Danish director Thomas Jensen’s comedy Riders Of Justice, starring Mads Mikkelsen, will open the 50th International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR). The festival is taking place as multi-part event from February to June 2021, with the first part running as hybrid festival from February 1-7. 2021. It will culminate in a (hopefully) physical event from June 2-6, 2021.
Some 60 titles spanning the Tiger Competition, Big Screen Competition and its Ammodo Tiger Shorts and Limelight sections, are screening in February.
The festival’s flagship Tiger Competition will showcase 16 titles, which will compete for the €40,000 Tiger award and two special jury awards, worth €10,000 each.
The Tiger jury will feature filmmaker and visual artist Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese, artistic director of International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) Orwa Nyrabia, visual artist and filmmaker Hala Elkoussy, critic Helena van der Meulen and film producer Ilse Hughan. The aim is for them to watch the films together on the big screen if conditions permit.
Scroll down for the full list of titles
The one-off redesign has been devised in response to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, which is expected to keep much of Europe under full or partial lockdown in the early months of 2021.
“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,” said festival director Vanja Kaludjercic.
”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.”
In other details, the festival also revealed that US director Kelly Reichardt will receive the festival’s honorary Robby Müller Award and will also participate in the IFFR Talks programme alongside Benoît Jacquot, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese, Dea Kulumbegashvili and Nicolás Jaar.
IFFR 2020 line-up part 1.
Tiger Competition
Agate Mousse (Lebanon) world premiere
Dir. Selim Mourad
Bebia, à mon seul désir (Georgia, UK) world premiere
Dir. Juja Dobrachkous
Bipolar (China)world premiereDir. Queena Li
Black Medusa (Tunisia) world premire
Dir. ismaël, Youssef Chebbi
A Corsican Summer (France) world premiere
Dir. Pascal Tagnat
The Edge of Daybreak (Thailand/Switzerland) world premiere Dir. Taiki Sakpisit
Feast (Netherlands) world premiereDir. Tim Leyendekker
Friends and Strangers (Australia) world premiereDir. James Vaughan
Gritt (Norway) international premiereDir, Itonje Søimer Guttormsen
Landscapes of Resistance (Serbia/Germany/France) world premiere
Dir. Marta Popivoda
Liborio (Dominican Republic/Puerto Rico/Qatar) world premiereDir. Nino Martínez Sosa
Looking for Venera ( Kosovo/Macedonia) world premiereDir. Norika Sefa, 2021
MadalenaDir. Madiano Marcheti
Mayday (US) international premiereDir, Karen Cinorre
Mighty Flash (Spain) world premiereDir. Ainhoa Rodríguez
Big Screen Competition
Archipel (Canada) world premiere
Dir. Félix Dufour-Laperrière
Aristocrats (Japan) international premiere
Dir. Sode Yukiko
As We Like It (Taiwan) world premiere
Dir. Chen Hung-i & Muni Wei.
Aurora (Costa Rica, Mexico) world premiere
Dir. Paz Fábrega
Carro Rei (Brazil) world premiere
Dir. Renata Pinheiro
The Cemil Show (Turkey) world premiere
Dir. Bariş Sarhan
Drifting (Hong Kong) world premiere
Dir. Li Jun
The Harbour (India), world premiereDir. Rajeev Ravi
The Last Farmer (India) world premiere
Dir. M. Manikandan
Lone Wolf (Australia) world premiere
Dir. Jonathan Ogilvie
The North Wind (Russia) world premiere
Dir. Renata Litvinova
El perro que no calla (Argentina) European premiere
Dir. Ana Katz
Sexual Drive (Japan) world premiere