INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM UNVEILS FULL LINEUP OF FILMS IN TIGER, BIG SCREEN AND TIGER SHORT COMPETITIONS FOR 2025 EDITION

Rotterdam – 17 December 2024 – During today’s press conference, International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) revealed the line-up of films selected across the Tiger, Big Screen and Tiger Short competitions at the festival’s upcoming 54th edition. At the heart of the festival, the Tiger Competition showcases emerging voices from across the globe, with 14 world premieres exploring personal stories and profound connections to history, identity, and place – spanning Montenegro to Malaysia and Congo to India. The 14 titles in the Big Screen Competition bridge the gap between arthouse and popular cinema through genre-blurring stories of rebellion, tradition and expression, covering territories from Lithuania to Japan and the Netherlands to Argentina. The 20 titles in the Tiger Short Competition represent the most exciting and refreshing film art of today, featuring a Slovenian climate sci-fi, a re-appropriation of Myanmarese government broadcasts, and a Georgian photomontage.

Additionally, the first names in IFFR’s 2025 Talks lineup are also confirmed. Leading the programme are Cate Blanchett and Guy Maddin, who following their recent collaboration on Rumours, will come together for an expansive dialogue about creative collaboration, the role of film festivals, and the enduring power of the short film form. IFFR will also welcome Robby Müller Award recipient Lol Crawley, in conversation with writer and film critic Peter Bradshaw to discuss his acclaimed cinematography, including his work on The Brutalist and highlights from his award-winning career. 

Alex Ross Perry will talk about his documentary Videoheaven, part of the Focus programme Hold Video in Your Hands, celebrating the community spirit of VHS culture. Perry will also discuss his other new film, Pavements, featured in the Harbour section. In another Talks highlight, Cheryl Dunye and Albertina Carri will explore radical queerness and cinema as a means to challenge normative pressures, gender, and identity.

As previously announced, the festival will open with Fabula, a compelling dark comedy from the award-winning Dutch director and screenwriter Michiel ten Horn, and close with the ambitious historical epic This City Is a Battlefield from Indonesian filmmaker Mouly Surya, which was also supported by IFFR’s Hubert Bals Fund.

Vanja Kaludjercic, Festival Director at IFFR, said: “Since our very first festival in 1972, IFFR has been a space for bold creativity, where the unexpected finds a home, and where cinema in all its splendour is celebrated. As we step into this next chapter, we remain steadfast in our belief that cinema flourishes when it is free – free to experiment, cross boundaries, and voice truths that often go untold. Today’s announcement spotlights the competitions, which remain the beating heart of the festival. Beyond that, the programme is vast, diverse, and bursting with discovery, not least in our Talks programme, which we’re thrilled this edition will welcome such a remarkable array of talent, including Cate Blanchett and Guy Maddin, Lol Crawley, Alex Ross Perry, Cheryl Dunye and Albertina Carri.”

Tiger Competition

IFFR’s trademark competition celebrates the innovative and adventurous spirit of up-and-coming filmmakers from all over the world. This is the festival’s platform for emerging film talent and features a selection of 14 titles in 2025, each a world premiere. Yuki Aditya, Soheila Golestani, Winnie Lau, Peter Strickland, and Andrea Luka Zimmerman make up the Tiger Competition Jury for 2025 and are set to choose the winners of the Tiger Award, worth €40,000, and two Special Jury Awards, worth €10,000 each. The films selected are:

• L'arbre de l'authenticité dir. Sammy Baloji (Democratic Republic of Congo, Belgium)

• Bad Girl dir. Varsha Bharath (India)
• Blind Love dir. Julian Chou (Taiwan)
• Fiume o morte! dir. Igor Bezinović (Croatia, Italy, Slovenia)

• La gran historia de la filosofía occidental dir. Aria Covamonas (Mexico)

• Guo Ran dir. Li Dongmei (China)

• Im Haus meiner Eltern dir. Tim Ellrich (Germany)

• Perla dir. Alexandra Makarová (Austria, Slovakia)

• Primeira pessoa do plural dir. Sandro Aguilar (Portugal, Italy)

• Tears in Kuala Lumpur dir. Ridhwan Saidi (Malaysia)

• Vitrival – The Most Beautiful Village in the World dir. Noëlle Bastin, Baptiste Bogaert (Belgium)
• Wind, Talk to Me dir. Stefan Djordjevic (Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia)
• Wondrous Is the Silence of My Master dir. Ivan Salatić (Montenegro, Italy, France, Croatia, and Serbia)
  

The 14th title in the Tiger Competition will be revealed closer to the festival due to sensitivities surrounding its release.

Big Screen Competition

A multifaceted competition that bridges popular, classic, and arthouse cinema, the Big Screen Competition is dedicated to supporting the distribution of nominated films in the Netherlands. 14 titles have been selected and will each have their world premiere at IFFR 2025. The winning filmmaker(s) will be awarded the Big Screen Award along with €15,000 in prize money. Additionally, IFFR offers €15,000 to the Dutch distributor that acquires the film’s distribution rights, incentivising local distribution. The films selected are:

• The Assistant dir. Wilhelm Sasnal, Anka Sasnal (Poland, United Kingdom)

• Back to the Family dir. Sharunas Bartas (Lithuania, France, Poland, Latvia)
• Bad Painter dir. Albert Oehlen (Germany, United States

• ¡Caigan las rosas blancas! dir. Albertina Carri (Argentina, Brazil, Spain)
• Gowok: Javanese Kamasutra dir. Hanung Bramantyo (Indonesia)
• De idylle dir. Aaron Rookus (Netherlands, Belgium, Estonia)
• Macai dir. Sun-J Perumal (Malaysia)
• Orenda dir. Pirjo Honkasalo (Finland, Estonia, Sweden)
• L'oro del Reno dir. Lorenzo Pullega (Italy)
• Our Father – The Last Days of a Dictator dir. José Filipe Costa (Portugal)
• The Puppet's Tale dir. Suman Mukhopadhyay (India)
• Raptures dir. Jon Blåhed (Sweden, Finland)
• Soft Leaves dir. Miwako Van Weyenberg (Belgium)
• Yasuko, Songs of Days Past dir. Negishi Kichitaro (Japan)

Tiger Short Competition

IFFR announces 20 short films selected for the Tiger Short Competition in 2025. The jury consists of Angela Haardt, Frank Sweeney, and Yaoting Zhang, who will choose the winners of three equal awards worth €5,000 each. The short films selected are:

• Baby Blue Benzo dir. Sara Cwynar (United States, Germany)
• BAN♡ITS dir. Omar Chowdhury (Belgium, Bangladesh, South Korea)
• Bury Us in a Lone Desert dir. Nguyễn Lê Hoàng Phúc (Vietnam)
• Capitol Limited dir. Lily Ekimian Ragheb, Ahmed T. Ragheb (United States)
• Common Pear dir. Gregor Božič (Slovenia, United Kingdom)
• La durmiente dir. Maria Inês Gonçalves (Portugal, Spain)
• Empty Rider dir. Lawrence Lek (Switzerland, United Kingdom)
• The Garden of Electric Delights dir. Billy Roisz (Austria)
• Hepingli Playthrough dir. Zheng Yuan (China)
• I Wan'na Be Like You dir. Margit Lukács, Persijn Broersen (Netherlands, France, Belgium, United Kingdom, Germany)
• Memory Is an Animal, It Barks with Many Mouths dir. Eva Giolo (Belgium, Italy)
• Merging Bodies dir. Adrian Paci (Italy)
• A Metamorphosis dir. Lin Htet Aung (Myanmar)
• Now, Hear Me Good dir. Dwayne LeBlanc (United States)
• Les rites de passage dir. Florian Fischer, Johannes Krell (Germany)
• The Rock Speaks dir. Amy Louise Wilson, Francois Knoetze (South Africa, Spain)
• Suspicions About the Hidden Realities of Air dir. Sam Drake (United States)
• Temo Re dir. Anka Gujabidze (Georgia)
• Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World dir. Kevin Walker, Irene Zahariadis (Greece, United States)
• World at Stake dir. Susanna Flock, Adrian Jonas Haim, Jona Kleinlein (Austria)
  

Details on accreditation for IFFR 2025 can be found here and information on key dates for the festival can be viewed here.

About IFFR

International Film Festival Rotterdam’s (IFFR) upcoming 54th edition of the festival will take place from 30 January – 9 February 2025. 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 grateful for the support of our subsidisers, partners and donors including Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap (OCW), Gemeente Rotterdam, Creative Europe Media, NL Film Fonds, Fonds 21, de Volkskrant and VriendenLoterij.}