45th International Film Festival Rotterdam

27 January - 7 February 2016 

Rotterdam, 31 January 2016 

EMBARGOED UNTIL Sunday 31 January 2016, 21:45 hrs CET

The jury for the Tiger Awards Competition for Short Films has completed its deliberation and announced Dream English Kid 1964-1999 AD by Mark Leckey, Faux depart/False Start by Yto Barrada and Engram of Returning by Daïchi Saïto as the winners of the Canon Tiger Awards for Short Films 2016. The three winning filmmakers each receive a 3,000 Euro prize plus a gift voucher from Canon. The Jury also selected Tout le monde aime le bord de la mer/We All Love the Seashore by Keina Espiñeira to compete in the short film category of the European Film Awards (EFA) later this year. Le Park by Randa Maroufi received a special mention.

The awards ceremony took place this evening, Sunday 31 January at 21:00 at International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) festival venue LantarenVenster. Winner Daïchi Saïto is a Rotterdam veteran: his short films All That Rises (2008), Trees of Syntax, Leaves of Axis (2010) and Never a Foot Too Far, Even (2012) previously screened in the short film programme of IFFR.

The jury for the Tiger Awards Competition for Short Films was made up of British artist, filmmaker and double winner of this award, Ben Rivers; politically committed artist, writer and filmmaker Naeem Mohaiemen from Bangladesh and Mieke Bernink, professor on the Master’s degree course at the Netherlands Film Academy. 

On making their decision, on Dream English Kid 1964-1999 AD the jury commented: “A kaleidoscopic sifting through decades of British media culture, as embedded in the detritus of VHS tape and television specials. The mood oscillates between joy and paranoia, escalating through the leftovers of cold war politics, giving us autobiography for a media overload age.” On Faux depart/False Start: “A beautifully economic combination of film form and wordless gestures. The subterranean worlds of archeology and tourism are processed through repeated labor, for the discovery, and sometimes questionable invention, of heritage.” And on Engram of Returning: “Fragments of memory emerge from the darkness, as we are immersed hypnotically into a world of pure cinema. A celluloid dream driven by the furious soundtrack, reaching a climax of flickering breathlessness – for the filmmaker and the audience.”

The jury selected Tout le monde aime le bord de la mer/We All Love the Seashore as their European Film Awards nomination: “A state of limbo surrounded by uncertainties of borders, legality, and time. A participatory, collaborative script travels between bleached sea and golden forest, merging mythical fragments, colonial memories, and migration realities.” 

Le Park/The Park by Randa Maroufi received a special mention: “Finding a new way to talk about the ecosystem of mediated social media, through the lives of young Moroccans in a self-generated moment of public lives. A technical achievement that freezes time and then invites audiences to read emotions into stillness.” 

This fragmentary film was based on an excerpt from a Joy Division gig Mark Leckey attended as a teen and the realisation that many of our memories and experiences can easily be found online. The highlights of Leckey’s life pass by in film excerpts, ads and pop music. Overlap and repetition reinforce the atmosphere. General historical and highly personal footage in this ode to the late 20th century.

Mark LECKEY (1964, UK) is a filmmaker and artist. His work is a mix of film, sound, performance and sculpture. Leckey is known for the use of found art and found footage in his work. In 2008, he was awarded the prestigious Turner Prize. His work has been exhibited and screened at numerous international museums and festivals. 

The latest film by French-Moroccan artist Yto Barrada observes the elaborate fossil industry in Morocco. Paying homage to the 'preparators' in the arid region between the Atlas Mountains and the Sahara Desert, whose intrepid work is fueling a thriving trade in artifacts real, faux and hybrid, False Start is a rebuke to the fetishistic thirst for foreign objects, a sly meditation on authenticity, and a paean to creativity. (Andréa Picard)

Yto BARRADA (1971, France) studied history and political science at the Sorbonne in Paris and was educated in photography in New York. Her films, sculptures, photography, prints and installations are exhibited internationally. Barrada was awarded the Abraaj Group Art Prize in 2015. She lives and works in Tangier and New York City. 

Accompanied by an extraordinary improvisational score by Jason Sharp, Engram of Returning is an epic 35mm CinemaScope metaphysical travelogue that reveals a supernal world which pulses and flickers with formal patterns and deep hues. Transforming anonymous found footage into powerful, expressive and painterly imagery, it is a film about memory and recollection, given form through interwoven backward glances at the real, the imagined and the remembered.

Daïchi SAÏTO is currently based in Montreal, Canada. After studying Philosophy and Literature in the USA and Hindi/Sanskrit in India, he turned to filmmaking. Trees of Syntax, Leaves of Axis (IFFR 2009) won the Jury Grand Prize at the Media City Film Festival, Ontario. Saïto is co-founder of the Double Negative Collective, a group of filmmaking artists dedicated to experimental cinema. 

A group of men are waiting at the fringes of a coastal woodland for the journey to Europe, in limbo between time and place. A film is shot there with the men playing themselves. Fiction and documentary constantly intertwine. Myths from the colonial past collide with dreams of a better future in the former oppressor’s country.Keina ESPIÑEIRA (1983, Spain) holds a Master's degree in Direction and Production of Documentary Films awarded by the Documentary Film Association in Madrid. She has also worked as a researcher in Barcelona, California, Nijmegen and Morocco. Border policy has a pivotal role in her work. 

The camera slowly meanders through an abandoned amusement park in Casablanca’s city centre. The Park portrays the youngsters who have made the site theirs in a number of tableaux that look like frozen snapshots. The sometimes violent poses betray the influence of social media which is so crucial to their sense of identity.Randa MAROUFI (1987, Morocco) was educated at art academies in Morocco and France. Her work ranges from film, photography and installations to audio and performances and examines the use of public spaces and gender issues. Maroufi lives and works alternately in Tangier and Paris. 

All Still Orbit, Dane Komljen, James Lattimer (Croatia, Serbia, Germany, Brazil)

an is that isn’t always, Richard T. Walker (USA)

B-ROLL with Andre, James N. Kienitz Wilkins (USA)

Cinéma concret/Concrete Cinema, Makino Takashi (Japan, Netherlands)

Dag'aa, Shadi Habib Allah (Palestine)

The Double, Roy Villevoye, Jan Dietvorst (Netherlands)

Dream English Kid 1964-1999 AD, Mark Leckey (United Kingdom)

Elle pis son char/A Woman and Her Car, Loïc Darses (Canada)

Engram of Returning, Daïchi Saïto (Canada)

Establishing Eden, Persijn Broersen, Margit Lukács (Netherlands, New Zealand)

Faux depart/False Start, Yto Barrada (Morocco)

Letters from Panduranga, Nguyen Trinh Thi (Vietnam)

Night Soil – Economy of Love, Melanie Bonajo (USA, Netherlands)

Nightlife, Cyprien Gaillard (France)

not even nothing can be free of ghosts, Rainer Kohlberger (Austria, Germany)

Novaciéries, Jonathan Debrouwer, Marine Brutti, Arthur Harel (France)

One.Two.Three, Vincent Meessen (Belgium)

Painting with History in a Room Filled with People with Funny Names 3, Korakrit Arunanondchai (USA, Thailand, France)Le Park, Randa Maroufi (France)

SEA STATE 6, Charles Yi Yong Lim (Singapore)

Solitary Acts (4, 5, 6), Nazli Dincel (USA, Turkey)

Tout le monde aime le bord de la mer, Keina Espiñeira (Spain)

Viva água, Cynthia Madansky (Italy) 

For four decades, IFFR has proudly developed and presented auteur cinema by helping filmmakers reach the broadest possible audiences. The festival is known around the world for its individual, innovative programming, with particular attention to talented new filmmakers. Quality films from all over the world are presented in Rotterdam to a large, international audience with the aim of inspiring and broadening horizons. 

IFFR is one of the biggest cultural events in the Netherlands, and one of the biggest audience-oriented film festivals in the world. The 45th IFFR will take place from Wednesday 27 January to Sunday 7 February 2016. For twelve days, the latest feature films, documentaries, short films, exhibitions, performances, talk shows and debates make Rotterdam an exciting, global capital city of film. Official ticket sales start on Friday 22 January. For more information, see IFFR.com. 

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