54th International Film Festival Rotterdam

The 54th International Film Festival Rotterdam, is the 2025 edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam, which was held from 30 January to 9 February 2025. The complete line-up of films competing in the festival was revealed on 17 December 2024. It opened with Fabula, a Dutch film by Michiel ten Horn.

The festival closed on 9 February 2025 with This City Is a Battlefield, an Indonesian war drama film written and directed by Mouly Surya. Fiume o morte! by Igor Bezinović of Sweden, Finland won the Tiger Award whereas, L’arbre de l’authenticité by Sammy Baloji from Democratic Republic of the Congo and Im Haus meiner Eltern by Tim Ellrich from Germany won the Special Jury Awards. The VPRO Big Screen Award was awarded to Raptures by Jon Blåhed from Sweden, Finland. I'm Still Here by Walter Salles, a Brazil and France co-production won the Audience Award. 482 films from 94 countries were showcased at the festival including 234 features, 248 short and mid-length films.

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• Yuki Aditya, Jakarta-based filmmaker, Festival Director of ARKIPEL International Documentary and Experimental Film Festival.

• Soheila Golestani, Iranian actress, voice actor, director, and writer

• Winnie Lau, Hong Kong singer and actress

• Peter Strickland, British film director and screenwriter

• Andrea Luka Zimmerman, Jarman Award winning artist, filmmaker and cultural activist

• Angela Haardt: German curator for media art. She was director of the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen

• Frank Sweeney: Filmmaker and artist

• Yaoting Zhang: An acquisitions and production manager who has previously served as programmer for the Shanghai and Beijing festivals

• Bero Beyer: Dutch film producer. and former Festival Director of IFFR, from 2015 to 2020.

• Sara Rajaei: Iranian-Dutch video artist and filmmaker

• Dewi Reijs: Dutch-Indonesian filmmaker, actress, writer and director, and founder of Buddy Film Foundation.

• Digna Sinke: Dutch film director, producer and screenwriter

• Jia Zhao: Chinese-Dutch producer of award-winning documentaries like I Am So Sorry (Cannes 2021), Kabul, City in the Wind (IDFA Special Jury Award) and Inner Landscape, which closed IFFR in 2019.

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The following films are selected to compete for the Tiger Award. The line-up was announced on 17 December 2024.

Highlighted titles indicates award winner

• L’arbre De l’Authenticité, Sammy Baloji, (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
• Bad Girl, Varsha Bharath, (India)
• Blind Love, Julian Chou (Taiwan)
• Fiume o morte!, Igor Bezinović (Croatia, Italy, Slovenia)
• La Gran Historia De La Filosofía Occidental, Aria Covamonas (Mexico)
• Guo Ran, Li Dongmei (China)
• Im Haus Meiner Eltern, Tim Ellrich (Germany)
• Perla, Alexandra Makarová (Austria-Slovakia)
• Primeira Pessoa Do Plural, Sandro Aguilar, (Portugal, Italy)
• Tears in Kuala Lumpur, Ridhwan Saidi, (Malaysia)
• Vitrival – The Most Beautiful Village in the World, Noëlle Bastin, Baptiste Bogaert (Belgium)
• Wind, Talk to Me Vetre, pricaj sa mnom, Stefan Djordjevic (Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia)
• Wondrous Is the Silence of My Master, Ivan Salatić (Montenegro)

Highlighted titles indicates award winner

• Back to the Family - Šarūnas Bartas (Lithuania, France, Poland, Latvia)
• Raptures - Jon Blåhed (Sweden, Finland)
• Gowok: Javanese Kamasutra - Hanung Bramantyo (Indonesia)
• ¡Caigan las rosas blancas! - Albertina Carri (Argentina, Brazil, Spain)
• Our Father - The Last Days of a Dictator - José Filipe Costa (Portugal)
• Orenda - Pirjo Honkasalo (Finland, Estonia, Sweden)
• Yasuko, Songs of Days Past - Kichitaro Negishi (Japan)
• The Puppet’s Tale - Suman Mukhopadhyay (India)
• Bad Painter - Albert Oehlen (Germany, USA)
• Macai - Sun-J Perumal (Malaysia)
• L’oro del Reno - Lorenzo Pullega (Italy)
• De idylle - Aaron Rookus (Netherlands, Belgium, Estonia)
• The Assistant - Wilhelm Sasnal, Anka Sasnal (Poland, United Kingdom)
• Soft Leaves - Miwako Van Weyenberg (Belgium)

The following films were selected to compete for the Tiger Short Competition.

Highlighted titles indicates award winner

• 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)

A programme showcasing cinematic highlights of film festival favourites and international award-winners.

The programme highlights first-feature films from promising filmmakers.

• Girl Infinite, Lilly Hu, United States, Latvia, Singapore
• Camp d’Été, Mateo Ybarra, Switzerland, France
• The Flamenco Guitar of Yerai Cortés (La guitarra flamenca de Yerai Cortés), Antón Álvarez, Spain
• Later In The Clearing, Márton Tarkövi, Hungary, Spain
• Nyamula (Invisible Flame), Oskar Weimar, Kenya
• Your Touch Makes Others Invisible, Rajee Samarasinghe, Sri Lanka, United States

The programme showcases contemporary cinema.

• And The Rest Will Follow, Pelin Esmer, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania

• Dead Dog, Sarah Francis, Lebanon

• Finding Ramlee, Megat Sharizal, Malaysia

• No Dejes A Los Niños Solos, Emilio Portes, Mexico

• Primitive Diversity, Alexander Kluge, Germany

• Thank You Satan, Hicham Lasri, Morocco, France

• Theatre, Nishanth Kalidindi, India

• Last Song for You, Jill Leung, Hong Kong

• The Night Is Dark and Brighter Than The Day, Christina Friedrich, Germany

• Un Gran Casino, Daniel Hoesl, Austria

• Olivia & the Clouds, Tomás Pichardo Espaillat, Dominican Republic

• Traffic, Teodora Ana Mihai, Romania, Belgium, Netherlands

The Short & Mid-length film programme showcases films under 63 minutes.

• B AND S, Lipika Singh Darai, India
• GERHARD, Ulu Braun, Germany
• THE GREAT NORTH, Jenn Nkiru, United Kingdom
• THE LAST HARVEST, Nuno Boaventura Miranda, Cabo Verde, Portugal
• MY BROTHER, Saad Dnewar and Abdelrahman Dnewar, Egypt, Germany, France
• THE NON-ACTOR, Eliza Barry Callahan, United States
• A RIVER HOLDS A PERFECT MEMORY, Hope Strickland, United Kingdom, Jamaica
• SILVESTERCHLAUSEN, Andrew Norman Wilson, United States, Switzerland
• TELL HER WHAT HAPPENED TO ME, Pethrus Tibúrcio, Brazil
• THOUGHTS ON PEACE IN AN AIR RAID, Vyacheslav Turyanytsya, Ukraine, Netherlands
• A THOUSAND WAVES AWAY, Helena Wittmann, Germany
• UPON SUNRISE, Stefan Ivančić, Serbia, Spain, Slovenia, Croatia
• YOU’RE A SHADOW, Rajee Samarasinghe, Sri Lanka, United States
• IF YOU SEEK AMY, Ela Kazdal, United Kingdom, Turkey

Lol Crawley receiving the Robby Müller Award

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• Robby Müller Award: Lol Crawley

• Fiume o morte!, Igor Bezinović, Croatia, Italy, Slovenia

Special Jury Awards

• L’arbre de l’authenticité, Sammy Baloji, Congo

• Im Haus meiner Eltern Tim Ellrich, Germany

• Raptures, Jon Blåhed, Sweden, Finland

• Fiume o morte!, Igor Bezinović, Croatia, Italy, Slovenia

• Bad Girl Varsha Bharath, India

• The Visual Feminist Manifesto, Farida Baqi, Syria, Lebanon, Germany, Sweden, Netherlands

• I'm Still Here by Walter Salles Brazil, France

• A Metamorphosis, Lin Htet Aung (Myanmar), World Premiere

• Temo Re, Anka Gujabidze (Georgia), World Premiere

• Merging Bodies, Adrian Paci, (Italy), World Premiere

• La Durmiente, Maria Inês Gonçalves (Portugal, Spain), World Premiere

• Temo Re, Anka Gujabidze, Georgia

• Official website