INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM CLOSES 54th EDITION WITH 12% INCREASE IN VISITOR NUMBERS AND TICKET SALES, AND INCREASED INDUSTRY PARTICIPATION

Rotterdam – 10 February 2025 – International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) has wrapped its 54th edition, boosting its annual visitation to over 296,000. The festival included 482 films from 94 countries, of which 201 were world premieres, as well as immersive works through Art Directions, vibrant industry strand IFFR Pro and curated creative conversations across the Talks programme. The festival’s Audience Award went to Walter Salles’s Academy Award nominated I’m Still Here, the true and moving story of one Brazilian family’s struggle against a military regime. 

Vanja Kaludjercic, IFFR Festival Director said: “It is incredibly heartening to close out an edition which has grown both in scope and ambition, but also in the attendance and support from our audiences. IFFR is a vital space to celebrate the expansive possibilities of cinema and share stories which deserve to be discovered - from emerging talent spotlight through Tiger Competition and Bright Future, to first of their kind programmes like our focus on pioneering documentarian Katja Raganelli. We are proud of the collective effort behind this edition and the groundswell of support from audiences who turned out for unexpected immersive works, insightful conversations, celebrations of culture like our VHS focus strand, and everything in between.” 

Clare Stewart, IFFR Managing Director said: “Creative partnerships that bridge global with local and build on legacy are essential to the future success of film festivals and the film industry at large. Working with an inspiring group of corporate and philanthropic founding partners, and actor, producer and Global Goodwill ambassador for the UNHCR the UN’s Refugee Agency, Cate Blanchett, we launched an urgent new initiative -  the Displacement Film Fund - for which IFFR’s Hubert Bals Fund (HBF) will act as the managing partner. We also amplified the many international and Dutch partnerships that support our Pro industry programme, continuing to expand our commitment to inclusion and accessibility, in particular through a collaboration with BFI which supported a delegation of Disabled filmmakers to attend the festival for the first time. And we welcomed a significant new venue collaboration with immersive hub Katoenhuis - as the new home for one of IFFR’s flagship programmes, Art Directions, which also had terrific audience impact for that strand.” 

Across Big Talks and Tiger Talks strands, IFFR hosted discussions from a spectrum of creatives, filmmakers and artists including Cate Blanchett & Guy Maddin, Alex Ross Perry, Costa Gavras, Cheryl Dunye & Albertina Carri, Steffen Haars & Joseph Kahn, Amie Siegel, Miike Takashi,  Robby Müller Award recipient Lol Crawley,  and Victoria Pedretti & Hanna van Vliet. The festival also welcomed Academy Award nominated The Seed of the Sacred Fig director Mohammad Rasoulof, who presented his latest work and participated in a panel on cinema and the rise of authoritarianism, presented in collaboration with the International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk, of which IFFR is a founding member. 

With immersive hub Katoenhuis as the new home for the Art Directions strand, located in the M4H’s up-and-coming Keile cultural district, visitor numbers for the strand also increased for the 2025 edition, reaching over 17,000 across the festival. The Art Directions programme featured 26 works in total, including 9 installations, 2 exhibitions, 10 performances and 5 immersive experiences across 6 venues throughout the city.

This edition’s IFFR Pro strand broadened the number of projects in selection across both Darkroom and CineMart, and hosted over 2,200 industry attendees as well as more than 250 press from across the globe.  Head of IFFR Pro Marten Rabarts oversaw programming which also celebrated the 25th anniversary of Rotterdam Lab - a training workshop for producers at the start of their career with the aim of offering emerging international professionals the means to build and develop their network. The Pro Hub presented a new Meet the Experts strand which hosted seven sessions, as well as delivering comprehensive support for professionals and filmmakers in selection, including over 50 more mentor meetings year on year. Attendance was up significantly across the entire IFFR Pro programme, which also included Pulling Focus: NL - a day dedicated to the Dutch film industry. As IFFR continues to build on the strategic alignment between Pro and IFFR’s Hubert Bals Fund (HBF), this year also marked the inaugural HBF Empowerment Award, possible due to a private donation, which went to Georgian filmmaker Uta Beria’s Darkroom project Tear Gas. The Darkroom work-in-progress selection - which includes projects supported through CineMart, HBF and Rotterdam Lab alumni -  increased in size this year and had a focus on Georgia due to the political urgency and need for support by filmmakers in the region.  

The HBF also marked another successful IFFR, launching the Displacement Film Fund with a panel bringing together Cate Blanchett, and fellow founding member Koji Yanai (Director of the Board of the Fast Retailing Group and producer of Perfect Days) with Selection Panel members Waad Al-Kateab (For Sama) and Jonas Rasmussen (Flee) in dialogue with Head of the HBF, Tamara Tatishvili. The pilot scheme is set to champion and fund the work of displaced filmmakers, and filmmakers who are committed to authentic storytelling on the experiences of displaced people, with 5 short film production grants of € 100,000. IFFR’s Closing film This City Is a Battlefield from Mouly Surya was a HBF backed Indonesian-Dutch co-production, and overall there were 6 HBF supported titles in selection for this edition. 

In the Education strand, IFFR teamed up with Rotterdam’s Codarts University for the Arts to perform live soundtracks composed by students of the Screen Scoring Master’s programme for a selection of short films from recent IFFR editions. The programme also included filmmaker Idriss Nabil participating in a Q&A session for his short film Moustache at IFFR’s family shorts 8 -12 programme, followed by a screenwriting kids-only workshop along with cast from the short. 

IFFR 2025 also hosted a successful RTM Day, focussed on spotlighting filmmakers local to the port city. Regen in augustus by Ashley Röttjers is the winner of the 2025 RTM Pitch prize and tells the story of Jasmine, a young woman in her twenties with Surinamese roots, who finds herself trapped in a suffocating routine where the elusive boundary between reality and imagination gradually blurs. The winning film project of RTM Pitch 2025 is supported with €20,000 from the Municipality of Rotterdam and will premiere during RTM at IFFR 2026. Attendance was up for RTM Day, totalling over 3,200 visits. The rapturous response to the World Premiere of last year's RTM Pitch winner, Sharine Rijsenburg's Bubbling Baby, also signalled an initiative that has made a strong impact in its first five years.

IFFR 2025 In Numbers 

• 482 films overall 
  

• 234 features, 248 short and mid-length titles, and 136 retrospective and archival films 
  

• 201 world premieres, 58 international premieres, and 28 European premieres 
  

In Competition

• 48 films selected across the competition strands: 
• 14 world premieres in the Tiger Competition
• 14 world premieres in the Big Screen Competition
• 20 world premieres in the Tiger Short Competition

IFFR Pro 

• 12 projects in Darkroom (incl 2 immersive)
  
• 24 projects in CineMart (incl 4 immersive)
• 922 project meetings (up from 700 in 2020 - Pre Pandemic)
• 310 one to one Pro Hub mentor sessions
• 2,266 Industry delegates

Audiences

• 76 films scored above 4 out of 5 in the Audience Award voting  
  
• 276,353 visits (excluding P&I screenings and events)

Education

• 5,800 students at the festival 
  
• 672 visits across Baby Filmclub, Kids Only, and Family Shorts events;
• Sold out events across the strand

About IFFR 

_{International Film Festival Rotterdam’s (IFFR) 54th edition of the festival took 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 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.}