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

Rotterdam, 29 January 2024

From the 21 titles in the Tiger Short Competition at IFFR 2024, Crazy Lotus (Thailand) by Naween Noppakun, Few Can See (Ireland) by Frank Sweeney and Workers’ Wings (Kosovo) by Ilir Hasanaj are the three to receive Tiger Short Awards. Each equal prize is worth €5,000. I Would Rather Be a Stone (Croatia) by Ana Hušman was selected to compete for the next European Short Film Award, whilst a jury from the KNF (Circle of Dutch Film Journalists) awarded the KNF Award to Daphne was a torso ending in leaves (Italy, Greece) by Catriona Gallagher. 

On the Tiger Short Jury 2024 was former Tiger Short Award-winner Mónica Lima, writer, programmer, and researcher Yasmina Price and distributor, curator and festival producer. Jade Wiseman.

^{Naween Noppakun, Ilir Hasanaj, Frank Sweeney, Catriona Gallagher and Ana Hušman}

The jury on Crazy Lotus:
“Blurring the lines between reality and a peculiar, virtual world, this film is a wild ride. With its bold stylistic choices and unique tone, this film bends, twists, warps and questions. Philosophical yet funny, mesmerising yet kitschy, we were carried away to a distorted dimension, full of possibilities and meanings, with for background a cityscape in constant flux. It’s a weird, pink, flashy and delightful oddity that will leave no one indifferent.”

^{Still from the film Crazy Lotus} 

The jury on Few Can See:
“History lives on shaky, uncertain grounds. Through imaginative reenactments and dynamic manipulation, this film exposes an always-present crisis around truth and evidence, document and fiction. Even as a colonial struggle over land and life is destroying another geography in the present, this film’s setting of 1980s Northern Ireland is a reminder of still active histories of repression and resistance. Using archival materials and oral histories to fill in what was erased through broadcast censorship, this film is a lesson in recovering the past.”

^{Still from the film Few Can See}

The jury on Workers’ Wings:
“A testimony to the labour of working class people, made with an empathetic and gentle tone, this film portrays tragic events in the lives of individuals whose scars and dignity are beautifully amplified by an honest and humble cinematic style. The film’s formal elegance and restraint are impressively infused with subtle and captivating aesthetic qualities – chromatic, rhythmic and haptic.”

^{Still from the film Workers’ Wings}

European Short Film Award 2024 nomination

IFFR is one of a series of film festivals throughout Europe that submits a candidate for the short film category of the European Film Awards. The jury nominated I Would Rather Be a Stone (Croatia) by Ana Hušman for the European Short Film Award. 

The jury on I Would Rather Be a Stone:
“Through a lyrical and sensorial attention to a landscape threatened by ecological and economic changes, this filmmaker presents a disarmingly caring gaze, sewed together by a masterfully poetic narration. A region of Croatia is shown through a moving tapestry of personal and collective memories, to tenderly consider the traces we leave behind.”

^{Still from the film I Would Rather Be a Stone}

KNF Award 2024

A jury from the Kring van Nederlandse Filmjournalisten (Circle of Dutch Film Journalists) selected their own highlight to receive the KNF award: Daphne was a torso ending in leaves (Italy, Greece) by Catriona Gallagher. The jury was Ronald Glasbergen, Sebastiaan Khouw and Ard Vijn.
 

The KNF jury on Daphne was a torso ending in leaves: 
“The members of the KNF Critics Jury saw all 21 Tiger Shorts and choosing a winner wasn't easy this year. Among us three, we had no less than nine favourites to discuss. Debating the last three took some time as we all had a different personal choice. But rest assured, we are all satisfied with our winner.”  

“Many films were experimental in nature this year, but the winning short managed to use its style to support the story it told. It was also technically accomplished, showing an almost tactile playfulness between analogue and digital formats. And it was an interesting concept, an artistic researching of its subject, moving from a person, to a myth, to art, to objects with everyday use. The techniques used, the images used, are an homage to art in general, and to film specifically.” 

^{Still from the film Daphne was a torso ending in leaves}

Tiger Short Competition 2024 winners:

• Crazy Lotus, Naween Noppakun, 2024, Thailand, world premiere
  
• Few Can See, Frank Sweeney, 2023, Ireland, world premiere (festival)
• Workers’ Wings, Ilir Hasanaj, 2024, Kosovo, world premiere

European Short Film Award nomination: 

• I Would Rather Be a Stone, Ana Hušman, 2024, Croatia, world premiere