All posts tagged: Rotterdam

John Lithgow on Queer Family Film ‘Jimpa,’ Olivia Colman: Rotterdam

John Lithgow on Queer Family Film ‘Jimpa,’ Olivia Colman: Rotterdam

Published by Daniella Wilson

John Lithgow, Olivia Colman and Aud Mason-Hyde, the daughter of the director Sophie Hyde (Good Luck to You, Leo Grande; 52 Tuesdays; Animals) star in the new feature Jimpa. The drama about queerness, parenthood and imperfect intergenerational relationships celebrated its Dutch premiere during the 55th edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) on Sunday. The movie tells the story of Lithgow’s charming contrarian character Jim, who calls himself “Jimpa” to escape the word “grandpa.” Jim, a character inspired by Hyde’s gay activist father, left his family “to pursue a free, gay life in Amsterdam,” reads a synopsis. The film sees Jim’s daughter Hannah (Colman), her non-binary teenager Frances (Mason-Hyde) and her husband (Daniel Henshall) pay Jimpa a visit. Jimpa encourages Frances to enjoy queer Amsterdam, where she meets people portrayed by the likes of Romana Vrede, Hans Kesting and Zoë Love Smith. After Sunday’s Rotterdam screening, Lithgow and Dutch cast members discussed the film in a session entitled “Big Talk: A Queer Family Affair,” moderated by Dutch actress Hanna van Vliet, who highlighted early on that queer rights …

‘The Arab’ Director on Moving From Documentary to Fiction: Rotterdam

‘The Arab’ Director on Moving From Documentary to Fiction: Rotterdam

Published by Daniella Wilson

Albert Camus’ novel The Stranger (L’étranger) recently got a cinema adaptation, under the same title, by French director François Ozon, which is part of the lineup of the 55th edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR). But another film related to the Camus classic world premiered in the Big Screen Competition of the festival on Saturday night: The Arab, the fiction feature debut by documentary maker Malek Bensmaïl (Checks and Balances, Alienations, The Battle of Algiers, a Film Within History). The movie, directed by the filmmaker and written by him and Jacques Fieschi, reframes an unnamed figure from the book, a murdered man who is simply referred to as The Arab throughout the novel. In the film, his name is Moussa, and his story is told through the testimony of his aging brother Haroun to a journalist, making the film an exploration of memory, identity, and colonialism, given that Algeria was a French colony for 132 years until 1962. The Arab also references the Algerian Civil War, known in the country as the Black Decade or The Dirty War, which was fought between the Algerian government and …

DOP Yorick Le Saux on Jim Jarmusch, Tilda Swinton: Rotterdam Award

DOP Yorick Le Saux on Jim Jarmusch, Tilda Swinton: Rotterdam Award

Published by Daniella Wilson

The International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) honored French cinematographer Yorick Le Saux with the 2026 Robby Müller Award on Saturday, with a crowd of film fans coming out to hear the DOP discussing his career and work in a wide-ranging interview after receiving the award. Some of his bold-named frequent collaborators, such as Tilda Swinton and Jim Jarmusch, as well as the likes of Blitz director Steve McQueen sent their congratulations via video messages. Le Saux is known for his frequent collaborations with Olivier Assayas (Carlos, Clouds of Sils Maria, Personal Shopper) and François Ozon (Swimming Pool, 5×2). “His body of work includes many remarkable films with an inspirational variety of filmmakers, such as I Am Love by Luca Guadagnino, Only Lovers Left Alive by Jim Jarmusch, High Life by Claire Denis, and Little Women by Greta Gerwig,” the fest said about his career. The Robby Müller award, which has become a popular part of the Rotterdam festival and is named after the late Dutch cinematographer behind the likes of Paris, Texas who is known as the “master of light,” acknowledges “the artistry of an exceptional image maker.” It …

Rotterdam Talks About Sex, Baby: IFFR 2026 Panel

Rotterdam Talks About Sex, Baby: IFFR 2026 Panel

Published by Daniella Wilson

“Let’s Talk About Sex, Baby.” That was the invitation issued by the 55th edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) for a Saturday panel featuring filmmakers from across this year’s lineup. Whether stylized and comedic body horror flicks or hardcore avantgarde depictions of physicality, the group of creators and curators discussed the challenges and opportunities of bringing sex to the big screen. The panelists were Whammy Alcazaren, director of Noodles, Our Love Was Instant and Forever, featured in this year’s CineMart market, Gavin Baird, director of Klee, part of the IFFR Short & Mid-Length program, Axelle Vinassac, director of Soudain l’été, which screens in the same section, and Luisa F. Gonzalez, a film researcher, curator and filmmaker working for the Porn Film Festival Amsterdam. The panel was moderated by IFFR programmer Cristina Kolozsváry-Kiss who highlighted: “As a programmer, this year, something strange happened. We all noticed that there was just this sudden influx of phalluses everywhere. It was really remarkable.” She also highlighted that sexuality in the panelists’ films is used in a bigger context. “They’re sensual and they’re gorgeous,” she said, …

‘Butterfly’ Is a Rotterdam Film With Renate Reinsve, Gran Canaria

‘Butterfly’ Is a Rotterdam Film With Renate Reinsve, Gran Canaria

Published by Daniella Wilson

How is this elevator pitch? The film’s title is Butterfly, its setting is Gran Canaria, and its ensemble cast includes none other than best actress Oscar nominee and Sentimental Value star Renate Reinsve. If you’re not sold yet, let us mention this plot outline: Two very different and estranged half sisters, laughable performance artist Lily and the much more quiet and restrained Diana, are forced to reunite in their childhood home in Gran Canaria after their parents’ deaths, only to inherit an unfinished resort and an esoteric retreat. After all, their uninhibited mother, Vera, worked as a hostess at the resort. The second feature from Norwegian writer-director Itonje Søimer Guttormsen (Gritt) just world premiered in the Big Screen Competition of the 55th edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR). Reinsve’s The Worst Person in the World co-star Helene Bjørneby, Numan Acar, and Lillian Müller also star. For Søimer Guttormsen, it marks a return to IFFR five years after her fiction debut screened in its Tiger Competition. Protagonist Pictures is handling sales on the movie from Mer Film, Quiddity Films, Zentropa International …

Syrian, Somali Directors on Displacement Film Fund Shorts: Rotterdam

Syrian, Somali Directors on Displacement Film Fund Shorts: Rotterdam

Published by Daniella Wilson

Last year, Cate Blanchett and the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR)’s Hubert Bals Fund unveiled the Displacement Film Fund, a scheme set up to provide five displaced directors with grants for short films that are worth €100,000 ($120,000) each. And on Friday evening, IFFR presented the world premieres of the first five shorts, made by directors from Iran, Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia and Ukraine, in the Dutch port city on Friday. The grant recipients were Iranian auteur Mohammad Rasoulof (The Seed of the Sacred Fig), Maryna Er Gorbach, the Ukrainian director of Klondike, Somali-Austrian filmmaker Mo Harawe (The Village Next to Paradise), Afghan filmmaker Shahrbanoo Sadat, who fled to Germany and will next month open the Berlin Film Festival, and Syria’s Hasan Kattan (Last Men in Aleppo). In a conversation with THR and during a Rotterdam press conference, Kattan and Harawe discussed their inspirations and hopes for their respective films. Kattan’s 40-minute-long Allies in Exile, from production company Grain Media that is also handling sales, stars himself and his best friend Fadi Al Halabi. “For 14 years, Syrian filmmakers Hasan Kattan and Fadi Al-Halabi have journeyed together …

Rotterdam 2026 Film Clip ‘Projecto Global’ by Ivo M. Feirrera

Rotterdam 2026 Film Clip ‘Projecto Global’ by Ivo M. Feirrera

Published by Daniella Wilson

The 1970s were a time of political terrorism, or “armed resistance,” as militant groups called it, in various European countries. Portugal followed, experiencing “years of lead,” as they were dubbed from 1980 until 1987. The political thriller Projecto Global, the new feature from writer-director Ivo M. Ferreira (Letters From War, Empire Hotel), world premiering on Sunday, Feb. 1 in the Big Screen Competition of the 55th edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), takes on this period in fictionalized form. The movie is set in Lisbon following the so-called Carnation Revolution in the country, which had brought freedom and democracy. But then, economic and social challenges shook Portugal and its political elite. “The Forças Populares 25 de Abril (FP-25), allegedly led by the inscrutable Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho, a key figure in the 1974 Carnation Revolution, waged a campaign in defense of what they saw as the revolution’s threatened achievements,” reads a synopsis for Projecto Global. “Their actions included bank robberies, targeted killings, and even the shelling of NATO vessels in Lisbon harbor.” Ferreira zooms …

‘Earth Song’ Film Trailer for Erol Mintaş’ Second Feature

‘Earth Song’ Film Trailer for Erol Mintaş’ Second Feature

Published by Daniella Wilson

A Kurdish-Finnish doctor uncovers a family secret that challenges everything she thought she knew in Turkish director Erol Mintaş‘ second feature, Earth Song. The film promises a timely story of family, memory, reconciliation, and personal discovery across generations and borders. Mintaş’ debut feature, Song of My Mother, a story set among Kurds living in Istanbul, won the Sarajevo Film Festival in 2014. Earth Song is set to world premiere in the Harbour section of the 55th edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) on Jan. 30. Dilan Gwyn stars as Rojîn, a Kurdish woman who has been living in Finland almost all of her life. The 40-year-old anaesthesiologist has devoted her life to humanitarian work, often at the cost of her family. No surprise that her relationship with her 12-year-old daughter Azad (Zenan Tünc) is increasingly strained, and marital life with her husband Ferhat Feyyaz Duman) is tense.  But now, the family’s complicated past is cropping up. Azad doesn’t know that she’s adopted, and Rojîn struggles with how to tell her. When Rojîn’s father Nizam (Ali Seçkiner Alıcı) visits …