18 filmmakers selected for CineMart

49th International Film Festival Rotterdam

22 January – 2 February 2020

Rotterdam, 13 December 2019

International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) announces 17 new film projects selected for the 37th edition of Rotterdam’s co-production market CineMart (26 January–29 January 2020). The selected filmmakers come from all over the world – from Brazil to South Africa and from the Philippines to Romania. CineMart invites filmmakers and producers to pitch their projects to film professionals in both tailored one-to-one meetings and presentations open to all CineMart guests.

“We are proud to present a fresh, exciting and diverse line-up of titles from both emerging and established filmmakers from a record number of nearly 400 submissions," comments Marit van den Elshout (Head of IFFR Pro) on this year's selection. She adds: "We strongly believe in collaboration between co-production markets in helping filmmakers reach their project’s potential. We are therefore pleased to share that, as part of a longstanding partnership, two of the selected projects will travel to the Berlinale co-production market after attending CineMart. Another project will attend Trieste prior to CineMart as part of a new collaboration with When East Meets West.” 

Three of the selected projects were previously supported by IFFR’s Hubert Bals Fund (HBF), receiving the Script and Project Development in the Bright Future grant sub-category. A Shadow Creeps In Silver Trees by John Trengove received the grant in 2017, All We Imagine as Light by Payal Kapadia and Celosos hombres blancos by Iván Granovsky both received the grant in 2019.

Among the selected filmmakers, John Trengove, Zeynep Dadak, Radu Jude and Yosep Anggi Noen have had other film projects previously supported by HBF. Noen’s latest feature film The Science of Fictions received support in 2018 and will now be screened at IFFR 2020. 

Notable achievements among the selected filmmakers include Mina Mileva and Vesela Kazakova’s 2019 Golden Leopard nomination from Locarno International Film Festival for their film Cat in the Wall, Luis De Filippis winning the Short Film Award at Sundance 2018 for their film For Nonna Anna and Morgan Knibbe receiving the Netherlands Film Festival Golden Calf for his documentary Those Who Feel the Fire Burning in 2015.

CineMart 2020 will take place during the IFFR Pro Days (25 January–29 January 2020). In collaboration with VR Days, IFFR Pro has selected four VR projects to partake in CineMart 2020. In addition, nine projects will be present at the BoostNL programme, a collaborative effort of IFFR and NFF. The project representatives will present their projects to CineMart delegates during the Spotlight Events on 27 January (CineMart projects) and 28 January 2020 (BoostNL & VR projects).

• All We Imagine as Light, Payal Kapadia, Petit Chaos/Chalk and Cheese (France/India)

• Celosos hombres blancos, Iván Granovsky, Frutacine/O som e a fúria (Argentina/Portugal)

• Electric Sleep, Zeynep Dadak, Fenafilm/unafilm (Turkey/Germany)

• Followers, Dornaz Hajiha, Chinese Shadows/KinoKabul (Iran/Afghanistan/Hong Kong)

• The Garden Of Earthly Delights, Morgan Knibbe, BALDR Film/Cinematografica (Netherlands/Philippines)

• Infanta, Natalia Garagiola, Rei Cine (Argentina)

• Jilah and the Man with Two Names, Yosep Anggi Noen, KawanKawan Media (Indonesia)

• The Patron, Julia Thelin, Grand Slam Film (Sweden)

• Princess, Karine Teles, Bubbles Project/Filmes de Plástico (Brazil)

• A Shadow Creeps In Silver Trees, John Trengove, Urucu Media (South Africa)

• Sleepwalkers, Radu Jude, microFILM (Romania)

• Something You Said Last Night, Luis De Filippis, JA Productions (Canada)

• This Is The Country, Mark Noonan, Feline Films (Ireland)

• Who Is Sleeping on My Pillow, Zhu Xin, Midnight Blur Films (China)

• The Wolf, The Fox & The Leopard, David Verbeek, Lemming Film (Netherlands)

• Women Do Cry, Mina Mileva/Vesela Kazakova, Activist38 (Bulgaria)

• The Young Arsonists, Sheila Pye, Borrowed Light Films (Canada)

• Doubt, Matteo Lonardi, ReframeVR (Italy)

• Floating With Spirits, Juanita Onzaga, Cassette for timescapes (Belgium/Colombia/Mexico)

• Odd & Ity, Ricardo Laganaro, ARVORE Immersive Experiences (Brazil)

• Shock the Monkey, Blies Brothers, a_BAHN (Luxembourg/France)

• The Dumped, Malu Janssen, IJswater Films (Netherlands)

• Figures in the Urban Landscape, Ekaterina Selenkina (Russia)

• From Guiné, Caroline Leone, Vulcana Cinema (Brazil)

• The Great Orator, Daniël Ernst, Submarine Channel (Netherlands)

• Groundswell, Daniel Bruce, New Amsterdam Film Company (Netherlands/South Africa)

• The Idyll and Other Exotics, Aaron Rookus, Studio Ruba (Netherlands)

• Rapture, Dominic Sangma, Anna Films (India/China)

• The Station, Sara Ishaq, Screen Project (Yemen/Jordan)

• Wild Gleaming Space, Mauro Colombo, Apertura Films (Panama)