Eight world premieres among the 15 first and second features.

The International Film Festival Rotterdam has announced the full line-up for its Tiger Awards Competition, with 15 first and second feature films selected, including eight world premieres.

As usual, the selections span the globe with quite a few films this year from Asia and Latin America. Notable selections include Oskar Thor Axelsson’s Icelandic crime thriller Black’s Game [pictured], which is executive produced by Nicolas Winding Refn and has pre-sold to a number of territories by TrustNordisk; debut Greek drama L by Babis Makridis and written by Dogtooh co-writer Efthymis Filippou; and the debut feature by Lee Kwang-Kuk, former assistant director to Hong Sang-Soo; and Dominga Sotomayor’s feature film début which was selected for Cannes Cinefondation 2010.

Five of the films have been backed by Rotterdam’s Hubert Bals Fund.

Three equal Tiger Awards worth €15,000 each will be awarded.

The jury will include Brazilian actress/filmmaker Helena Ignez; former Rotterdam programmer Ludmila Cvikova now of the Doha Film Institute; CPH: DOX director Tine Fischer, Singaporean filmmaker Eric Khoo, and Israeli filmmaker Samuel Maoz.

The Tiger Awards for Short Films includes 21 selections from 5 to 56 minutes long. Those include nine world premieres. The jurors for shorts are Lebanon’s Rania Stephan, Canada’s Andrea Picard, and Dutch critic/screenwriter Dana Linssen.

Tiger Competition 2012

Thursday Till Sunday (De jueves a domingo), Dominga Sotomayor (Chile/Netherlands) [world premiere] [HBF]
Chilean family drama-road movie.

Voice of My Father (Babamin sesi), Orhan Eskiköy & Zeynel Dogan (Turkey/Germany) [world premiere] [HBF]
Meditation on identity, family ties and a country in transition.

Neighbouring Sounds (O som ao redor), Kleber Mendonça Filho (Brazil) [world premiere] [HBF]
A middle class neighborhood is changed when a private security outfit is employed.

Living (Zhit), Vasily Sigarev (Russia) [world premiere]
Grim portrait of existence in a wintry Russian town.

Egg and Stone (Jidan he shitou), Huang Ji (China) [world premiere]
Quietly disturbing drama set in a Hunan province village.

Clip (Klip), Maja Milos (Serbia) [world premiere]
A disillusioned teenage girl in a remote Serbian town experiments with sex, drugs and partying.

In April the Following Year, There Was a Fire (Sin maysar fon tok ma proi proi), Wichanon Somumjarn (Thailand) [world premiere] [HBF]Semi-autobiographical portrait of a man returning to his hometown in rural Thailand to attend a wedding.

Black’s Game (Svartur á leik), Óskar Thor Axelsson (Iceland) [world premiere]
A portrait of the Icelandic crime scene in flux in the late 1990s.

It Looks Pretty from a Distance (Z daleka widok jest piekny), Anka Sasnal & Wilhelm Sasnal (Poland/US)
Portrait of a small Polish community during a hot summer.

Romance Joe (Ro-men-seu Jo), Lee Kwang-Kuk (South Korea)
Elegantly shot story of a waitress who tells her life stories to a filmmaker needing inspiration.

A Fish (Mulgogi), Park Hong-Min (South Korea)
3D film about an unfortunate road trip.

Return To Burma (Gui lai de ren), Midi Z (Taiwan/Myanmar)
A Burmese worker in Taiwan has to return a friend’s ashes home.

Southwest (Sudoeste), Eduardo Nunes (Brazil) [HBF]
Mystery/fantasy tale set in a Brazilian coastal village.

L, Babis Makridis, Greece
Abstract comedy and existential drama about a driver who loses his job.

Tokyo Playboy Club, Okuda Yosuke (Japan)
Crime story set in the fringes of Japanese society.

 

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