Artwork: Steve McQueen, Sunshine State, (still), 2022.© Steve McQueen. Courtesy of the artist and Thomas Dane Gallery and Marian Goodman Gallery.

51st International Film Festival Rotterdam

26 January – 6 February 2022

Rotterdam, 24 November 2021

Oscar and Turner Prize-winning filmmaker and artist to present IFFR-commissioned work in Kunsthal Rotterdam. More titles confirmed for 51st edition.

International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) confirms Sunshine State, an installation by Steve McQueen to take place in the landmark venue Kunsthal Rotterdam during the festival’s 51st edition. Art Directions, Cinema Regained and additional film titles further extend the festival programme. IFFR 2022 will take place in Rotterdam from 26 January to 6 February 2022, with the full festival programme to be announced on 21 December.

Festival director Vanja Kaludjercic: “We are beyond thrilled to announce the world premiere of Steve McQueen’s latest installation during the next edition of IFFR. McQueen is a visual artist and celebrated filmmaker who is known for his powerful and uncompromising vision and we are proud to offer a broad audience the opportunity to experience this newly commissioned work at Rotterdam’s cultural landmark Kunsthal. We look forward to welcoming McQueen at the festival to celebrate contemporary cinema and cinematic art together with us in Rotterdam.”

IFFR is thrilled to announce an art programme that entices audiences to experience genre-defying works in Rotterdam. Art Directions proudly presents Sunshine State, a Steve McQueen installation commissioned by IFFR and made possible in collaboration with the Kunsthal Rotterdam. For the first new installation since his major commission Year 3 at Tate Britain in 2020, and following a pivotal retrospective at Tate Modern in 2020, the celebrated filmmaker and visual artist will infuse the expansive, central space of Rotterdam’s distinctive Kunsthal with sound and image. The installation will open to the public on Thursday 27 January and run until Sunday 13 February. Sunshine State by Steve McQueen was made possible thanks to the support of the municipality of Rotterdam’s Evenementenfonds and Rotterdam Festivals.

Portrait of Steve McQueen by John Russo © John Russo.

Two performances will take place in key Rotterdam art venues TENT and Theater Rotterdam. The performances were made possible thanks to the Mondriaan Fund. Angolan multidisciplinary artist Kiluanji Kia Henda presents Resetting Birds’ Memories, a musical performance that tells the story of Kinaxixi Square in the centre of Luanda – a symbol of Angola’s violent past. Taiwanese artists Su Hui-Yu and Cheng Hsien-Yu present Revenge Scenes, a live art and installation work developed from Su’s short film The Women’s Revenge, which had its international premiere at IFFR 2021. The performance features augmented reality to create a new digital world inspired by Taiwanese cult films, in which oppressed women take their revenge on men. Made possible thanks to the support of 1646, a project space for contemporary art in The Hague. With the support of the Ministry of Culture of Taiwan.

Film stills: Resetting Birds’ Memories and Revenge Scenes

Art Directions will be further complimented by recurring music documentary programme Scopitone, which presents the world premiere of genre-spotlighting Italo disco. The Sparkling Sound of the 80s by Italian-German filmmaker Alessandro Melazzini and a film that unveils the successful queer female songwriters navigating a male-dominated genre, Invisible: Gay Women in Southern Music by American director T.J. Parsell. The programme will also showcase audio-visual live performance segment sound//vision and a virtual reality programme – to be announced at a later date.

Read more on Cinema Regained here

Offering audiences restored classics, documentaries on film culture and explorations of cinema’s heritage, Cinema Regained confirms nine historic and imaginative titles. The programme presents the world premiere of Indian director Geetika Narang Abbasi’s Urf, a joyfully curious look into Indian popular cinema star lookalikes and the idea of the simulacrum. French filmmaker Loubna Régragui presents the world premiere of The Nine Lakh Stars, a journey into the ethics of film preservation and the making of IFFR-legend Mani Kaul’s 1973 masterpiece Duvidha.

Cinema Regained also welcomes the return of another IFFR-regular, Hungarian filmmaker Judit Elek, with the restoration of the 1969 The Lady from Constantinople – a classic that hop-scotches between surrealism and cinema vérité. The selection also presents the first feature film by Slovak pioneer of New Wave cinema Eduard Grečner, Every Week Seven Days – a masterpiece of modernist poetics. More titles to be announced.

Read more on Cinema Regained here

Clockwise: Urf, The Nine Lahk Stars, The Lady from Constantinople, Every Week Seven Days

Every Week Seven Days, Eduard Grečner, 1964, ČSSR

Ida Lupino: Gentlemen & Miss Lupino, Julia Kuperberg/Clara Kuperberg, 2021, France

Inferno rosso: Joe D’Amato sulla via dell’eccesso, Manilo Gomarasca/Massimiliano Zanin, 2021, Italy

Korean Ghost Story – Ieodo, Choi Sangsik, 1979, South Korea, international premiere

The Lady from Constantinople, Judit Elek, 1969, Hungary

Modern Korea: The Age of Beasts, Jeong Jaeeun, 2021, South Korea, international premiere

The Nine Lakh Stars, Loubna Régragui, 2022, India/France, world premiere

Urf, Geetika Narang Abbasi, 2022, India, world premiere

Viaggio nel crepuscolo, Augusto Contento, 2021, Italy/France

Acclaimed French director Bruno Dumont returns to IFFR with his political media satire, France, as part of the Limelight programme. Three additional titles expand the Harbour film programme. Bolivian director Kiro Russo presents his Orizzonti Special Jury Award-winning second feature film El gran movimiento – a story about survival in the magical, merciless La Paz. Hit the Road by Iranian filmmaker Panah Panahi offers an affecting and slightly absurd portrait of a family road trip, while French filmmaker Rachel Lang presents Mon légionnaire, an ensemble drama about soldiers in the French Foreign Legion and their wives.

The festival has launched the IFFR 2022 campaign developed in collaboration with Rotterdam-based design agency 75B in anticipation of its 51st edition. The full programme will be announced during a press conference on 7 January, 2022. More information on accreditations applications and IFFR Pro deadlines will follow soon on IFFR.com.

The health and safety of all visitors remains paramount and IFFR aligns with the guidance of the Netherlands’ Institute for Public Health and Environment (the RIVM) as it plans towards the upcoming edition.

Click here to access the film stills