IFFR selects 24 films for Tiger Awards Competition for Short Films

During IFFR 2014, 24 films will compete for the three Canon Tiger Awards for Short Films. The full programme of Tiger and Spectrum Shorts, with 217 short and mid-length films, will be screened from Thursday 23 through Monday 27 January at festival location LantarenVenster. The programme includes tributes to the British filmmaker Jodie Mack, the Swiss filmmaker and artist Hannes Schüpbach, and the Mind The Gap Nights programme with live music and film at the WORM festival location. On Wednesday 15 January the IFFR programme will be published online on this website and in De Volkskrant newspaper. The festival opens on Wednesday 22 January.

Tiger Awards Competition for Short Films
This year, the Tiger Awards Competition for Short Films comprises 24 titles, including the Dutch entry Inferno by Yael Bartana. The jury consists of two-time Tiger Award winner Mati Diop (1982, France), art historian and visual arts curator at the Amsterdam Stedelijk Museum, Bart Rutten (1972, Netherlands), and film maker and visual artist Mika Taanila (1965, Finland).
Each of the three equal Canon Tiger Awards for Short Films comes with €3.000 plus a video camera. The award ceremony takes place on Sunday evening 26 January at LantarenVenster, Rotterdam. The jury also nominates one film that will compete in the short film category of the annual European Film Awards (EFA).
(See full list of Tiger Awards Competition for Short Films below)

Spectrum Shorts Specials: Jodie Mack and Hannes Schüpbach
This year the festival is highlighting film makers Jodie Mack and Hannes Schüpbach. Jodie Mack (1983, UK) is a filmmaker, curator and animation instructor. Mack's handmade films are collages that investigate the relationship between the graphic element of cinema and the narration of stories, and the tension between form and meaning. In 2010 she received the Hill Award of the Orphan Film Symposium in New York. This year, IFFR presents five of her works.
Painter, writer and filmmaker Hannes Schüpbach (1965, Switzerland) creates poetic silent 16mm films which have been screened at the Tate Modern and at Wavelengths in Toronto. In 2009 he had a major solo exhibition in the Kunsthalle Basel. Three of his works can be seen at IFFR 2014.

The Vertical Cinema programme is also part of Shorts Specials, in which ten 35mm films made especially for this project by renowned experimental artists and film makers will be screened on a monumental vertical CinemaScope format screen. This project is a collaboration with Sonic Acts. The event takes place in Arminius on Friday 24 January.
The Shorts Special The Girl Who Never Was is a live performance in which Erik Bünger uses found footage material to bring lost voices back to life and to establish surprising connections.

Spectrum Shorts Specials: Jodie Mack and Hannes Schüpbach, Vertical Cinema and performance Erik Bünger
International Film Festival Rotterdam reserves a prominent role for short and mid-length films. IFFR's Spectrum Shorts programme is one of the largest such programmes in Europe, bringing numerous short film professionals to Rotterdam. The length of the selected films – covering fiction, documentary and experimental – varies from a few minutes to 95 minutes.
The 2014 selection includes new works by Tiger Award for Short Film winners Duncan Campbell, Lewis Klahr en Nicolas Provost. Furthermore Spectrum Shorts presents two films by Turner Prize winners Laure Prouvost, as well as new films by Martha Colburn, Ben Russell, Hito Steyerl, Roee Rosen, Nicholas Brooks, canecapovolto, Joanna Rytel, The Otolith Group, David Claerbout and Pilvi Takala.
New Dutch productions include films by Frank Scheffer, Esther Urlus, Wayne Horse, Jan Willem van Dam, Pedro Collantes, Pim Zwier, José Miguel Biscaya, Katarina Zdjelar, Stijn Verhoeff & Jasper Coppes, Nan Wang, Douwe Dijkstra, Lichun Tseng, Donna Verheijden, Rowena Crowe and Klaas Arie Westland.

Spectrum Shorts is compiled by IFFR's short film editorial committee, consisting of Erwin van 't Hart, Theus Zwakhals, Joke Ballintijn and Peter Taylor, and headed by IFFR programmer Peter van Hoof. The complete Spectrum Shorts programme is available on filmfestivalrotterdam.com from Wednesday 15 January.

Mind The Gap Nights
From Thursday 23 through Sunday 26 January at the WORM festival location, IFFR and Gonzo (circus) magazine present Mind The Gap Nights: four evenings of unique collaborations between musicians, video artists, film makers and other image makers. The programme includes Colterrain by COH +Tina Frank, the elastic poly-rhythms of the German sensation The Durian Brothers, a new performance by Stephan Mathieu (known for his work with Fennesz and David Sylvian), the new project Vladislav Delay + AGF, Ripattii, SSEENNSSEESS – the spanking new partnership between Finnish supergroup Circle and film maker Mika Taanila, and the world premiere of Transparent Stavanger by John Hegre and Greg Pope. Every evening winds up with a party with the Gonzo (circus) and guest DJs.

Tiger Awards Competition for Short Films 2014
Ancha es Castilla/N'importe quoi, Sergio Caballero (Spain)
The Backup Tapes from Moon and Mars, eteam (USA)
The Chimera of M., Sebastian Buerkner (United Kingdom)
Even Pricks, Ed Atkins (United Kingdom)
Giant, Salla Tykkä (Finland, Romania)
Grandma's Dream, Laure Prouvost (United Kingdom)
Hacked Circuit, Deborah Stratman (USA)
Here Is Everything, Emily Vey Duke & Cooper Battersby (USA, Canada)
Inferno, Yael Bartana (Netherlands)
La isla, Dominga Sotomayor, Katarzyna Klimkiewicz (Chile, Poland)
It Has Already Been Ended Before You Can See the End, Arikawa Shigeo (Japan)
Letter to a Refusing Pilot, Akram Zaatari (Lebanon)
A Million Miles Away, Jennifer Reeder (USA)
Nefandus Trilogy, Carlos Motta (USA, Colombia, Portugal)
Notre tempo, Lorena Zilleruelo (France)
The Palace on the Sea, Midi Z (Taiwan, Myanmar)
O porto, Clarissa Campolina, Julia De Simone, Luiz Pretti, Ricardo Pretti (Brazil)
Thing, Anouk De Clercq (Belgium, Italy)
Trento Symphonia, Flatform (France, Italy)
Two Points of Failure, Michael Moshe Dahan (USA)
Village modèle, Hayoun Kwon (France)
The Voice Thief, Adan Jodorowsky (France, Chile, USA)
Walk with Me, Johan Oettinger & Peter Tukei Muhumuza (Uganda, Denmark)
Working to Beat the Devil, Chu-Li Shewring & Adam Gutch (United Kingdom)

Press information IFFR:
Press Office, Nancy van Oorschot / Mieke van der Linden / Isabelle de Klein, [email protected], +31 10 8909090