Festivals: IFFR
Rotterdam 2025 Review: THREE DAYS OF FISH Proves You Can Never Go Home Again
Peter Hoogendoorn debuted very strongly almost ten years ago with Tussen 10 en 12 (Between 10 and 12), a rigidly structured movie set in a limited time-space. In it, a family one by one get told bad news by two...
Rotterdam 2025 Review: VIDEOHEAVEN, Alex Ross Perry's Juggernaut Essay About Video-stores
Alex Ross Perry's new film is a video-essay in the style of Thom Andersen's seminal Los Angeles Plays Itself, in that it focuses on a place and location, and explores this place solely through deep analysis of footage from films...
Rotterdam 2025 Interview: RAINS OVER BABEL Director Gala del Sol Talks Mythic Worldbuilding, Queer Programming, Personal Healing
Gala del Sol, a visionary Spanish-Colombian debut director, talks fresh world building and personal healing.
Rotterdam 2025: What The Audiences Liked Best
Three weeks ago, Rotterdam wrapped up its International Film Festival, and a few days after that they published the final results of their audience ratings, which is always a highlight for me. As the saying goes, everybody is a critic,...
Rotterdam Video Interview: ME, MARYAM, THE CHILDREN AND 26 OTHERS Blurs Boundaries Between Fiction And Reality
What happens when the boundaries between fiction and reality blur, not only on screen, but also during filmmaking itself? In Fiction & Reality – Vice Versa, journalist and filmmaker Ronald Glasbergen sits down with Iranian director Farshad Hashemi, actress and...
Rotterdam 2025 Review: MEMOIR OF A SNAIL Gets You, Pacing Be Damned
Back in 2009 we were treated to one of the best films ever made about autism, and it was, surprise surprise, an animated puppet feature. That was Mary and Max, directed by Adam Elliot, who had previously won an Academy...
Rotterdam 2025 Review: I'M STILL HERE Will Not Fade From Your Memory
In 1970, Brazil was suffering under a military dictatorship. Political opponents and critics were arrested, tortured and murdered. As much as 20,000 people were "disappeared" under the regime. One of them was Rubens Pavia, an architect who had been a...
Rotterdam 2025 Review: ACTS OF LOVE Attempts to Unearth the Repressed Past
Jeppe Rønde's family drama tackles memory, trauma, and transgression in a small New Age Christian community.
Rotterdam 2025 Review: FIUME O MORTE!, Playful Croatian Psychogeographic Docudrama About Nationalism
Igor Bezinović's hybrid docudrama tackles Gabriele D'Annunzio's 1919 occupation of Fiume, engaging locals in site-specific meta-textual reenactments.
Rotterdam 2025 Interview: YASUKO, SONGS OF DAYS PAST Director Negishi Kichitaro Talks Taisho Entanglements, Roman Porno, Creating Chemistry
A legendary director of Roman Porno and period dramas discusses his IFFR-premiering return to the director's chair.
Rotterdam 2025 Review: TRANSCENDING DIMENSIONS Sees Toshiaki Toyoda Play the Hits
In the Q&A after Transcending Dimensions, Toyoda mentioned that this might be his last feature film, as he felt like he transcended himself with this film. What does a transcendent Toyoda-film look like? As usually loud, violent and surreal,...
Rotterdam 2025 Reviews: THE TREE OF AUTHENTICITY And THE GREAT HISTORY OF WESTERN PHILOSOPHY, From Congo And Mexico
The IFFR Tiger Competition has a long tradition of narrative and also more experimental films. The following two films belong to the latter category. The Congolese film The Tree of Authenticity (L'Arbre de l'authenticité) from 2025 and the Mexican The...
Rotterdam 2025 Review: Joseph Kahn's ICK Puts the Fear in Aging
Joseph Kahn's new feature is a madcap monster movie that lovingly mocks millenials.
Friday One Sheet: THE NIGHT IS DARK AND COLDER THAN THE DAY
Here is a beautiful use of text and negative space, from IFFR, The International Film Festival Rotterdam in south Holland. Christina Friedrich's film may have a lengthy, and debatably cumbersome title, The Night Is Dark And Colder Than The Day,...
Rotterdam 2025 Interview: Miwako Van Weyenberg Talks SOFT LEAVES, International Influences, Child Actors, and Zooming In
Belgian-Japanese writer-director Miwako Van Weyenberg discusses her debut as it premieres in the Big Screen Competition at IFFR.
Rotterdam 2025 Review: LILIM Makes You Look Under The Bed
The International Film Festival Rotterdam has a healthy relationship with Asian genre cinema. In the past it was basically the go-to place for fans to check it out, and the (in)famous "Rotterdämmerung" part of the festival provided anime, horror and...
Rotterdam 2025 Review: FABULA, Chaos In The Peatlands
The Dutch film Fabula, the opening film of IFFR 2025, employs all possible means to tell its story. The film, much like its protagonist, the 55-year-old petty criminal Jos (played by renowned Dutch actor Fedja van Huêt), does not adhere to...
Rotterdam 2025: Exclusive PERLA Poster Premiere
Alexandra Makarová's Perla, a drama exploring personal and political struggles in 1980s Europe, will debut at the 2025 International Film Festival Rotterdam.
Rotterdam 2024 Review: ROME: TALES FROM THE BLOCK, A Slight Alien Invasion Satire
La Guerra Del Tiburtino III has as its international title Rome: Tales From the Block, which shows you how much this film wears its influences on its sleeve. From the opening segment, in which an alien creature leaves a meteor...
Rotterdam 2024 Review: KING BABY Is A Royal Triumph
King Baby, by directors Kit Redstone and Arran Shearing, could've gone wrong in so many ways. The film is a send-up of masculine power plays, toxic machismo and the thin veneer of social niceties that hide volcanic violence waiting to...
