CineMart feature filmmakers 2023

52nd International Film Festival Rotterdam

25 January – 5 February 2023

Rotterdam, 15 December 2022

International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) announces its selection of 20 feature film projects and 5 immersive projects for the 40th edition of CineMart, the festival’s co-production market which will take place from Sunday 29 January to Wednesday 1 February during IFFR 2023. Following two online editions, the market is hosted in-person for the first time since 2020. Filmmakers from Indonesia, Paraguay, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ukraine are found amongst the lineup which features hip-hop, migration, gender fluidity and a cowboy.

Head of IFFR Pro, Inke Van Loocke: “We’re so pleased that after two years online we can host the 40th edition of CineMart in Rotterdam once again. In fragmented times, bringing together incredible filmmakers and projects from so many different territories continues to be an invaluable contribution to filmmaking across the world. Together with producers in the Rotterdam Lab, filmmakers in the selection and our wider press and industry family, it will be a heartwarming feeling to experience the buzz of a proper IFFR in ‘de Doelen’ again.” 

Apetown by Kurt Oderson is a South African urban story weaving together hip-hop, graffiti, segregation and camaraderie. Anna Zamecka’s hybrid documentary Słońce follows the stories of young Iraqi-Kurds making the journey to Belarus. In Boifriend, UK-based Jack Goessens presents a character-driven story on the fluidity of gender and sexuality, exploring dysphoria and euphoria. Set in Dordrecht in the Netherlands, Marta Parlatore explores a Polish migrant’s struggle between creative expression and motherhood in Grushka, which also takes part on the BoostNL programme. 

Sweden’s Plattform Produktion returns to CineMart to present Redoubt by John Skoog, a continuation of a 2014 short of the same name, on a portrait of a farm-worker Karl-Göran Persson who turned his home into a fortress. 

Several titles in the selection have previously been supported by IFFR’s Hubert Bals Fund (HBF). Manta Ray (IFFR 2019) director Phuttiphong Aroonpheng presents a confrontation between a displaced migrant and the Thai government official who burnt his house down in The Burning Giants. In Barbara Sarasola-Day’s Little War, an Anglo-Argentine family at the foot of the Andes confront the on-coming Malvinas war. Marina Stepanska explores the lives of three generations of Ukrainian women in Consider Vera.

A young woman’s journey through Colombia in search of her missing brother’s vanished spirit is the premise for Las tierras que te buscan by Juanita Onzaga, whose short work of ‘ancestral futurism’ Tomorrow Is a Water Palace screened in competition at IFFR 2022.  Pablo Lamar won the Special Jury Award in the Tiger Competition at IFFR 2016 for his debut La última tierra, and now presents Remanso set in the 1970s during the dictatorship in Paraguay.

As part of a cooperation between CineMart and WEMW (When East Meets West), the co-production forum at Trieste Film Festival, When the Kids Sing the Hits by Mina Djukic will have the chance to present at both markets. The project is a portrait of three friends during the last days of Yugoslavia. 

Five projects comprise the lineup of immersive projects at CineMart, chosen from those presented on the Content strand of Impulse at VRDays’s Immersive Tech Week. Rapper, artist and filmmaker Baloji (Zombies, IFFR 2020) presents Anti-Muse: a surreal narrative combining music, dance and scenography set amongst the tropical plants of the Royal Greenhouses, a symbol of Belgian colonisation of Congo. Gay Simulator by Iris van der Meule is an interactive virtual reality artwork and video game which will immerse the user in the experiences of a lesbian girl.

IFFR Pro Immersive filmmakers 2023

IFFR is set to welcome back industry, press and audiences for a full on-site return from 25 of January to 5 February. CineMart takes place from Sunday 29 January to Wednesday 1 February. 

The IFFR Pro Awards will be presented on Tuesday 31 January, including the Eurimages Co-production Development Award, the ARTEKino International Prize, the Wouter Barendrecht Award and the 4DR Studios Award. A brand new award will also be given in partnership with VIPO (Visual Industry Promotion Organisation), which promotes the Japanese content industry. 

The IFFR Pro Hub will open for its programme of round-tables and expert sessions from Friday 27 January. The training programme for emerging producers Rotterdam Lab also returns, this year inviting back select participants from the previous two online editions alongside new producers selected for 2023. An IFFR Pro Talk is scheduled for Monday 30 January. 

New to the industry lineup this year is the Darkroom programme of work-in-progress screenings for select former CineMart and HBF projects, taking place on Wednesday 1 February 2023. Selected teams will receive expert consultancy and have the chance to present their work for an exclusive panel of international sales agents, festival programmers and buyers. The selection will be announced in January 2023. 

Applications for accreditation are open. Industry and press should submit their request before 23 December. Find out more here. 

CineMart concept stills (clockwise: Anti-Muse, Boifriend, 7 P.M. on a Sunday, 108 Days)

Click here for the film stills.

108 Days, Lucky Kuswandi, IndonesiaProduced by: Palari Films

7 P.M. on a Sunday, Sevgi Eker, Finland

Produced by: Helsinki-filmi Oy

Apetown, Kurt Oderson, South Africa

Produced by: Apetown Productions, BuMP Films, Azania Rizing Productions, Serious Films 

Boifriend, Jack Goessens, United Kingdom

Produced by: Bombito Productions

The Burning Giants, Phuttiphong Aroonpheng, Thailand

Produced by: Diversion

Brace Yourself, Thati Pele, South Africa, Netherlands

Produced by: URUCU, BALDR Film

Cerro Corá, Francisco Márquez, Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil

Produced by: Pensar con las manos, Tekoha, Terceira Margem, Multiverso 

Consider Vera, Marina Stepanska, Ukraine

Produced by: ESSE Production House

Eldorado, Alaa Eddine Aljem, Morocco, France

Produced by: Le Moindre Geste, In Vivo Films

Eyes Closed, Jenneke Boeijink, Netherlands

Produced by: BIND

Grushka, Marta Parlatore, Netherlands, Belgium

Produced by: Volya Films, A Private View

Las tierras que te buscan, Juanita Onzaga, Colombia

Produced by: Marginal Cine

Little War, Barbara Sarasola-Day, Argentina

Produced by: Pucará Cine

The Poison Cat, Tian Guan, China

Produced by: Beijing Guanyu Film

Redoubt, John Skoog, Sweden

Produced by: Plattform Produktion, BCD Film

Remanso, Pablo Lamar, Paraguay, Brazil, Netherlands, Argentina

Produced by: Sapukai Cine, Sabaté Films, Sancho Filmes, Revolver Amsterdam, Fortuna Films, Tarea Fina.

Słońce, Anna Zamecka, Poland

Produced by: Madants

The Surrogate, Ali Jaberansari, Mexico, United Kingdom

Produced by: The Lift, Here & There Productions

Testa o Croce?, Alessio Rigo de Righi, Matteo Zoppis, Italy, France

Produced by: Ring Film, Shellac Sud

When the Kids Sing the Hits, Mina Djukic, Serbia, Montenegro

Produced by: Sense Production, Adriatic Western

369, Ananda Safo, France

Produced by: TEN2TEN Films

Ancestors, Hanna Haaslahti, Finland, Germany

Produced by: Fantomatico, Poike Production, High Road Stories

Anti-Muse, Baloji, Belgium

Produced by: Amok, Wrong Men

Gay Simulator, Iris van der Meule, Netherlands

Produced by: Studio Biarritz

The Mask Maker and the Tree, Abner Preis, Netherlands

Produced by: Institute of Time