Selection / Competition / Chinese theme programma Wu Xia

PRESS RELEASE 14 DECEMBER 2010

• IFFR announces films and additional locations for 40th edition
• Theme program with Chinese wu xia movies
• IFFR welcomes three new sponsors

This afternoon, the International Film Festival Rotterdam announced part of the festival programme, including films in the Tiger Awards Competitions, during a launch event at the new LantarenVenster in Rotterdam. Members of the jury include Argentinean filmmaker Lucrecia Martel, EYE Film Institute Netherlands director Sandra den Hamer and Sonic Youth member Lee Ranaldo. The IFFR furthermore released details on a wu xia action movie programme and information on additional locations for the IFFR’s fortieth anniversary. The festival opens on Wednesday 26 January 2011; the complete festival programme will be published on the IFFR website on Thursday 20 January.

Part of the selections for IFFR 2011 announced
The festival’s website www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com provides an list of the films confirmed to be screened at the festival. Additional selected films will be announced in early January. The complete overview, including screening dates and times, will be published on Thursday 20 January as a supplement to the Volkskrant and on the festival’s website.

XL: IFFR 2011 to celebrate with additional locations
The IFFR always lends Rotterdam a festive atmosphere, but this edition things will be bigger than ever. Some of the city’s buildings or institutions are to become festival locations to celebrate the IFFR’s fortieth anniversary. These additional locations will host, among other things, film screenings, exhibitions of video work or film-related art.
So far, the additional locations announced include (subject to change): Rotterdamse Schouwburg, Piet Zwart Institute, Willem de Kooning Academy, Cine-Qua-Non bookshop and Water Tiger Inn-tavern in de Doelen, Groothandelsgebouw, Czech Centre, Alliance Française, PrintRoom, Kunst en Complex, Chabot Museum, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Kunsthal Rotterdam, Natuurhistorisch Museum, V2_Institute for Unstable Media, TENT, Showroom MAMA, RO Theater, Blaak10 Galerie, Margreet Olsthoorn/MGHO, Oogziekenhuis Rotterdam, Theater Zuidplein, Sub Urban Video Lounge, Nationaal Onderwijsmuseum, Roodkapje, Your Space, Worm & Fitness First, Schieblock, Gemeentearchief Rotterdam, Cucosa and Hotel New York.

Tiger Awards Competition for feature-length films & Return of the Tiger
The IFFR has selected the initial seven films for the Tiger Awards Competition for first or second films. There is a strong South Korean showing with two films: THE JOURNALS OF MUSAN by Park Jungbum and BLEAK NIGHT from Yoon Sung-hyun. Other Asian films selected are THE IMAGE THREADS by Vipin Vijay (India), FLYING FISH by Sanjeewa Pushpakamara (Sri Lanka), ETERNITY by Sivaroj Kongsakul (Thailand) and RAINY SEASONS by Majid Berzagar (Iran). Finally, from Europe, comes HEADSHOTS by Lawrence Tooley Germany/Austria). ETERNITY and FLYING FISH both received contributions by the Hubert Bals Fund. More films in Competition will be announced in early January.

During the anniversary edition, the IFFR will – after fifteen Tiger Awards Competitions (the first having been presented in 1996) – be paying special attention to the influence and reach of the competition with the one-off programme Return of the Tiger. This will present some twenty new films by former Tiger Award winners or competitors. Already selected for the programme are: Koen Mortier (22ND OF MAY, Belgium), Kelly Reichardt (MEEK’S CUTOFF, USA), Hong Sang-Soo (OKI’S MOVIE, South Korea), Alex Stockman (PULSAR, Belgium), Patrick Keiller (ROBINSON IN RUINS, UK) and Tan Chui Mui (YEAR WITHOUT A SUMMER, Malaysia).

It is with great pleasure that the IFFR welcomes the Jury for the 2011 Tiger Awards Competition:
Lucrecia Martel, filmmaker, scriptwriter and film producer (Argentina); Sandra den Hamer, director of the EYE Film Institute Netherlands and former IFFR director; filmmaker Andrei Ujica (Romania); Wisit Sasanatieng, filmmaker (Thailand) and Lee Ranaldo, vocalist, guitarist, composer and co-founder of noise rock band Sonic Youth (USA). The jury will award three equal Tiger Awards (15,000 Euros) to the winning filmmakers. This edition, the prize money will be donated by the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds.

The festival will screen new films from Jury members Wisit Sasanatieng (the superhero movie THE RED EAGLE) and Andrei Ujica (the found-footage documentary THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF NICOLAE CEAUSESCU). Lee Ranaldo will perform during the prize presentations for short films (Monday 31 January at the new LantarenVenster) and feature films (Friday 4 February at the Oude Luxor Theater).

Tiger Awards Competition for Short Films & Jury
The IFFR has selected the first twenty films in the Tiger Awards Competition for Short Films. Further competition selections will be announced by early January.
The Tiger Awards Competition for Short Films includes PASTOURELLE (the new 16mm film by Focus-filmmaker Nathaniel Dorsky, USA), MASKA by the Quay Brothers and works by upcoming talents like JAN VILLA by Natasha Mendonca (India), BREAD FOR BIRD by Aleksandra Streyanaya (Russia), PLAYERS by Pilvi Takala (Finland) and HOME MOVIE by John Price (Canada).
The IFFR welcomes the 2011 Tiger Awards Competition for Short Films’ Jury which consists of: Fiona Tan, an artist known for her audiovisual installations, films and photographic works (The Netherlands), Anocha Suwichakornpong, filmmaker and Tiger Award winner for MUNDANE HISTORY and Thom Andersen, filmmaker, film critic and lecturer (USA). The Jury will hand out the three equal Tiger Awards for Short Film (3,000 Euros) to the winning filmmakers.
The festival will be screening Thom Andersen’s new film GET OUT OF THE CAR and omnibus-film BREAKFAST, LUNCH, DINNER that is composed of three short films by Asian woman filmmakers Anocha Suwichakornpong (Thailand), Wang Jing (China) and Kaz Cai (Singapore).

Spectrum: Shorts
IFFR presents a strong selection of several hundred recent short films, covering a broad area of fictional, documentary and experimental works of up to sixty minutes. This edition, the Shorts screenings and events move to the recently opened, new LantarenVenster, taking place from Friday January 28 up to and including Monday January 31.
Within Shorts 2011, two Short Profile sections will mark the oeuvres of Rotterdam-based Telcosystems and of Canadian filmmakers Emily Vey Duke & Cooper Batterby. Telcosystems are frontrunners of a new generation of experimental filmmakers. They will present the world premiere of their latest film, their installation 12_SERIES will be exhibited and they will perform live on January 29 in LantarenVenster. Emily Vey Duke & Cooper Batterby do combine in a remarkable way animation, live action and music.
Furthermore, Shorts will include four compilations of recent shorts film from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh brought together by IFFR programmer Peter van Hoof and IFFR scout Rada Sesic. The compilations will include works from the SRFTVI Film & TV School in Kolkata as well as short documentaries, fictional and experimental short films from the region.
Finally, Shorts includes live performances, screenings of the eight winning films from online short film platform New Arrivals, an Upload Cinema event (February 4) and the Short Film Marathon (February 5).

Signals: Water Tiger Inn
Water Tiger Inn combines a programme with ‘wu xia’ (Chinese martial arts) films and an equally themed festival location. Long before film was introduced to China, wu xia tales from Chinese literature inspired painting and drawing, theatre and music. The Water Tiger Inn theme programme traces the developments of the genre in films, and offers an immersive wu xia experience with a Chinese tavern.
Water Tiger Inn’s film programme consists of some twenty films dating from the period between 1929 and 2010. The selection from China, Taiwan and, mostly, Hong Kong, includes classics such as RED HEROINE and THE SWORDSWOMAN OF HUANGJIANG (1929 & 1930), GOLDEN SWALLOW by Chang Cheh (1968), EXECUTIONERS FROM SHAO LIN by Lau Kar-leung (1977), DUEL TO THE DEATH by Ching Siu-tung (1983) and, as newest film: Su Chao-pin & John Woo’s REIGN OF ASSASSINS (2010).
As festival location, Water Tiger Inn functions as a Chinese tavern in main festival venue de Doelen that serves food and drink like those in the movies, daily between noon and 10 pm. Three times a day, artists with specialised skills (storytelling, Peking Opera, Nan Guan, puppetry and martial arts) will perform scenes from a wu xia story written for the occasion. The artists will also appear at the Water Tiger Inn with solo performances.

The Water Tiger Inn programme section, developed and curated by festival programmer Chinlin Hsieh, is supported by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (HKETO) and Taiwan Council for Culture Affairs. Six of the films from Water Tiger Inn will also be shown, January 13-26, in Amsterdam as part of the seventh edition of EYE Film Institute Netherlands’ Hong Kong Film Panorama.

Metropole Orchestra opens Red Westerns-program
The Red Westerns-theme section will be opened Saturday evening January 29 in the Grand Auditorium of the Doelen with a special screening of the oldest film in the section: Lev Kuleshov’s THE EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES OF MR. WEST IN THE LAND OF THE BOLSHEVIKS from 1924. The silent film will be screened with live accompaniment by the Metropole Orchestra (The Netherlands) of a new soundtrack composed by Amsterdam-based Muziekinstituut MultiMedia.

Three new sponsors
The IFFR is pleased to announce its cooperation with three new sponsors. As previously announced Dutch telecommunication company UPC will be the festival’s main sponsor for the coming three editions. The IFFR will also be entering into new collaborations with Jameson and Dutch national railway company NS to promote their OV-fiets [bike rental plan] and NS Fietsenstallingen [bike service station].
The IFFR and Jameson will be organising three exclusive film events in unusual locations for idiosyncratic film lovers. The first event will take place during the 40th IFFR on Thursday 3 February 2011 in Rotterdam. During the festival, there will be Jameson bars in de Doelen and at Rotterdam’s Schouwburg both of which will feature cocktail hour.
To make visiting the additional XL-locations easy, a temporary NS Fietsenstalling will be located on the Schouwburgplein. The special XL pass – available for 11 Euros – will not only provide access to all the locations, but will simultaneously give purchasers a year’s subscription to OV-fiets. During the festival, visitors can rent a bike for free twice on the Schouwburgplein using their XL pass.

The full festival programme will be published on Thursday, 20 January 2011, as an IFFR special insert in Dutch daily de Volkskrant and online at www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com. Online ticket sales for Tiger Friends only start on Thursday 20 January at 20.00 hours; the regular online box office opens on Friday 21 January at 20.00 hours. The festival box office is open from Tuesday 25 January 2011. The festival will take place from 26 January to 6 February 2011.

(End of press release)

Note for the editors/not for publication:

Press information:
IFFR Press Office, Bert-Jan Zoet or Nancy van Oorschot
[email protected] or +31 (0)10 8909090