So here is a selection of some of the films we've seen and reviewed, and also some that we urge people to go check out, because being adventurous can be a lot of fun.
Note that most of the captions below have clickable links in them, leading to reviews or trailers where applicable. And do feel free to chime in, in the comments, to alert and inform everyone about titles we have missed!
A note on this year's poster: the IFFR changed its marketing strategy a few years ago, abandoning its award-winning colorful one-sheets and replacing them with this stark black-and-white Tiger logo. Every year since, the posters show this same logo with a few additions, be it scrawls, writing, or an added "XL" logo.
This year we have the most colorful iteration yet, with pieces of many international flags filling the picture. Well done, IFFR! It's actually the first IFFR poster in nearly a decade I'd like to put on my wall.
R100
Director Matsumoto Hitoshi's three previous films were either partly brilliant or totally brilliant, and by all accounts his latest matches this description. A man joins an SM club, but after a shaky-if-enjoyable start he runs into problems when trying to cancel his yearly subscription. Oh dear...
Also, this is the film that famously made ScreenAnarchy editor Todd Brown eat his shirt. Here is his review (of the film, not the shirt).
A Touch of Sin
Jia Zhangke has made a film in four parts, each based on some disconcertingly violent true stories that made the news in China. A bold genre flick, it actually divided the ScreenAnarchy team.
Jason Gorber found some content to admire but didn't warm to it. James Marsh, on the other hand, considers it the best Chinese-language film of 2013.
Intruders
Noh Young-seok's Daytime Drinking was a big favorite here at ScreenAnarchy and quite a stunning debut. Noh's second film deals with a group of people having problems with a killer in their midst.
Rigor Mortis
Juno Mak has made an eerie haunted house film, strongly influenced by the great genre films of the recent past decades. James Marsh called the film a brave and confident debut.
Nebraska
Alexander Payne's new road-trip film may be old news in some parts of the world, but here in Rotterdam the IFFR is the first chance we have of seeing Bruce Dern's brilliant performance.
Ryland Aldrich reviewed it for last year's Cannes festival, and this is what he thought of it.
Big Bad Wolves
You've got to love child murderers in movies, because you can have them treated as badly as you want and still not feel guilty about it. Or should you? Navot Papushado and Aharon Keshale take the revenge-thriller into surprising territories in a film that Quentin Tarantino proclaimed to be the best of 2013 when he saw it in Busan.
Blue Ruin
Revenge may be a dish best served cold, or fun at the movies, but there are all sorts of (im)practical annoyances if you try it for real. Jeremy Saulnier plays a man out for justice, and brilliantly pokes at both the sadness and the fun of revenge in a revenge flick.
Brian Clark reviewed the film and gave it a big recommendation.
Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa
Hey Alan Partridge, where you goin' with that gun in your hands? This is just hilariously wrong on so many levels...
Our Sunhi
Hong Sang-soo's new film describes a pretty film student through the different perspectives of the men who meet her, and it paints a rather odd and vague picture indeed.
Siddarth
Richie Mehda has made a powerful and devastating film about a poor father trying to find his missing son, only to find that he simply lacks the means to do so without damning the remainder of his family.
Todd put it in his best-of 2013 list, and here is his review.
Only Lovers Left Alive
Jim Jarmusch. Tilda Swinton. Mia Wasikowska. Hip vampires.
And a favorable review by Kurt Halfyard. What more do you need?
Rhymes For Young Ghouls
In his first film, Jeff Barnaby juxtaposes Mi'kmaq legends with native Canadian teenagers dealing drugs, making an angry statement about youth and several kinds of discrimination. Rotterdam is the first European festival to show it, and Canadian reviews have been strongly positive.
Metalhead
Ever listened to really loud music when you felt bad? Icelandic director Ragnar Bragason made a film about coping with grief through music, and instead of making you wonder about the music, he makes you wonder about the coping.
In his review, Todd calls it impeccably crafted and beautifully performed.
Han Gong-ju
A Korean schoolgirl carries a terrible secret with her, something that caused her to be transferred to a new school. Director Lee Su-jin's debut film has been garnering accolades everywhere it has played, and is a strong contender for a Tiger Award this year in Rotterdam.
Pierce Conran caught the film early on in Busan and was totally bowled over by it.
War Story
Another Tiger Award nominee, Mark Jackson's new film tells a harrowing tale of post-traumatic stress-disorder, the sufferer of which is beautifully played by the great Catherine Keener.
Earlier this week it screened at Sundance, and was reviewed by Ben Umstead, who loved it.
Once Upon a Time in Shanghai
A Chinese actioner, with the fights choreographed by Yuen Woo Ping?
The Mole Song: Undercover Agent Reiji
What would the IFFR be without one of the new films by Miike Takashi? This time, we get shown the story of a ridiculously flamboyant police cadet who needs to infiltrate the Yakuza. Fingers crossed to see how much Miike magic is in it...
Hard to Be a God
Twelve years in the making, six of which were spent on shooting, this is Russian director Alexei German's last film. He died during the editing stage, and his wife and son finished the film based on his notes. The end result is a three-hours-long black-and-white science-fiction epic, about humanitarian scientists trying to invoke change on a planet stuck in a totalitarian medieval society.
The film is based on a book by the Strugatskiy brothers, who also provided the source story for Tarkovsky's Stalker. At earlier festivals the film was hailed by the press as incomprehensible but gobsmackingly beautiful. Color me interested!
Tamako in Moratorium
Best known for Linda, Linda, Linda, director Nobuhiro Namashita has made a quirky film about a lazy, LAZY girl.
Fantail
A girl tries to get in touch with her assumed Maori backgrounds, but tragedy ensues. Little birds are whispering that Curtis Vowell's film is damn solid and at times damn funny too...
In Darkness We Fall
A bunch of annoying Spanish youngsters booze, fuck and troll along the beaches of a tropical island while on vacation. Until they discover a mysterious dark cave, and dare each other to go in...
To be honest it's a world premiere, so I have no idea about its quality yet, but this is apparently a horror film shot largely using the "found footage" conceit. Which seems tired but who knows, if it's really really good it could perhaps be this year's [*Rec]?