The 54th International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) taking place from January 30 to February 9, 2025, unveiled the line-up of films in the Tiger, Big Screen and Tiger Short competitions.
The festival also revealed Cate Blanchett and Guy Maddin among the first names in IFFR’s 2025 Talks lineup. Following their recent collaboration on Rumours, Blanchett and Maddin will come together for an expansive dialogue about creative collaboration, the role of film festivals, and the enduring power of the short film form. IFFR will also welcome Robby Müller Award recipient Lol Crawley, in conversation with writer and film critic Peter Bradshaw to discuss his acclaimed cinematography, including his work on The Brutalist and highlights from his award-winning career.
Alex Ross Perry will talk about his documentary Videoheaven, part of the Focus program Hold Video in Your Hands, celebrating the community spirit of VHS culture. Perry will also discuss his other new film, Pavements, featured in the Harbour section. In another Talks highlight, Cheryl Dunye and Albertina Carri will explore radical queerness and cinema as a means to challenge normative pressures, gender, and identity.
The festival will open with Fabula, a compelling dark comedy from the award-winning Dutch director and screenwriter Michiel ten Horn, and close with the ambitious historical epic This City Is a Battlefield from Indonesian filmmaker Mouly Surya.
Vanja Kaludjercic, Festival Director at IFFR, said, “Since our very first festival in 1972, IFFR has been a space for bold creativity, where the unexpected finds a home, and where cinema in all its splendour is celebrated. As we step into this next chapter, we remain steadfast in our belief that cinema flourishes when it is free – free to experiment, cross boundaries, and voice truths that often go untold. Today’s announcement spotlights the competitions, which remain the beating heart of the festival. Beyond that, the programme is vast, diverse, and bursting with discovery, not least in our Talks programme, which we’re thrilled this edition will welcome such a remarkable array of talent, including Cate Blanchett and Guy Maddin, Lol Crawley, Alex Ross Perry, Cheryl Dunye and Albertina Carri.”
Tiger Competition
The films selected are:
L’arbre de l’authenticité dir. Sammy Baloji (Democratic Republic of Congo, Belgium)
Bad Girl dir. Varsha Bharath (India)
Blind Love dir. Julian Chou (Taiwan)
Fiume o morte! dir. Igor Bezinović (Croatia, Italy, Slovenia)
La gran historia de la filosofía occidental dir. Aria Covamonas (Mexico)
Guo Ran dir. Li Dongmei (China)
Im Haus meiner Eltern dir. Tim Ellrich (Germany)
Perla dir. Alexandra Makarová (Austria, Slovakia)
Primeira pessoa do plural dir. Sandro Aguilar (Portugal, Italy)
Tears in Kuala Lumpur dir. Ridhwan Saidi (Malaysia)
Vitrival – The Most Beautiful Village in the World dir. Noëlle Bastin, Baptiste Bogaert (Belgium)
Wind, Talk to Me dir. Stefan Djordjevic (Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia)
Wondrous Is the Silence of My Master dir. Ivan Salatić (Montenegro)
Big Screen Competition
The films selected are:
The Assistant dir. Wilhelm Sasnal, Anka Sasnal (Poland, United Kingdom)
Back to the Family dir. Sharunas Bartas (Lithuania)
Bad Painter dir. Albert Oehlen (Germany, United States
¡Caigan las rosas blancas! dir. Albertina Carri (Argentina, Brazil, Spain)
Gowok: Javanese Kamasutra dir. Hanung Bramantyo (Indonesia)
De idylle dir. Aaron Rookus (Netherlands, Belgium, Estonia)
Macai dir. Sun-J Perumal (Malaysia)
Orenda dir. Pirjo Honkasalo (Finland, Estonia, Sweden)
L’oro del Reno dir. Lorenzo Pullega (Italy)
Our Father – The Last Days of a Dictator dir. José Filipe Costa (Portugal)
The Puppet’s Tale dir. Suman Mukhopadhyay (India)
Raptures dir. Jon Blåhed (Sweden, Finland)
Soft Leaves dir. Miwako Van Weyenberg (Belgium)
Yasuko, Songs of Days Past dir. Negishi Kichitaro (Japan)
Tiger Short Competition
The short films selected are:
Baby Blue Benzo dir. Sara Cwynar (United States, Germany)
BAN♡ITS dir. Omar Chowdhury (Belgium, Bangladesh, South Korea)
Bury Us in a Lone Desert dir. Nguyễn Lê Hoàng Phúc (Vietnam)
Capitol Limited dir. Lily Ekimian Ragheb, Ahmed T. Ragheb (United States)
Common Pear dir. Gregor Božič (Slovenia, United Kingdom)
La durmiente dir. Maria Inês Gonçalves (Portugal, Spain)
Empty Rider dir. Lawrence Lek (Switzerland, United Kingdom)
The Garden of Electric Delights dir. Billy Roisz (Austria)
Hepingli Playthrough dir. Zheng Yuan (China)
I Wan’na Be Like You dir. Margit Lukács, Persijn Broersen (Netherlands, France, Belgium, United Kingdom, Germany)
Memory Is an Animal, It Barks with Many Mouths dir. Eva Giolo (Belgium, Italy)
Merging Bodies dir. Adrian Paci (Italy)
A Metamorphosis dir. Lin Htet Aung (Myanmar)
Now, Hear Me Good dir. Dwayne LeBlanc (United States)
Les rites de passage dir. Florian Fischer, Johannes Krell (Germany)
The Rock Speaks dir. Amy Louise Wilson, Francois Knoetze (South Africa, Spain)
Suspicions About the Hidden Realities of Air dir. Sam Drake (United States)
Temo Re dir. Anka Gujabidze (Georgia)
Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World dir. Kevin Walker, Irene Zahariadis (Greece, United States)
World at Stake dir. Susanna Flock, Adrian Jonas Haim, Jona Kleinlein (Austria)
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