The International Film Festival Rotterdam introduces a new Competition. Aimed to support the distribution of films in Dutch cinemas, The Big Screen Award Competition will include ten very recent films with no Benelux distributor confirmed. The Big Screen Award will be awarded by an Audience Jury. The Dutch Circle of Film Critics (KNF) Jury will choose their winner among these ten films as well. Both prizes come with a guaranteed distribution offer for the Benelux, in collaboration with local distributor Amstelfilm. The Festival’s Hivos Tiger Awards competition remains unchanged.

 Ten fresh discoveries from the Festival’s main sections Spectrum and Bright Future will compete for the two juried prizes in The Big Screen Award Competition. Eligible are new films not yet acquired for Benelux distribution. Both awards come with a guaranteed distribution offer for the Benelux in collaboration with Dutch distributor Amstelfilm. The KNF Award additionally includes a subtitled DCP, sponsored by digital film lab NCP Holland.

The Big Screen Award will be juried by experienced and passionate audience members; the KNF Award will be juried by three members of the Dutch Circle of Film Critics (KNF) that has awarded IFFR selections since 1983 when Jim Jarmusch took the first KNF Award for Stranger Than Paradise. The line up of the new competition will be revealed on Friday 10 January; the winners will be announced during IFFR’s Awards Night on Friday 1 February.

IFFR Director Rutger Wolfson about the new competition and awards: “One of Rotterdam’s defining characteristics over the years has been how the festival, its Hubert Bals Fund and the CineMart  have tried to be supportive of filmmakers in all stages of their careers, and in all stages of the production of films. We felt that in reshaping and adding these prizes we could combine several different aspects of our efforts: to further the distribution of our films after the festival, and increase the international visibility of our Bright Future and Spectrum selections. Also, the set up of these two awards now meets the requirements to be practical in terms of contemporary distribution. I also welcome the new role of our film critics’ juries.”

FIPRESCI Award for Best Film in Bright Future

The Rotterdam FIPRESCI Jury, consisting of five international film journalists, will shift its focus from the Hivos Tiger Awards Competition to the first and second features brought together in the IFFR’s main section Bright Future. Only world premieres in the Festival’s main section Bright Future will be eligible for the esteemed FIPRESCI Award. The FIPRESCI Jury announces its winner during IFFR’s Awards Night on Friday 1 February.

Additional award for Best CineMart Project

Next to the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award (€30,000 for a European co-production) and the ARTE France Cinema Award (€7,000), CineMart adds a third prize to its roster: the WorldView New Genres Fund Development Award (€5,000). WorldView is a CBA [Commonwealth Broadcasting Association] Project that aims to improve UK public understanding and awareness of the developing world via the mainstream broadcast and digital media. WorldView supports filmmakers who aim to bring the richness and diversity of the wider world to UK and international audiences.The winners will be announced during the co-production market’s Closing Night Party on Wednesday 30 January.