In his final year as creative director Bero Beyer recently announced the 2020 line-up for the 49th International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) including the 10 films selected for the Tiger Competition. Known for its edgy arthouse bias, this year’s film include Kim Yong-hoon’s South Korean crime drama Beasts Clawing at Straws; Arun Karthick’s Nasir, a portrait of theHindu-nationalist province of Tamil Nadu; and Jorge Thielen Armand’s drama La fortaleza, set in the jungles of Venezuela.
The festival also features the Big Screen Competition and the revamped Bright Future Competition, the fifth theme programme Ordinary Heroes and a special screening of David Cronenberg’s Crash (1996) with a live musical score by the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. The festival opens on the 22 January 2020 with Joao Nuno Pinto’s period drama Mosquito, exploring a Portuguese soldier’s adventures in Mozambique during the First World War, and close on 2 February with Marielle Heller’s Oscar contender A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood that revisits the popular children’s television personality Fred Rogers (Tom Hanks) through his meeting with skeptical journalist Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys).
The Tiger competition will be judged by a panel composed of Dutch-Palestinian filmmaker Hany Abu-Assad (Paradise Now), Visions du Réel artistic director Emilie Bujès, South Korea-born American filmmaker Kogonada (Columbus), Dutch filmmaker Sacha Polak (Dirty God) and Indonesian artist Hafiz Rancajale.
The Big Screen Competition features nine films including Danish filmmaker Malou Reymann’s A Perfectly Normal Family; Eden from Hungarian filmmaker Ágnes Kocsis (who made Pál Adrienn) and Argentinian auteur Marco Berger’s El cazador (Young Hunter) which stars End of Century’s Juan Barberini.
The Bright Future Competition, comprising a selection of 15 feature-length debuts, includes Liang Ming’s Pingyao film festival award-winning Wisdom Tooth, and feature debuts from Russian filmmaker Artem Aisagaliev’s (Babai) and Bolivian Diego Mondaca’s Chaco.
The 49th International Film Festival Rotterdam | 22 January – 2 February 2020
Images from the Tiger Competition selection
Beyer said: all the films in Tiger Competition radiate a strong sense of personal urgency and cinematic relevance, fuelled by boundary-pushing directorial visions.”
All films selected for Tiger Competition 2020:
El año del descubrimiento, Luis López Carrasco, 2020, Spain/Switzerland, world premiere
Beasts Clawing at Straws, Kim Yonghoon, 2020, South Korea, world premiere
The Cloud in Her Room, Zheng Lu Xinyuan, 2020, France/China, world premiere
Desterro, Maria Clara Escobar, 2020, Brazil/Portugal/Argentina, world premiere
Drama Girl, Vincent Boy Kars, 2020, Netherlands, world premiere
La fortaleza, Jorge Thielen Armand, 2020, Venezuela/France/Netherlands/Colombia, world premiere
Kala azar, Janis Rafa, 2020, Netherlands/Greece, world premiere
Nasir, Arun Karthick, 2020, India/Netherlands, world premiere
Piedra sola, Alejandro Telemaco Tarraf, 2020, Argentina/Mexico/Qatar/UK, world premiere
Si yo fuera el invierno mismo, Jazmín López, 2020, Argentina, world premiere
The Tiger jury consists of Dutch-Palestinian filmmaker Hany Abu-Assad, artistic director of Visions du Réel Emilie Bujès, South Korean-born American filmmaker Kogonada, Dutch filmmaker Sacha Polak and Indonesian artist, curator and filmmaker Hafiz Rancajale.
Images from the Big Screen Competition selection
The Big Screen Competition, part of IFFR’s Voices section, features nine films which, according to IFFR programmers, deserve to hit the big screen after the festival. A jury consisting of five audience members picks the winner of the VPRO Big Screen Award. This film gets a guaranteed theatrical release in the Netherlands and will be broadcast on Dutch TV by VPRO and NPO.
All films selected for Big Screen Competition 2020:
El cazador, Marco Berger, 2020, Argentina, world premiere
Eden, Ágnes Kocsis, 2020, Hungary/Romania, world premiere
Énorme, Sophie Letourneur, 2019, France, international premiere
The Evening Hour, Braden King, 2020, USA, international premiere
Fanny Lye Deliver’d, Thomas Clay, 2019, UK/Germany, international premiere
Mosquito, João Nuno Pinto, 2020, Portugal/France/Brazil, world premiere
A Perfectly Normal Family, Malou Reymann, 2020, Denmark,world premiere
Synapses, Chang Tso-chi, 2019, Taiwan, international premiere
A Yellow Animal, Felipe Bragança, 2020, Brazil/Portugal/Mozambique, world premiere
Images from the Bright Future Competition selection
The Bright Future Competition comprises a selection of 15 feature-length film debuts, screening in world or international premiere. IFFR’s competition for first-time filmmakers presents a variety of innovative, cutting-edge and promising discoveries from all over the world. The Bright Future Award is chosen by a jury of three film professionals.
All films selected for Bright Future Competition 2020:
Babai, Artem Aisagaliev, 2020, Russia/USA, world premiere
Chaco, Diego Mondaca, 2020, Bolivia/Argentina, world premiere
Los fantasmas, Sebastián Lojo, 2020, Guatemala/Argentina, world premiere
Fellwechselzeit, Sabrina Mertens, 2020, Germany, international premiere
For the Time Being, Salka Tiziana, 2020, Germany/Spain/Switzerland, international premiere
I Blame Society, Gillian Wallace Horvat, 2020, USA, world premiere
Moving On, Yoon Dan-bi, 2019, South Korea, international premiere
My Mexican Bretzel, Nuria Giménez Lorang, 2019, Spain, international premiere
Ofrenda, Juan María Mónaco Cagni, 2020, Argentina, world premiere
Panquiaco, Ana Elena Tejera, 2020, Panama, world premiere
A Rifle and a Bag, Isabella Rinaldi/Cristina Hanes/Arya Rothe, 2020, India, world premiere
Sebastian springt über Geländer, Ceylan-Alejandro Ataman-Checa, 2020, Germany, world premiere
The Trouble with Nature, Illum Jacobi, 2020, Denmark/France, world premiere
Truth or Consequences, Hannah Jayanti, 2020, USA, world premiere
Wisdom Tooth, Liang Ming, 2019, China, international premiere
ROTTERDAM INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2020 | 22 JANUARY – 2 FEBRUARY