53rd International Film Festival Rotterdam
25 January – 4 February 2024

Rotterdam, 16 January 2024

IFFR 2024 is now just around the corner, and the guestlist is full of filmmakers and talent joining the festival in Rotterdam. Debbie Harry and Amanda Kramer are the latest confirmations, giving a Talk on their careers across film and music. A list of names of particular interest to press are highlighted below. The IFFR Press team are happy to help organise and facilitate interviews. 

Icon Debbie Harry (lead singer of the legendary band Blondie) narrates the latest film by Amanda Kramer, So Unreal: a sensorial essay-documentary about the intricate relationships between cinema, humanity and technology. On 27 January at 20.00, the two will give an IFFR Talk together discussing their work as visionary artists with singular aesthetics whose careers have developed across film and music.

^{Debbie Harry & Amanda Kramer}

Avant-premieres and cinematic highlights of this year’s festival circuit: eagerly anticipated audience favourites and international award-winners screen in the Limelight programme. Attending guests include French-Luxembourg filmmaker Anne Fontaine, who joins an IFFR Talk to discuss her prolific career leading to her 19th feature Boléro which has its world premiere. Raphaël Personnaz plays the film's lead, the composer Maurice Ravel, whose famed composition gives its name to the film.

Mexican filmmaker Amat Escalante returns to Rotterdam with Lost in the Night, as does Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland with Green Border and Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania brings Four Daughters, shortlisted for an Oscar. See below for more attendances.

• Karim Aïnouz (director) with Firebrand
  
• Nikolaj Arcel (director) with The Promised Land
  
• Marco Bellocchio (director) with Rapito
  
• Bertrand Bonello (director) with The Beast
  
• Amat Escalante (director) with Lost in the Night 
  
• Daniél Espinosa (director) with Madame Luna
  
• Per Fly (director) and Mikael Persbrandt (cast) with Hammarskjöld
  
• Anne Fontaine (director) and Raphael Personnaz (cast) with Boléro
  
• Simone Gattoni (co-producer) with Rapito & Portrait of a Certain Orient (Big Screen Competition)
  
• Kaouther Ben Hania (director) with Four Daughters
  
• Sandra Hüller (cast) with The Zone of Interest
  
• Agnieszka Holland (director) with Green Border
  
• Vetri Maaran (director) with Viduthalai I & II – The Film
  
• Lukas Moodysson (director) with Together 99
  
• Yuzuru Tachikawa (director) with Blue Giant
  
• Roberta Torre (director) with Mi fanno male i capelli 
  
• Fien Troch (director) with Holly

^{Clockwise, stills from the films: Boléro, Lost in the Night, Four Daughters and Green Border}

IFFR welcomes filmmakers and guests across all its strands, including from the Tiger, Big Screen and Tiger Short competitions. Across the rest of the programme, highlights include:

• Justin Anderson (director), Mackenzie Davis, Ariane Labed and Freya Hannan-Mills (cast) with Swimming Home in the Tiger Competition
  
• Rodrigo Areias (director) with The Worst Man in London in the Big Screen Competition
  
• Blaudzun (band) with The Waste Land dir. Chris Teerink in Harbour
  
• Veith von Fürstenberg (director) with Tristan and Isolde – Director's Cut in Cinema Regained 
  
• Marcelo Gomes (director) with Portrait of a Certain Orient in Big Screen Competition
  
• Sulev Keedus (director) with Georgica in Cinema Regained
  
• Daniele Luchetti (director) with Confidenza in the Big Screen Competition
  
• Julien Maury & Alexandre Bustillo (directors) and Paul Hamy & Virginie Ledoyen (cast) with The Soul Eater
  
• Ramata-Toulaye Sy (director) with Banel & Adama in Harbour

^{Clockwise, stills from the films: Swimming Home, The Worst Man in London, Portrait of a Certain Orient, Confidenza}

IFFR celebrates the remarkable careers of filmmakers and artists in its retrospective Focus programmes, which also shine the light on special topics and issues. Focus filmmakers will attend the festival as well as guests who will gather to reflect on the Focus: Chile in the Heart programme which foregrounds the phenomenon of the Chilean cinema in exile that developed following the coup in 1973. 

• Miguel Littin (director) with Actas de Marusia & El recurso del método (Focus: Chile in the Heart)
  
• Angelina Vázquez (director) with Two Years in Finland & Fragmentos de un diario inacabado (Focus: Chile in the Heart)
  
• Rachel Maclean (Focus: Rachel Maclean)
  
• Marco and Antonio Manetti (Focus: Manetti Bros)
  
• Danny Cheng Wan-Cheung aka Scud (Focus: Scud)
  
• Colectivo Los Ingrávidos (Focus: Colectivo Los Ingrávidos)

^{Clockwise, stills from the films: Actas de Marusia, El recurso del método, Two Years in Finland, Fragmentos de un diario inacabado}

Each edition, IFFR presents a Talks programme that aims to inspire – providing fresh perspectives and profound insights into the world of filmmaking. As well as the above mentioned guests Sandra Hüller, Anne Fontaine, Marco Bellocchio and this edition’s Focus filmmakers, highlights in the Talk programme include:

• Bill Plympton (director, animator) with Slide
  
• Billy Woodberry (director) with Mário
  
• Grimm Vandekerckhove (cinematographer), winner of the Robby Müller Award 2024

^{Stills from the films Slide and Mário}

Press are invited for a welcome drink on Friday 26 January at OX.Space (Lijnbaan 150) from 17.30 to 19.00, and a tour of the Art Directions programme starting at Rotterdam Central Station on Friday 26 January at 16.00. Please RSVP via the links. 

Press can expect dedicated online interviews with all of our Tiger Competition and Big Screen Competition filmmakers to be made available online shortly before their premieres during the festival. 

Click here to see previous press releases. For press inquiries, media and interview requests, please reach out to the IFFR Press team at [email protected].

Applications for press and industry accreditation are still open and should be submitted as soon as possible.

Click here for the stills