International Film Festival Rotterdam
The International Film Festival Rotterdam offers a quality selection of worldwide independent, innovative and experimental cinema as well as a series of film-related visual arts exhibitions and live performances. Devoted to actively support independent filmmaking from around the globe, IFFR is the essential hub in Holland for discovering film talent, for catching premieres, and for exploring its competitions, main sections of recent feature films, short films and documentaries, visual arts exhibitions, theme sections and debates.
During twelve festival days, hundreds of filmmakers and other artists present their work to a large and devoted audience in 24 screening venues located within central Rotterdam. Up to 3,000 press and film industry representatives visit the festival to report and catch the buzz on its premieres or to take part in
CineMart, the largest co-production market for film projects.
The 38th edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam takes place from January 21 up to and including Sunday February 2, 2009. Within the festival,
CineMart takes place from January 25 -29, 2009.
The
main programme sections of the 36th International Film Festival Rotterdam include:
- Tiger Awards Competition for first or second feature films
- Tiger Awards Competition for Short Films
- Cinema of the Future: Sturm und Drang (innovative films by upcoming talent)
- Cinema of the World: Time & Tide (socially and culturally committed filmmaking including a rich harvest of new films supported by the festival’s Hubert Bals Fund)
- Maestros: Kings & Aces (films by the accomplished maestros of auteur cinema)
- Cinema Regained (independent or avant-garde film classics, documentaries on film)
- Short: As Long As It Takes (short film section, January 22-26, 2009)
- Filmmakers and Artist in Focus
- Exploding Cinema (exhibitions of film-related arts installations)
- In addition, the 38th IFFR will present special theme sections.
Original language version and subtitles
All films within the IFFR selection are screened in their original language version with English subtitles. Some films however will be screened with Dutch subtitels. A list of Dutch subtitled films is available on this site from January 15, 2009.
Festival programme & tickets
The festival programme will be (in both Dutch and English) online January 15, 2009 on this site and within The Netherlands in print form as a Dutch language supplement to national daily newspaper de Volkskrant.
Tickets are available online from Friday night January 16. From Saturday January 19, tickets will be available at the festival box office in ‘de Doelen’ (entrance Kruisplein, Rotterdam). From mid-December 2007, filmfestivalrotterdam.com offers festival news and programme section descriptions.
Supporting filmmakers worldwide
The International Film Festival Rotterdam actively supports, on an international level, the realization of auteur cinema, the expertise of independent filmmakers, producers and film criticism. To these goals, the festival organises its international co-production outfit CineMart, its Hubert Bals Fund giving financial support to film projects from developing or southern countries, trainee projects (Rotterdam Lab and IFFR Trainee Project for Young Film Critics, Passions and Promises) and debates.
On a national level, the festival promotes the distribution and knowledge of independent cinema in collaboration with Dutch arthouse film theatres and Dutch public television networks NPS and VPRO, as well as the festival’s DVD label Tiger Releases. On a national, regional and local level, the festival organises educational activities for university and college students (Rotterdam Film Course, Meet the Maestro and Filmblik Rotterdam).
The International Film Festival Rotterdam is subsidized by the national and local government. For theme sections, collaborations with other Rotterdam cultural institutions and special projects, the festival receives donations from private funds. Ultimately, the festival would not be possible without its large festival audience, hundreds of volunteers and support from the festival's business partners.