40th International Film Festival Rotterdam

Been constantly checking the fest site and is not until today that they have completed the official selection for the main competition so now let’s see what the first major festival of the year brings to us for our viewing pleasure during this year or maybe next. Fest will take place from January 26 to February 6.

Tiger Awards Competition
First or second feature films

Opening Film: Wasted Youth, Argyris Papadimitropoulos and Jan Vogel, Greece, 2011
Chitra Sutram (The Image Threads), Vipin Vijay, India, 2010
Fasl-e baran-haye moosemi (Rainy Seasons), Majid Barzegar, Iran, 2010
Finisterrae, Sergio Caballero, Spain, 2010
Fuyu no kemono (Love Addiction), Uchida Nobuteru, Japan, 2010
Gromozeka, Vladimir Kott, Russia, 2011
Headshots, Lawrence Tooley, Germany and Austria, 2010
Igillena maluwo (Flying Fish), Sanjeewa Pushpakumara, Sri Lanka, 2011
Musan il-gy (The Journals of Musan), Park Jung-Bum, South Korea, 2010
O céu sobre os ombros (The Sky Above), Sergio Borges, Brazil, 2010 (gay interest)
Pasuggun (Bleak Night) Yoon Sung-Hyun, South Korea, 2010
Tee-rak (Eternity), Sivaroj Kongsakul, Thailand, 2010
Todos tus Muertos (All Your Dead Ones), Carlos Moreno, Colombia, 2010
Vete más lejos, Alicia (Alicia, Go Yonder), Ellisa Miller, Mexico, 2010

To check the press release with films brief synopsis go here or here.

Tiger Awards Jury
Lucrecia Martel, filmmaker, scriptwriter and film producer, Argentina
Sandra den Hamer, director of EYE Film Institute and former IFFR director, Netherlands
Andrei Ujica, filmmaker, Romania
Wisit Sasanatieg, filmmaker, Thailand
Lee Ranaldo, musician, USA

2011 IFFR has the following sections:

XL:Not Kidding
Not Kidding will screen short films, combinations of sound and images, a lot of animated films, special events and workshops. A place to see film through innocent eyes. The programme will investigate what adults can learn from the way children read images. Not Kidding, developed and compiled by IFFR programmer Edwin Carels, will be open daily during the festival at a location to be determined.

Bright Future
Bright Future is the platform for filmmakers of the future. Here, the festival presents the most important, idiosyncratic and adventurous new work by novice makers from all over the world. The section mainly consists of first or second films. Full program will be announced on January 20. To read press release with some of the films go here.

Spectrum
Spectrum comprises work by experienced film makers and artists who provide, in the opinion of the IFFR, an essential contribution to international film culture. Spectrum brings together highlights of the film year, new work by prominent auteurs and topical, strong and innovative films by accomplished filmmakers. Program hasn’t been announced yet, but will be up soon.

Signals
Signals is made up of a series of thematic film programs exhibitions or performances. Here the festival focuses on specific themes and oeuvres of striking filmmakers or visual artists. The programs within Signals offer insight in topical as well as timeless ideas within cinema.
Signals: Out of Fashion
Signals: Red Westerns
Signals: Water Tiger Inn
Signals: Raiding Africa
Signals: F.J. Ossang
Signals: Agustí Villaronga
Signals: Nathaniel Dorsky

Spectrum: Shorts and Tiger Awards for Short Film
Approximately 450 shorts will be screened during this coming edition. A clear statement: Rotterdam picks quality over length. The short films have their own competition, the Tiger Awards for Short Film, and a jury will select three winners out of all the nominees.

Section selections are accessible from here.

There are two quite interesting projects going on attached to the festival, Cinema Reloaded and New Arrivals. Here is a brief summary of what each project is all about.

Cinema Reloaded
In December 2009, The International Film Festival Rotterdam launched an ambitious experiment in film-making in the digital era: Cinema Reloaded allows filmmakers to directly connect with film lovers in order to finance and distribute their projects through combined online crowd sourcing and crowd funding. The participating directors are Alexis Dos Santos (UK/Argentina), Ho Yuhang (Malaysia) and Harmony Korine (USA), who replaced the Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist in September 2010.

The films will begin shooting when a minimum level of finance is reached. Payments will take the form of “coins” to be invested in an individual project. Once production has begun, backers, called "co-producers", will be able to track their chosen project, talk to other investors and to interact with the film-maker.

To learn more about this very interesting project go here and maybe you can become an investor and co producer with this bold, practical “experiment” that need “coins” (minimum is Euros 5.00) from you.

New Arrivals

New Arrivals is an online platform for shorts, a collaboration between the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) and Dutch broadcasting company NTR. IFFR is inviting filmmakers from all over the world to send in their short film. All entries will be shown online. An editorial committee selects five films every month, a jury - together with the public - selects the monthly winner. Read more here.

Last, believe is a good idea to remind you all that the fest Youtube channel has full feature and short films that you can stream directly to your TV, so suggest you check the available films here.

Tiger Awards official selection is –as always- eclectic with some films I’m sure a visual marvels and others with what seems like very interesting stories. So this is it until we learn the winners.