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The International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) unveiled its 2025 Big Screen and Tiger Short competitive sections on Tuesday. Typical for Rotterdam, the selection is truly global, with films traversing from Montenegro to Malaysia, and from Congo to India.
The Big Screen Competition, which features films that bridge arthouse and popular cinema, features highlights including The Assistant from Polish directors Anka and Wilhelm Sasnal, whose It Looks Pretty from a Distance was in Rotterdam’s Tiger competition in 2012, Albert Oehlen’s Bad Painter starring Udo Kier, and the Japanese drama Yasuko, Songs of Days Past from director Negishi Kichitaro.
Oscar-winner Cate Blanchett and Canadian avant-garde filmmaker Guy Maddin will attend IFFR 2025 as part of the festival’s IFFR Talks lineup, to discuss their recent collaboration on Maddin’s Rumours. Other IFFR talks include a conversation with The Brutalist cinematographer Lol Crawley — winner of the IFFR’s Robby Müller lifetime achievement award — and a discussion between filmmakers Cheryl Dunye and Albertina Carri exploring radical queerness in cinema.
The 54th IFFR kicks off January 30 with Fabula, a dark comedy by Dutch director Michiel ten Horn. This City Is a Battlefield, an ambitious historical epic from Indonesian filmmaker Mouly Surya, will close the festival on February 9.
2025 Rotterdam Film Festival Lineup
Big Screen Competition
The Assistant, dir. Wilhelm Sasnal, Anka Sasnal (Poland, United Kingdom)
Back to the Family, dir. Sharunas Bartas (Lithuania)
Bad Painter, dir. Albert Oehlen (Germany, United States)
¡Caigan las rosas blancas!, dir. Albertina Carri (Argentina, Brazil, Spain)
Gowok: Javanese Kamasutra, dir. Hanung Bramantyo (Indonesia)
De idylle, dir. Aaron Rookus (Netherlands, Belgium, Estonia)
Macai, dir. Sun-J Perumal (Malaysia)
Orenda, dir. Pirjo Honkasalo (Finland, Estonia, Sweden)
L’oro del Reno, dir. Lorenzo Pullega (Italy)
Our Father – The Last Days of a Dictator, dir. José Filipe Costa (Portugal)
The Puppet’s Tale, dir. Suman Mukhopadhyay (India)
Raptures, dir. Jon Blåhed (Sweden, Finland)
Soft Leaves, dir. Miwako Van Weyenberg (Belgium)
Yasuko, Songs of Days Past, dir. Negishi Kichitaro (Japan)
Tiger Short Competition
IFFR announces 20 short films selected for the Tiger Short Competition in 2025. The jury consists of Angela Haardt, Frank Sweeney, and Yaoting Zhang, who will choose the winners of three equal awards worth €5,000 each. The short films selected are:
Baby Blue Benzo, dir. Sara Cwynar (United States, Germany)
BAN♡ITS, dir. Omar Chowdhury (Belgium, Bangladesh, South Korea)
Bury Us in a Lone Desert, dir. Nguyễn Lê Hoàng Phúc (Vietnam)
Capitol Limited, dir. Lily Ekimian Ragheb, Ahmed T. Ragheb (United States)
Common Pear, dir. Gregor Božič (Slovenia, United Kingdom)
La durmiente, dir. Maria Inês Gonçalves (Portugal, Spain)
Empty Rider, dir. Lawrence Lek (Switzerland, United Kingdom)
The Garden of Electric Delights, dir. Billy Roisz (Austria)
Hepingli Playthrough, dir. Zheng Yuan (China)
I Wan’na Be Like You, dir. Margit Lukács, Persijn Broersen (Netherlands, France, Belgium, United Kingdom, Germany)
Memory Is an Animal, It Barks with Many Mouths, dir. Eva Giolo (Belgium, Italy)
Merging Bodies, dir. Adrian Paci (Italy)
A Metamorphosis, dir. Lin Htet Aung (Myanmar)
Now, Hear Me Good, dir. Dwayne LeBlanc (United States)
Les rites de passage, dir. Florian Fischer, Johannes Krell (Germany)
The Rock Speaks, dir. Amy Louise Wilson, Francois Knoetze (South Africa, Spain)
Suspicions About the Hidden Realities of Air, dir. Sam Drake (United States)
Temo Re, dir. Anka Gujabidze (Georgia)
Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World, dir. Kevin Walker, Irene Zahariadis (Greece, United States)
World at Stake, dir. Susanna Flock, Adrian Jonas Haim, Jona Kleinlein (Austria)