The IFFR turns 40 and goes XL!

Yesterday, festival director Rutger Wolfson presented what's been confirmed for the upcoming International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) starting at the end of January.

The 2011 edition promises to be a special one as it's an anniversary: the IFFR turns 40. In Roman numerals that reads as "XL" and this is the current buzzword: everything will be slighty larger starting with the number of locations. And not just venues either: Rotterdam will be peppered wth cinema-related art installations all across town.

On top of that there is a festival section for Western films made in the old Soviet Union back in the fifties and sixties, movies which were hugely popular in the USSR but never shown outside of the country. The IFFR has 15 of those in the program.

Another section focuses on 80 years of Chinese Wuxia films, showing a selection of 20 martial arms movies made from 1930 till 2010. Fingers crossed for some interesting recent titles!

Back to the general selection: the full list of films will be released early January as usual, but the following titles were already confirmed yesterday by Rutger con sorte:

13 Assassins - Miike Takashi (Japan)
22 May - Koen Mortier (Belgium)
Attenberg - Athina Tsangari (Greece)
Dharma Guns - Fj Ossang (France)
Meek's Cutoff - Kelly Reichardt (US)
Never Let Me Go - Mark Romanek (US)
Pa negre - Agustí Villaronga (Spain)
Poetry - Lee Chang-Dong (S. Korea)
Surviving Life - Jan Svankmajer (Chechia)
Year Without a Summer - Tan Chui Mui (Malaysia)


You can check out the IFFR website for more news and updates. Rest assured a selection of ScreenAnarchy regulars will be attending the festival and there will be lots of coverage...