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Baba by Mbithi Masya / Baba is a six-year-old boy with an extraordinary gift. His home life, marred by an undercurrent of harm, provides little comfort. As a means to protect himself against a world he can’t understand, he teleports to tranquillity. A vividly layered story about the effects of abuse, its nuances, and the resilient power of childhood imagination. / Courtesy of IFFR

ROTTERDAM (December 8, 2022) – As the 52nd edition of International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) draws nearer, the festival announces the names of its competition juries alongside its latest programme confirmations. Highly lauded American producer Christine Vachon and Filipino filmmaker Lav Diaz are amongst the Tiger Competition jurors, whilst IFFR 2023 filmmaker in focus Stanya Kahn is part of the Ammodo Tiger Short Competition jury. The first titles in the Short & Mid-length strand are announced, next to a programme which reflects on the socio-political development of India over the past 30 years. Press and industry are now invited to apply for their accreditations.

India-focused programme asks: The Shape of Things to Come?

Festival director Vanja Kaludjercic: “After launching our new visual campaign that celebrates our home city with our return in full force, the 52nd edition is now really taking shape. These latest confirmations are testament of the broadening and deepening of our programme, from the delights of the Short & Mid-length programme, to a vital delve into contemporary India – surprising our audiences with great films that underline relevant and pressing issues.”

Short & Mid-length

IFFR presents the first confirmations in its non-competitive space for short and mid-length work in all its diversity.

Finnish filmmaker Laura Rantanen reflects on the end of life through the books we leave behind in the wistful documentary Goodbye Words. Chinese filmmaker Gao Wei presents a photochemical, x-ray journey through the compositions of flowers and leaves in Flower Rain. Since 2008, Austrian filmmaker Siegfried A. Fruhauf has been showing his tactile explorations of cinematic frames and movement at IFFR. He returns to present the world premiere of his latest film Cave Painting.

Amsterdam-based Argentine filmmaker Sebastian Diaz Morales presents the festival world premiere of the mid-length Smashing Monuments, where members of the Indonesian art collective ruangrupa converse with city statues. Morales’s films and installations have been shown all over the world, including at the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Tate Modern in London, and at IFFR since 2002.

See the first Short & Mid-length lineup.

Focus: The Shape of Things to Come?

IFFR presents a programme of documentaries and fictional narratives that reflect on the socio-political development of India over the past 30 years, focusing on the institutional ascent of right-wing Hindu-nationalist groups and the persecution of dissenting voices.

The programme stretches back to Sanjiv Shah’s 1992 musical political satire Love in the Time of Malaria, to the world premiere of Which Colour? by Shahrukhkhan Chavada. Survival in the first four months of the pandemic-induced lockdown in Mumbai is the focus of Mihir Fadnavis’s documentary Lords of Lockdown, which screens in Europe for the first time.

See the first titles in Focus: The Shape of Things to Come?

Competition juries

The Tiger Competition Jury includes filmmaker Lav Diaz, producer and director of the Udine Far East Film Festival, Sabrina Baracetti, film critic Alonso Díaz de la Vega, and actress and filmmaker Anisia Uzeyman (Neptune Frost, IFFR 2022). Celebrated producer Christine Vachon (Safe, IFFR 1996; Boys Don’t Cry, IFFR 2000; The World to Come IFFR 2021), completes the lineup. Together they will choose the winners of the Tiger Award, worth €40,000, and the Special Jury Awards, worth €10,000.

The jury for the Ammodo Tiger Short Competition consists of writer, cultural programmer and organiser Simone Zeefuik, programmer, art curator and writer Herb Shellenberger, and film and video artist Stanya Kahn – whose work is also presented in a Focus programme at IFFR 2023. The jury will determine which three titles will receive three equal Ammodo Tiger Short Awards, each worth €5,000.

The lineup for both competitions, as well as the Big Screen Competition which is decided on by an audience jury, will be announced at the online IFFR 2023 Press Conference on Monday, 19 December at 11am.

Further programme confirmations

The festival continues to announce selections in its largest and broadest programme, Harbour, including the international premiere of Australian documentary filmmaker Sari Braithwaite’s candid portrait of a neurodiverse family Because We Have Each Other. Also making its international premiere is Revolution der Augen, the cinematic comeback of Austrian 70s feminist video art and film legend Friederike Pezold – a tranquil, sound-free flow of images.

Brazil’s cinema marginal pioneer Júlio Bressane returns to IFFR to present the world premiere of an extensive reflection on his six decades of filmmaking, The Long Voyage of the Yellow Bus, made in tandem with Rodrigo Lima. In 2000, IFFR honoured Bressane with one of the first comprehensive retrospectives on his work outside of Brazil.

The latest confirmation in the Limelight programme of eagerly anticipated festival favourites is the international premiere of Wir sind dann wohl die Angehörigen – Hans-Christian Schmid’s film on the 1996 kidnapping of millionaire academic Jan Philipp Reemtsma.

In the Bright Future strand of debut features, Peruvian filmmaker Felipe Esparza Pérez brings the world premiere of the delicate Cielo abierto, after screening shorts at IFFR in 2020 and 2021.

Press and industry at IFFR 2023

The full lineup for IFFR 2023 including the Tiger, Big Screen and Ammodo Tiger Short competitions will be announced at the IFFR 2023 Press Conference, which takes place online at 11am CET on Monday, 19 December. Press and industry are invited to apply for their accreditations, and should do so before 23 December.

Bright Future latest confirmation

• Cielo abierto, Felipe Esparza Pérez, 2023, Peru, France, world premiere

Focus: The Shape of Things to Come? first lineup

• All Was Good, Teresa Braggs, 2022, India
• Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Kabir Khan, 2015, India
• Final Solution, Rakesh Sharma, 2004, India
• Firaaq, Nandita Das, 2008, India
• Follower, Harshad Nalawade, 2023, India, world premiere
• I Am Offended, Jaideep Varma, 2015, India
• A Knock on the Door, Ranjan Palit, 2023, India, world premiere
• Lords of Lockdown, Mihir Fadnavis, 2021, India, European premiere
• Love in the Time of Malaria, Sanjiv Shah, 1992, India
• The Men in the Tree, Lalit Vachani, 2002, India
• Sameer, Dakxinumar Bajrange, 2017, India
• The Kali of Emergency, Ashish Avikunthak, 2016, India, Germany
• Which Colour?, Shahrukhkhan Chavada, 2023, India, world premiere

Harbour latest confirmations

• 2551.02 – The Orgy of the Damned, Norbert Pfaffenbichler, 2023, Austria, world premiere
• Because We Have Each Other, Sari Braithwaite, 2022, Australia, international premiere
• De noche los gatos son pardos, Valentin Merz, 2022, Switzerland
• Geylang, Boi Kwong, 2022, Singapore, European premiere
• The Long Voyage of the Yellow Bus, Júlio Bressane, Rodrigo Lima, 2023, Brazil, world premiere
• Revolution der Augen, Friederike Pezold, 2022, Austria, international premiere
• Stiekyt, Etienne Fourie, 2022, South Africa

Limelight latest confirmation

• Wir sind dann wohl die Angehörigen, Hans-Christian Schmid, 2022, Germany, international premiere

Short & Mid-length first confirmations

• Ashes By Name Is Man, Ewelina Rosinska, 2023, Germany, international premiere
• Baba, Mbithi Masya, 2022, Kenya
• Can’t Help Myself, Anna Ansone, 2022, Latvia, international premiere
• Cave Painting, Siegfried A. Fruhauf, 2023, Austria, world premiere
• DVA, Alexandra Karelina, 2023, Russia, world premiere
• Flower Rain, Gao Wei, 2022, South Korea, world premiere (festival)
• The Funeral of Spring, Gao Zee, 2023, Hong Kong, world premiere
• Goodbye Words, Laura Rantanen, 2022, Finland, world premiere
• Issues With My Other Half, Anna Vasof, 2023, Austria, world premiere
• No Changes Have Taken In Our Life, Xu Jingwei, 2023, China, world premiere
• Smashing Monuments, Sebastian Diaz Morales, 2023, Netherlands, Indonesia, world premiere (festival)

IFFR 2023 Full program can be found here.

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