The Worldwide Movie Competition Rotterdam (IFFR) on Monday unveiled its full line for its 2023 occasion.
After two all-virtual festivals, the IFFR is lastly returning in-person fest, working January 25-February 5 within the Dutch port metropolis. Rotterdam is without doubt one of the final main festivals to return post-pandemic, its 2022 occasion having been compelled to go online-only on the final minute when Dutch authorities imposed a brand new lockdown in December final 12 months, simply weeks earlier than the IFFR kicked off.
The ensuing income shortfall —closed theatres equals zero ticket gross sales —meant IFFR needed to slash its funds, reducing 15 % of its employees and restructuring.
Competition director Vanja Kaludjercic, who runs the IFFR along with managing director Marjan van der Haar, instructed The Hollywood Reporter the cuts had been made “in an effort to keep away from having to make large adjustments to the competition.” The 2023 version, nonetheless, might be considerably smaller than the pre-pandemic variations, with round 20 % fewer movies.
“However we nonetheless have 430 movies in this system, together with shorts, with greater than 200 world premieres,” notes Kaludjercic, “so we’re nonetheless very large.”
Worldwide Movie Competition Rotterdam
@JandeGroen
The 2023 IFFR will open with the world premiere of Munch, an experimental biopic of tortured Norwegian painter Edvard Munch —he of the long-lasting “The Scream” —from self-taught filmmaker Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken (Returning Dwelling, Possession). The function, produced by The Movie Firm with backing by Scandinavian streamer Viaplay and regional fund Filminvest, tells Munch’s story in 4 interlocking chapters, every written by a distinct screenwriter —Fredrik Høyer, Mattis Herman Nyquist, Gine Cornelia Pedersen and Eivind Sæther—and every that includes a distinct actor taking part in Munch at ages 21 (Alfred Ekker Strande), 30 (Mattis Herman Nyquist), 45 (Ola G. Furuseth) and 80 (Anne Krigsvoll).
All India Rank, a coming-of-age story from director Varun Grover, will shut the 2023 IFFR on February 5.
The IFFR’s primary Tiger Competitors line-up will contains Thiiird, a thriller drama out of Lebanon from award-winning documentarian Karim Kassem, which makes use of the metaphor of a automobile mechanic to discover the injury desperately needing restore finished to his nation and its folks; the Swedish autobiographical documentary drama 100 Seasons, through which dancer Giovanni Bucchieri explores 25 years of affection, success and failure; and Playland, a intentionally camp and kitschy drama from U.S. director Georden West, which imagines a time-bending night time in Boston’s oldest and most infamous homosexual bar.
Within the Large Display part, meant to focus on works for a broader viewers or from extra established administrators, IFFR 2023 will function One Win from Korean director Shin Yeon-Shick, an inspirational sports activities drama that includes Parasite star Music Kang-ho because the unsuccessful coach of a ladies’s volleyball crew; the Danish psychological drama Copenhagen Does Not Exist from director Martin Skovbjerg from a screenplay by Worst Particular person within the World author/director Eskil Vogt; and Luka, the most recent from Belgian-U.S. director Jessica Woodworth, a up to date adaptation of Dino Buzzati’s traditional novel The Tartar Steppe.
‘Copenhagen Does Not Exist’
IFFR 2023
For Kaludjercic, who took over in 2020, this upcoming IFFR would be the first actual check of her stewardship. Her renewed concentrate on “discovery”, on administrators and movies from outdoors the thematic, regional or style mainstream, might be on full show.
“We’ve got movies from the Center East and Africa, from Morocco, from Lebanon, from Iran, from Tunisia,” she notes, “Asian cinema has at all times been a spotlight at IFFR however we want to develop and diversify our focus.”
African movies within the 2023 Tiger Competitors line-up embrace Tunisian drama Geology of Separation from administrators Yosr Gasmi and Mauro Mazzocchi; the Moroccan function Indivision from Leïla Kilani; and Le spectre de Boko Haram by Cameroon director Cyrielle Raingou, all of which may have their world premieres on the IFFR. From Asia, Kaludjercic’s crew has chosen the likes of Gagaland from Chinese language director Teng Yuhan and the Sri Lankan function Munnel from director Visakesa Chandrasekaram.
In its Vivid Future program, devoted to younger and rising expertise, IFFR beforehand introduced two world premieres: Virtually Solely a Slight Catastrophe, a deadpan dramedy from Turkish director Umut Subasi, and Whispering Mountains, a satirical drama director Jagath Manuwarna which appears at what occurs when a supernatural virus spreads throughout Sri Lanka.
Rotterdam’s Limelight part, that includes artwork home highlights of the previous 12 months, will embrace such competition favorites as Alice Diop’s Saint Omer, Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun, EO from Poland’s Jerzy Skolimowski, Jafar Panahi’s autobiographical Iranian drama No Bears, and Struggle Pony from administrators Riley Keough and Gina Gammell.
The 2023 Robby Müller Award, introduced in honor of the late Dutch cinematographer, of Paris, Texas, 24-Hour Celebration Folks and Breaking the Waves, amongst others, might be awarded to French lenser Hélène Louvart, whose work contains such options as By no means Not often Typically At all times, The Misplaced Daughter, Joyful as Lazzaro and The Wonders.
‘By no means Not often Typically At all times’ cinematographer Hélène Louvart will obtain the IFFR 2023 Robby Müller Award
‘By no means Not often Typically At all times’ / Courtesy of Sundance
Oscar-winning director, and Turner Prize-winning visible artist Steve McQueen may also attend IFFR 2023, to current Sunshine State, an art work initially commissioned for the competition’s fiftieth anniversary in 2021 that may now be correctly displayed on the Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen exhibition area in Rotterdam, with the official opening on January 26.
The work, McQueen’s first main art work since his “Yr 3” fee for the Tate Britain in 2019, is a two-channel video projection proven on either side of two screens, which opens with footage of a burning solar and contains photos from the 1927 function movie The Jazz Singer, a movie famed as the primary “talkie” in cinema historical past that’s additionally notorious for the efficiency of Al Jolson in blackface.
IFFR 2023 may also see the in-person return of Rotterdam’s famed co-production market, which is able to have fun its fortieth version from Jan. 29-Feb. 1 with one-on-one conferences and networking periods between unbiased producers, financiers and distributors.
Full record of IFFR 2023 movies beneath.
Opening Movie
Munch, dir. Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken
Tiger Competitors
100 Seasons, dir. Giovanni Bucchieri
Gagaland, dir. Teng Yuhan
Geology of Separation, dirs. Yosr Gasmi, Mauro Mazzocchi
Indivision, dir. Leïla Kilani
Letzter Abend, dir. Lukas Nathrath
Mannvirki, dir. Gústav Geir Bollason
Munnel, dir. Visakesa Chandrasekaram
New Strains, dir. Artemis Shaw, Prashanth Kamalakanthan
Notas sobre un verano, dir. Diego Llorente
Numb, dir. Amir Toodehroosta
Nummer achttien, dir. Guido van der Werve
La Palisiada, dir. Philip Sotnychenko
Playland, dir. Georden West
Le spectre de Boko Haram, dir. Cyrielle Raingou
Thiiird, dir. Karim Kassem
three sparks, dir. Naomi Uman
Large Display Competitors
Avant l’effondrement, dirs. Alice Zeniter, Benoît Volnais
Earlier than the Buzzards Arrive, dir. Jonás N. Díaz
Copenhagen Does Not Exist, dir. Martin Skovbjerg
Drawing Heaps, dirs. Zaza Khalvashi, Tamta Khalvashi
Infinite Borders, dir. Abbas Amini
Le formiche di Mida, dir. Edgar Honetschläger
4 Little Adults, dir. Selma Vilhunen
La hembrita, dir. Laura Amelia Guzmán Conde
Joram, dir. Devashish Makhija
Luka, dir. Jessica Woodworth
My Little Nighttime Secret, dir. Natalya Meshchaninova
Não Sou Nada – The Nothingness Membership, dir. Edgar Pêra
Okiku and the World, dir. Sakamoto Junji
One Win, dir. Shin Yeon-Shick
La Sudestada, dirs. Daniel Casabé, Edgardo Dieleke
Voyages en Italie, dir. Sophie Letourneur
Closing Movie
All India Rank, dir. Varun Grover
