Imanov, 2019, Germany, world premiere
• Fabiana, Brunna Laboissière, 2018, Brazil, international premiere
• The Gold-Laden Sheep & the Sacred Mountain, Ridham Janve, 2018, India, international premiere
• Heroes, Köken Ergun, 2019, Turkey/Australia, world premiere
• Historia de mi nombre, Karin Cuyul, 2019, Chile/Brazil, world premiere
• Last Night I Saw You Smiling, Kavich Neang, 2018, Cambodia/France, world premiere
• Lost Holiday, Michael Kerry Matthews/Thomas Matthews, 2018, USA, international premiere
• Maggie, Yi Okseop, 2018, South Korea, international premiere
• Mens, Isabelle Prim, 2019, France, world premiere
• No Data Plan, Miko Revereza, 2019, USA, world premiere
• Nocturne, Viktor van der Valk, 2019, Netherlands/Belgium, world premiere
• A noite amarela, Ramon Porto Mota, 2019, Brazil, world premiere
• That Cloud Never Left, Yashaswini Raghunandan, 2019, India, world premiere
• A volta ao mundo quando tinhas 30 anos, Aya Koretzky, 2018, Portugal, international premiere
• Walking in Darkness, Tang Tang, 2019, China, world premiere

Bright Future premieres:

• Aren’t You Happy?, Susanne Heinrich, 2019, Germany, international premiere
• Dog Days, Timmy Harn, 2018, Philippines, international premiere
• Domains, Natsuka Kusano, 2019, Japan, world premiere
• Enquanto estamos aqui, Clarissa Campolina/Luiz Pretti, 2019, Brazil, world premiere
• The Garden Apartment, Ishihara Umi, 2018, Japan, international premiere
• Out of Sight, Out of Mind, Brian Follmer, 2019, USA/Mexico, world premiere
• Parade, Nino Zhvania, 2018, Georgia, European premiere
• The Seven Last Words, Kaveh Nabatian/Ariane Lorrain/Sophie Goyette/Juan Andrés Arango/Sophie Deraspe/Karl Lemieux/Caroline Monnet, 2019, Canada, world premiere
• Winter After Winter, Xing Jian, 2019, China, world premiere
• Your Bones and Your Eyes, Caetano Gotardo, 2018, Brazil, international premiere

Bright Future selections:

• Black Mother, Khalik Allah, 2018, Jamaica/USA
• Core of the World, Natalya Meshchaninova, 2018, Russia/Lithuania
• The Day I Lost My Shadow, Soudade Kaadan, 2018, Lebanon
• Dead Horse Nebula, Tarık Aktaş, 2018, Turkey
• House of My Fathers, Suba Sivakumaran, 2018, Sri Lanka
• Introduzione all’oscuro, Gastón Solnicki, 2018, Argentina/Austria
• The Load, Ognjen Glavonić, 2018, Serbia/France/Croatia/Iran/Qatar
• Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Bi Gan, 2018, China/France
• The Man Who Surprised Everyone, Aleksey Chupov/Natasha Merkulova, 2018, Russia/Estonia/France
• Manta Ray, Phuttiphong Aroonpheng, 2018, Thailand/France/China
• La miséricorde de la jungle, Joel Karekezi, 2018, Belgium/France
• The Proposal, Jill Magid, 2018, USA
• Sophia Antipolis, Virgil Vernier, 2018, France
• Tarde para morir joven, Dominga Sotomayor, 2018, Chile/Brazil/Argentina/Netherlands/Qatar
• Der Unschuldige, Simon Jaquemet, 2018, Switzerland/Germany
• Winter’s Night, Jang Woojin, 2018, South Korea
• You Have the Night, Ivan Salatić, 2018, Montenegro/Serbia/Qatar