Left to right: Gunay Uslu (State Secretary for Culture and Media), Vanja Kaludjercic (Festival Director IFFR), Mijke de Jong (Filmmaker Along the Way), Marjan van der Haar (Managing Director IFFR), Said Kasmi (Alderman for Education, Culture, and Tourism)

51st International Film Festival Rotterdam

26 January – 6 February 2022

Rotterdam, 6 February 2022

International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR)’s screening of Dragon Inn by King Hu marks the close of the 51st edition and the launch of the 25 Encounters programme. Freaks Out by Italian director Gabriele Mainetti is the winner of the VriendenLoterij Audience Award 2022. The IFFR 2022 Official Selection encompassed 217 films. The festival presented 54 films to audiences on IFFR.com, the world premiere of Along the Way in cinemas and 5 Big Talks available worldwide. IFFR also presented a selection of films to 2,112 press and industry guests on Festival Scope Pro, which included Tiger Competition, Big Screen Competition and Ammodo Tiger Short selections. 

Festival director Vanja Kaludjercic: “Today marks the close of another exceptional edition of IFFR – a festival that saw the world premiere of Amanda Kramer’s Please Baby Please, the Tiger Award going to EAMI by Paz Encina, thought-provoking IFFR Pro sessions about the ‘new possible’, the launch of our landmark 25 Encounters programme and the world premiere of Along the Way by Mijke de Jong in cinemas during our closing weekend. It was heartwarming to feel the continued support of filmmakers, industry members, partners and audiences in the face of ongoing uncertainties. We are proud to find alternative ways to bring exciting new films and look forward to presenting our competition titles later this year as they were intended: to audiences on the big screen in the presence of filmmakers.”

The world premiere of Amanda Kramer’s Please Baby Please opened the festival on 26 January on IFFR.com. The 51st edition programme was moved online in response to lockdown measures introduced in December 2021 in the Netherlands. IFFR 2022’s programme presented 54 films to audiences on IFFR.com, including 11 world premieres and 5 international premieres, from 26 January to 6 February. Big Talks with Mathieu Amalric, Amanda Kramer, Rachel Lang, Sayombhu Mukdeeprom and Joachim Trier & Renate Reinsve were made available to audiences worldwide on IFFR.com. The world premiere of Along the Way in cinemas added an onsite dimension to IFFR during the festival’s closing weekend. The closing film Dragon Inn by King Hu marks the close of IFFR 2022 and the launch of 25 Encounters, a curated publication and accompanying film programme on IFFR Unleashed.

The IFFR Awards Ceremony on 2 February announced the main competition award winners and the IFFR Pro Award winners. The competition selections, which have been exclusively screening online for press and industry guests during the festival, will screen in cinemas for audiences later in the year.

The festival has registered 117,000 audience visits to date. This figure was generated by multiplying the number of tickets by a factor of 1.7 per household. This multiplication factor is based on a survey among nearly 3,500 ticket holders done in 2021. A record number of 550 accredited press attended the festival online, from 65 territories. IFFR Pro welcomed 1,562 industry guests from 86 territories to a series of industry events online, including CineMart and Rotterdam Lab.

The screening of this edition’s closing film, King Hu’s 1967 sword-fighting classic Dragon Inn, is the launch of 25 Encounters. The programme comprises 25 conversations between filmmakers and film enthusiasts reflecting on the past, present and future of film, film festivals and IFFR. Participants of the conversations include Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Christine Vachon, Olivier Assayas, Ayoka Chenzira, Ester Martin Bergsmark, Costa-Gavras and Yuasa Masaaki. All encounters are captured in a limited edition printed publication which will be released with an accompanying film programme of 25 titles chosen by each duo. The film programme will be made available on IFFR Unleashed in three releases.

Figures are indicative. The definitive IFFR 2022 figures will be reported in the upcoming Annual Report. IFFR 2023 festival dates will be announced later this year.

・217 films

IFFR 2022 Selection available on IFFR.com

・17 Harbour titles 

・4 Bright Future titles 

・5 Limelight titles

・8 Focus: Amanda Kramer titles 

・6 Cinema Regained titles 

・1 Short & Mid-length title 

・12 RTM titles 

・1 Scopitone title

・5 Big Talks accessible globally online

・33 films eligible for the VriendenLoterij Audience Award, 11 of which received an audience rating of four out of five or higher.

Press & Industry selection 2022

・14 Tiger Competition titles

・9 Big Screen Competition titles

・16 Ammodo Tiger Short Competition titles

・56 feature films 

・12 mid-length films

・55 Short films

・4 VR projects

・22,672 Festival Scope Pro visits

・117,000 visits

Of which, 1,500 visits were onsite

・5% decrease in comparison with the February festival days of IFFR 2021

・1.7 multiplier for online visits

・Geographical representation of visits per province

In 2022, 40% of audience members were watching from the province of South Holland, of which Rotterdam is the largest city. This is the same representation as in 2021. 

The province of North Holland (which includes Amsterdam, Haarlem and Alkmaar) represented 32%, an increase of 8 percent point compared to 2021.

Viewers from other provinces made up 28% of the audience.

・905,000 YouTube views from 7 January until 6 February

・550 journalists (88 Netherlands-based journalists and 462 international journalists)

Compared to 508 journalists (80 Netherlands-based journalists and 428 international journalists) during the February festival days of IFFR 2021

・65 countries represented in total 

7% increase from IFFR 2021

・1,562 guests from the film industry including:

827 IFFR Pro guests

141 filmmakers

86 countries represented

594 CineMart guests

4,473 visits to IFFR Pro activities, including online panels

656 CineMart one-on-one meetings facilitated

・40,000 of visits (both online and physical) by school children, students and teachers between 1 March 2021 and 5 February 2022, an increase of 99% compared to IFFR 2021

22% of lessons and workshops took place physically in cinemas and schools

78% of lessons and workshops took place online