INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM REVEALS  ART DIRECTIONS PROGRAMME FOR 2025 EDITION

Rotterdam – 12 December 2024 – International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) is partnering with Katoenhuis, along with other cultural institutions, on the 2025 edition of its Art Directions programme - the space where the festival steps out of the screening room and pushes the limits of what cinema can be, with immersive works from multidisciplinary creators. This year's edition sees collaborations with prominent cultural spaces alongside transformative art experiences, with immersive hub Katoenhuis as a major partner and the new home of the Art Directions strand. This year’s highlights also include the return of the electrifying sound//vision programme at WORM, and a collaboration with Brutus for a series of performances.

Vanja Kaludjercic, Festival Director at IFFR, said: “Art Directions is a distinctive programme within IFFR which allows audiences to explore the possibilities of cinema and the moving image outside the bounds of a film theatre – creating an accessible interaction between artist, artwork, and audience. Katoenhuis shares our excitement about the future of storytelling and the potential of new media as a tool for creators – and partnering with them both brings IFFR physically into a new neighbourhood and widens the possibilities for this programme both in the upcoming edition and years to come.”

Melissa van der Schoor, Chief of Content, said: “We’re proud to present a spectrum of captivating  work, including live performances as part of our partnership with Brutus, the world premiere of David Verbeek’s first installation Safe.Self.Sense and Jessica Sarah Rinland’s  Extramission: The Capture of Glowing Eyes in collaboration with Tabakalera. Across the programme this year, we have works which explore decolonisation of artistic practises and see filmmakers experimenting with new forms of expression, and we look forward to showcasing them as part of our 54th edition of the festival.”

Arnold van de Water, director of Concrete Culture and initiator of Katoenhuis Rotterdam said: "We are thrilled with our partnership with IFFR. As a renowned film festival, they are experts in curating and presenting this exciting new form of media. We look forward to the festival as well as future activities we are planning together."

This partnership marks the first major IFFR event at Katoenhuis, featuring four installations on its ground floor, alongside the majority of the IFFR’s immersive works. Located in the M4H’s up-and-coming Keile cultural district, the venue is set to become a leading hub for immersive art and technology in the Netherlands and aims to attract audiences beyond central Rotterdam, solidifying its role as a cornerstone for artistic innovation. 

Art Directions at Katoenhuis will be ticketed, while select parts of the overall programme will be accessible for free. This collaboration with Katoenhuis represents the start of a long-term partnership, establishing the venue as the new home for Art Directions and further expanding the festival's vision of storytelling beyond the screening room.

Katoenhuis will host four installations - including the world premiere of La Quema (del planeta ‘B’) by Francisco Baquerizo Racines  - showcasing IFFR’s commitment to visual and sensory exploration. The works include:

• La Quema (del planeta ‘B’) by Francisco Baquerizo Racines, reflecting on coloniality through the lens of the Latin American cultural practice of making and burning the ‘año viejo’, represented in the work through an interpretation of the VOC (Dutch East India Company) ship Amsterdam.
  

• Brown Bodies in an Open Landscape are Often Migrating by Basir Mahmood, exploring the gap between migrant experience and media representation through film.
  

• Alice, Bob, Carol and David by Victor Timofeev, combining film, gaming and choreography to reflect on arbitrariness and control. 
  

• Extramission: The Capture of Glowing Eyes by Jessica Sarah Rinland presented in collaboration with Tabakalera, considering the aesthetics and politics of surveillance technologies used on animals through moving images, sound recordings and archive material.
  

The Immersive Media programme at IFFR 2025 invites audiences to step into transformative experiences that merge tradition, technology, and storytelling in groundbreaking ways. Together, these works redefine immersive art as a medium for cultural reflection and personal transformation. Immersive media works that will be hosted in Katoenhuis include: 

• OTHERWORLDS by Sophia Bulgakova, which offers a sensory journey that blends Mixed Reality (MR) and Virtual Reality (VR) with Ukrainian traditions and pre-Christian pagan rituals. This participatory performance fuses ancient symbols, ritual songs, and modern XR technologies to explore cultural heritage and reconnect participants with nature’s cycles and the passage of time. 
  

• Revival Roadshow by Luke Conroy and Anne Fehres, takes viewers on an absurd and playful exploration of colonial history and its modern and speculative legacies. Inspired by 17th-century Dutch coloniser  Abel Tasman, this surreal roadshow combines cinema, theatre, and visual art to present a humorous yet reflective take on complex historical narratives.
  

Art Directions across Rotterdam

WORM's UBIK space will host the world premiere of Safe.Self.Sense by David Verbeek and Yu He Lin, a three-channel video installation and live performance exploring the themes of safety, identity, and perception in a post-pandemic world. The piece was commissioned by IFFR.

In the Kijkmodule at Rotterdam Central Station will be the installation Happy New Year by Jinjoon Lee, juxtaposing the joy of New Year celebrations with the harsh realities of war and disasters. Combining digital utopias with classical art forms, the installation calls for reflection on the tension between illusion, apathy and our shared reality.

IFFR together with V2_, Lab for the Unstable Media, an interdisciplinary centre for art and media technology in Rotterdam, selected Kahee Jeong’s Silent Engine for a media arts residency taking place from November 2024 and culminating with an exhibition at V2_ during the festival. Through visual and auditory experimentation, the project will create a space for reflecting on how the digital gap is alternating society and paving the way to an increasingly exclusive future. 

Brutus x IFFR 2025: A Space for Experimentation

Brutus Space will see cutting-edge artistic exploration during IFFR 2025, through the hosting of two exhibitions: An Uaihm Bhinn, and SEX SHOOTER, from January 24 to February 16. Central to this collaboration is An Uaihm Bhinn ("The Sweet Sounding Cave"), a multi-disciplinary project by artist and spatial sound composer Lugh O’Neill and experimental collective Temporary Pleasure. Curated by Orpheu de Jong, a key figure in Amsterdam’s music scene and former curator of Het HEM, the exhibition transforms the space into an ephemeral environment for innovative music composition and performance. 

Complementing the exhibition are two public events organised in collaboration with IFFR - tickets can be purchased from 18 December on IFFR.com:

• 31 January 2025: Brutus x IFFR: C.A.N.V.A.S
  

• 7 February 2025: Brutus x IFFR: Temporary Pleasure
  

Sound//Vision: Music Meets Light at WORM

The sound//vision programme at WORM returns for six nights, offering a series of live audio-visual performances that merge music with film, celluloid, and light. For the first time fully co-curated by IFFR and WORM, this cutting-edge showcase transforms the traditional concert experience into an immersive exploration of sound and imagery. Highlights include:

• No one's fault, not really by Pat Janeiro combines 16mm film, spoken word, and haunting soundscapes to delve into gothic themes of transformation and mortality with an unsettling yet humorous twist. 
  

• Liminal light by Lichun Tseng and Robert Kroos invites audiences into a sensorial realm where light, scent, and sound dissolve the boundaries between the tangible and intangible. Each performance promises a unique journey, redefining the interplay between music, film, and live art.
  

• Cinema of the Spectacles by Blake Williams, a unique experience that immerses us in the history of experimental 3D techniques, combining a diversity of three-dimensional glasses with a programme of 16mm works from a range of filmmakers.
  

IFFR Art Directions 2025 Partners and Sponsors

IFFR is grateful to its subsidisers, foundations, and the many local, national and international partners and private donors for their long-term engagement and indispensable support of the festival. The 2025 Art Directions programme is made possible through the generous support of these key partners: 

• Ammodo plays a crucial role in supporting the installations, enabling innovative artistic expression at this year’s festival. 
  

• The Mondriaan Fund is the public fund for visual art and cultural heritage, providing essential backing for installations, performances, the sound//vision programme, and the transformative Safe.Self.Sense experience. 
  

• Rotterdam Festivals lends its support to the Kijkmodule at Rotterdam Central Station, featuring the Happy New Year installation, as well as the festival’s Art Walks. 
  

These partnerships ensure the continued success of Art Directions, underscoring IFFR’s commitment to multidisciplinary storytelling and creative exploration.

Key Dates 

• Now Open: Requests for Accreditation for Industry Professionals, Journalists and Students. Apply here
  

• Tuesday 17 December: Press Conference 

• Wednesday 18 December: Ticket Sales Begin for Festival Specials, including Opening Night 
  

• Wednesday 15 January 2025: Ticket Sales Begin for Press, Pro, Visionairs, Pioneers and Tiger Members 
  

• Thursday 16 January 2025: General Ticket Sale Begins
  

About IFFR 

International Film Festival Rotterdam’s (IFFR) upcoming 54th edition of the festival will take place from 30 January – 9 February 2025, with the full programme being launched on 17th December 2024. IFFR presents a leading international film festival and year-round programme and actively supports new and adventurous filmmaking talent through its co-production market CineMart, its Hubert Bals Fund, Rotterdam Lab and other industry activities.

IFFR seeks to expand, enrich and challenge people’s views of the world and each other through film and audiovisual arts. IFFR’s programme deepens appreciation of cinema in all its forms, broadens and diversifies audiences, and creates opportunities for independent filmmakers and artists from around the globe.

Through IFFR’s visionary programming and forward-looking  initiatives, we create a haven for the plurality of voices, audiovisual formats and diverse storytelling. We are an essential destination for film professionals and film lovers. We support filmmakers and artists with funding and development opportunities and advance the impact of their work in the world.

We are accessible to everyone. Through screenings, talks, exhibitions, education, professional initiatives and funding schemes we bring people from all backgrounds together, enabling discovery, recognition dialogue, learning and development. We look where others don’t and we open a space for ideas, pushing creative boundaries that have the power to transform.

IFFR is supported by partners including Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap (OCW), Gemeente Rotterdam, Creative Europe Media, NL Film Fonds, Fonds 21, de Volkskrant and VriendenLoterij.

About Katoenhuis 

Katoenhuis Rotterdam is a hub for Immersive Experiences (IX) and technology in the heart of Rotterdam Makers District (M4H). Built in 1950 and once known as the “Van Bennekum’s Havenbedrijf Katoenloods”, Katoenhuis is a multifunctional space hosting artist and makers’ studios and working facilities, exhibition, and event spaces. As part of theSouth Holland Immersive Network & Ecosystem (SHINE), Katoenhuis acts as a unifying hub for the region’s community, fostering opportunities to present and experiment. Activities hosted at Katoenhuis include events such as the Conflux Festival, Rotterdam Gaming Connect, and more. The space is home to artists and companies like SenseGlove and Zalán Szakács.