IFFR announces competitions and February line-up for its expanded 50th edition

23/12/2020 - The 2021 edition of the Dutch gathering will open with Anders Thomas Jensen’s Riders of Justice

Riders of Justice by Anders Thomas Jensen

During yesterday’s press conference, the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) announced the 16 films selected for its prestigious Tiger Competition, alongside the titles taking part in the Big Screen Competition, the Ammodo Tiger Short Competition and the Limelight strand. The 50^th expanded edition of the Dutch gathering, taking place from 1-7 February and 2-6 June 2021 (read the news), will open with Anders Thomas Jensen’s Riders of Justice [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Anders Thomas Jensen
film profile].

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In the Tiger competition section, the jury will grant three prizes: the Tiger Award, worth €40,000, and two special jury awards, worth €10,000 each. The Tiger Jury consists of filmmaker and visual artist Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese, IDFA’s artistic director Orwa Nyrabia, visual artist and filmmaker Hala Elkoussy, screenwriter and critic Helena van der Meulen and film producer Ilse Hughan.

Meanwhile, the Big Screen Competition will include fifteen titles. The winner of the VPRO Big Screen Award will benefit from a guaranteed theatrical release in the Netherlands and will be broadcast on Dutch television by VPRO and NPO. Moreover, the winning filmmaker and distributor will receive an equally shared €30,000 cash prize.

Finally, four Big Talks have been announced in the festival’s Talks programme. IFFR will be in conversation with Kelly Reichardt, the recipient of this year’s Robby Müller Award and whose latest feature First Cow is also in the Limelight line-up. Filmmaker and artist Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese, who is showing his work in the Vive le cinéma! exhibition at Eye Filmmuseum, will also be the subject of a Big Talk. The line-up is rounded off by a conversation with Benoît Jacquot and Charlotte Gainsbourg, taking place on the occasion of the international premiere of Suzanna Andler [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], and the encounter with filmmaker Dea Kulumbegashvili and composer Nicolás Jaar, who will discuss their collaboration on the score of Beginning [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Dea Kulumbegashvili
film profile].

During the February festival dates, the entire online programme will be available to audiences across the Netherlands, with press and industry screenings more extensively available and the IFFR Talks programme accessible worldwide. Films will premiere with Q&As, promote live interaction and will be made available for 72 hours, with limited ticket capacity. The awards ceremony will take place on Sunday 7 February.

Speaking about the festival programme, IFFR director Vanja Kaludjercic said: “In a year like no other, filmmakers have gone above and beyond to complete works in challenging circumstances, and there has been no shortage of great films looking for a home at IFFR. This edition’s revised Tiger Competition and Big Screen Competition, as well as the Ammodo Tiger Short Competition, encapsulate IFFR’s spirit as a platform for the discovery of visions that pique our curiosity and capture our imagination. The sheer determination of these striking new voices is exhilarating, and I’m proud that we can bring an outstanding selection to our film-loving audiences in new ways that captivate the collective spirit.”

Here is the complete selection:

Tiger Competition

Agate mousse - Selim Mourad (Lebanon)
Bebia, à mon seul désir [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Juja Dobrachkous
film profile] - Juja Dobrachkous (Georgia/UK)
Bipolar - Queena Li (China)
Black Medusa – ismaël and Youssef Chebbi (Tunisia)
A Corsican Summer [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pascal Tagnati
film profile] - Pascal Tagnati (France)
The Edge of Daybreak - Taiki Sakpisit (Thailand/Switzerland)
Feast [+see also:
trailer
interview: Tim Leyendekker
film profile] - Tim Leyendekker (Netherlands)
Friends and Strangers - James Vaughan (Australia)
Gritt [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Itonje Søimer Guttormsen
film profile] - Itonje Søimer Guttormsen (Norway)
Landscapes of Resistance [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Marta Popivoda
film profile] - Marta Popivoda (Serbia/Germany/France)
Liborio - Nino Martínez Sosa (Dominican Republic/Puerto Rico/Qatar)
Looking for Venera [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Norika Sefa
film profile] - Norika Sefa (Kosovo/Macedonia)
Madalena - Madiano Marcheti (Brazil)
Mayday - Karen Cinorre (USA)
Mighty Flash [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ainhoa Rodríguez
film profile] - Ainhoa Rodríguez (Spain)
Pebbles - Vinothraj P.S. (India)

Big Screen Competition

Archipel - Félix Dufour-Laperrière (Canada)
Aristocrats - Sode Yukiko (Japan)
As We Like It - Chen Hung-i and Muni Wei (Taiwan)
Aurora - Paz Fábrega (Costa Rica/Mexico)
Carro Rei - Renata Pinheiro (Brazil)
The Cemil Show - Bariş Sarhan (Turkey)
Drifting - Li Jun (Hong Kong)
The Harbour - Rajeev Ravi (India)
The Last Farmer - M. Manikandan (India)
Lone Wolf - Jonathan Ogilvie (Australia)
The North Wind - Renata Litvinova (Russia)
El perro que no calla - Ana Katz (Argentina)
Sexual Drive - Yoshida Kota (Japan)
Les Sorcières de l’Orient [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Julien Faraut
film profile] - Julien Faraut (France)
The Year Before the War [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Dāvis Sīmanis
film profile] - Dāvis Sīmanis (Latvia)