For its 38th edition, the International Film Festival Rotterdam 2009 will present 43 world premieres as well as 35 international and 34 European premieres of feature length films. A strong year for Eastern European film is led by ROOM AND A HALF, a fictional biopic about poet Joseph Brodsky by Andrey Khrzhanovsky; MORPHIA, Alexei Balabanov’s latest film, based on a M. Bulgakov adaptation by the late Sergei Bodrov Jr. and acclaimed Armenian director Harutyun Khachatryan’s BORDER. Throughout t...
38th International Film Festival Rotterdam 21 January – 1 February 2009 CineMart selects 36 film projects for the 26th edition of the co-production market From almost 500 submissions, 36 international film projects have been selected to be presented at CineMart (25 - 29 January 2009) to an expected 850 international producers, sales agents, distributors and funds. The selection includes project by Zhang Yuan (EAST PALACE, WEST PALACE), Erik Skjoldbjærg (INSOMNIA), Ruben Östlund (INVOLUNTA...
The International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) announces that three internationally renowned directors long associated with the festival have accepted special commissions to make films that will receive their world premiere during IFFR 2009: Nanouk Leopold (The Netherlands), Guy Maddin (Canada) and Carlos Reygadas (Mexico). All are made especially for projection on XXL outdoor screens high on the fronts of three office buildings in Rotterdam’s city centre. Size Matters, one of this year’...
Alongside a new programme format, the International Film Festival Rotterdam is also getting a new logo. This design underlines the idiosyncratic and future-oriented character of the IFFR. The logo comprises a tiger’s head and the name of the festival in capitals, both elements in black & white. The festival wants to use the new logo to indicate it reacts actively to new developments in art film and film-related visual arts. For instance the coming edition of the festival is better suited to ...
The 38th edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) is to get a new and simplified format with three main sections. This will make the programme clearer and do more justice to individual films and special themes. A special feature of this new format is that all three programme sections will be able to comprise full-length films, shorts, art installations and live performances. In this way, the festival is reacting to a real change in both the film and arts world, with film maker...
The Hubert Bals Fund Award has been given to WASHINGTON by Andro Sakvarelidze & Giga Chkheidze (Georgia) as Best Project out of twelve presented at the 2nd DAB Co-Production Forum (July 15-17). The Forum is part of the Yerevan International Film Festival (July 13-20) in Armenia. The Hubert Bals Fund Award, aimed to support the filmmakers in developing their project, comes with a prize money of Euro 5,000. The DAB Regional Co-Production Forum is organized by the Golden Apricot Fund for Cinema Dev...
The Hubert Bals Fund of the Rotterdam film festival announces financial contributions to 27 film projects for a total amount of 385,000 Euro. One of the winners, TONY MANERO by Pablo Larraín, is selected for the Directors’ Fortnight 2008. It brings the total of Rotterdam-backed titles in Cannes to sixteen. This Spring, Hubert Bals Fund contributions will go to filmmakers in seventeen countries. Among them are maestro Lav Diaz (Philippines), upcoming talent Edwin (Indonesia), about to make his...
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The Board of the International Film Festival Rotterdam has appointed Rutger Wolfson for a period of four years as general director of the festival organisation. In this function, Wolfson has the final responsibility for the artistic and business matters of the festival, the CineMart and the Hubert Bals Fund. Wolfson will resign as director of De Vleeshal, centre for contemporary art in Middelburg. From September 2007, Rutger Wolfson was director of the 37th edition of the International Film Fe...
The French film PERSEPOLIS has won the Audience Award of the 37th International Film Festival Rotterdam. Earlier in the festival, PERSEPOLIS was also honoured with the young people jury’s MovieSquad Award. The festival counted 355,000 visits to its 250 feature films, 450 short films, exhibitions, live performances and events. Sunday February 3, the festival closes with the ‘Volkskrantdag’, a pre-booked screening day of festival favorites. The 38th International Film Festival Rotterdam will...
Fifteen films by first or second filmmakers competed in the VPRO Tiger Awards Competition 2008. The Jury consists of Mr. Royston Tan - Singapore filmmaker and film producer, Russian filmmaker, actress and film producer Ms. Renata Litvinova, Mr. Rieks Hadders - former Deputy Director of the Filmmuseum in Amsterdam (The Netherlands), Ms. Tiziana Finzi, Deputy Director Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland, and Iranian filmmaker and film producer Mr. Jafar Panahi (jury president). Th...
The MovieSquad Award of the young people’s jury at the International Film Festival Rotterdam has been given to French animated film PERSEPOLIS on January 31, 2008. The five jury members, aged between 16 and 19 years, voted PERSEPOLIS by Marjane Satrapi & Vincent Paronnaud as best out of the twenty-two festival films they considered for the prize. Dutch youngsters Ms. Giulia Bijvoet (17), Mr. Wouter Booij (19), Mr. Sander Kersten (16), Ms. Katia Truijen (17) and Mr. Glenn Vergoossen (17) judg...
Mario de la Torre Espinosa wins NPS New Arrivals Competition for online short films Sunday January 27, the jury of the NPS New Arrivals Competition for online short films, organised by Duch public television network NPS and the International Film Festival Rotterdam, has announced that Chocolate WITH CHURROS (CHOCOLATE CON CHURROS) by Mario de la Torre Espinosa (Spain) is the winner of the NPS New Arrivals Award 2008 (Euro 1,000). The online audience voted IT HURTS by Hester Scheurwater (The Ne...
Media education is a hot topic within national governments and educational institutions alike. Big words like new citizenship, empowerment and media literacy are used to convince us of its necessity. But what do filmmakers have to say? Until now they have remained surprisingly silent on the subject. During the upcoming International Film Festival Rotterdam, the international conference ‘How to Stimulate Filmsense(s)’, taking place on Wednesday January 30, 2008 is the place for them to speak ...
In its feature film selection, the 37th International Film Festival Rotterdam will include fifty world premieres, thirty international premieres and twenty-five European premieres. International sales agents to bring world and international premieres to Rotterdam include Fortissimo, Memento, Wide Management, Trust, Match Factory and newly formed Elle Driver. Rotterdam’s Hubert Bals Fund adds an enticing harvest of 22 new films to the festival. All of these are nominated for the newly installed...
The International Film Festival Rotterdam announces the Competitions’ Juries of the 37th edition, that will open on January 23. The full line up of both the VPRO Tiger Awards Competition and the Tiger Awards Competition for Short Films 2008 will be announced Tuesday January 8. The Jury of the VPRO Tiger Awards Competition for first or second feature films consists of: • Ms. Renata Litvinova, Russia, filmmaker, film producer and actress• Ms. Tiziana Finzi, Switzerland, Deputy Director...
The 37th edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (23 January to 3 February 2008) is being realised under the leadership of director Rutger Wolfson after the departure of Sandra den Hamer. He is focusing on Free Radicals: film makers and artists who idiosyncratically and energetically follow their own course. In this context, film maker Robert Breer and artist Cameron Jamie are being honoured with Focus programmes. In addition, the festival is paying special attention to one-off film...
The 37th edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (23 January to 3 February 2008) is being realised under the leadership of director Rutger Wolfson after the departure of Sandra den Hamer. He is focusing on Free Radicals: film makers and artists who idiosyncratically and energetically follow their own course. In this context, film maker Robert Breer and artist Cameron Jamie are being honoured with Focus programmes. In addition, the festival is paying special attention to one-off film...
The Hubert Bals Fund (HBF), Rotterdam’s fund designed to support films from the South, has announced financial contributions to 28 film projects in 18 countries for a total amount of 435,000 Euro. These include new films by acclaimed independent filmmakers Wang Bing, Paz Encina, Bahman Ghobadi and Lisandro Alonso, as well as many projects by first time filmmakers. An expected twenty completed films supported by the HBF, will be selected for the upcoming 37th International Film Festival Rotter...
The Hubert Bals Fund of the International Film Festival Rotterdam has selected four film projects to receive support in its ‘digital production’ category. Liu Jiayin and Wang Bing (both from China), Paz Encina (Paraguay) and Eugenio Polgovsky (Mexico) receive grants to produce their low budget digital projects. The other categories, including script development and postproduction grants, will be announced in two weeks. Wang Bing’s CAI YOU RI JI (THE JOURNEY OF CRUDE OIL) documents in non...
Rutger Wolfson director for the 2008 edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam The Board of the International Film Festival Rotterdam has appointed Rutger Wolfson as director to arrange the organisation and artistic substance for the 2008 festival edition. He will assume this function part time and stay on in his present function as director of De Vleeshal, a centre for contemporary art in Middelburg, The Netherlands. The festival board has also appointed Stef Fleischeuer for the sa...
"Dear friends, colleagues, partners, Although the news was out already a couple of months ago, the moment is there now... On Monday I will start in my new job as director of the Filmmuseum in Amsterdam, which in two years time will move to a brand-new and spectacular Cinematheque with four state-of-the-art theatres, a large exhibition space and terrace on the waterfront. Although I am really honored and excited, I have to admit that it is not easy to say goodbye to all my friends, colleagues...
The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, principal financier of the Hubert Bals Fund, wants the Rotterdam film festival’s fund to continue its activities. Initially the Ministry rejected the fund’s subsidy application for 2009-2012, causing a direct threat to the fund’s existence. Maintaining its strong presence in Cannes, the Rotterdam film festival has seven films linked to the Hubert Bals Fund and CineMart in Cannes festival sections. >From the Official Competition, 4 months, 3 Weeks a...
Sandra den Hamer leaves the International Film Festival Rotterdam to become, as of September 1, 2007 Director of the Filmmuseum in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Den Hamer has been involved in the festival organisation since 1986. One of the best attended cultural events in The Netherlands, the festival is well known internationally for its selective programming and for its CineMart and Hubert Bals Fund. The Board of the Rotterdam Film Festival, chaired by Melle Daamen, director of the Stadssc...
The International Film Festival Rotterdam has appointed Bianca Taal to lead the festival’s Hubert Bals Fund as current fund manager Marianne Bhalotra steps down. Marit van den Elshout continues to head the festival’s CineMart. Bianca Taal started working for the Rotterdam festival in 2000 as CineMart and Hubert Bals Fund staff member. In 2005, Taal and Van den Elshout became co-heads of CineMart. The past years, Taal became increasingly involved in selecting projects for the Hubert Bals Fu...
