The challenge for IFFR Pro, the industry strand of International Film Festival Rotterdam which runs from January 31-February 5, is always attracting attention in a crammed part of the calendar, close to Sundance, Berlin and Gothenburg.
One figure who has the contacts and the experience to ensure the event is noticed beyond Dutch borders is Marten Rabarts, the former head of EYE International and artistic head of Binger Filmlab in Amsterdam.
Rabarts, recently appointed head of IFFR Pro, already has long links with IFFR. “My connection with Rotterdam is so deep-seated that it is in my own DNA. I have been part of this festival one way or another for 30 years,” he says of his new role. “It just seemed like an opportunity to get back to working internationally and locally in a system I know so very well.”
Cinemart line-up
Since Rabarts took over as head of IFFR Pro in the autumn, he has already made significant changes. One has been to bump up the number of titles in the CineMart, the long-running co-production event. “We’ve brought the numbers back up to 24,” he notes.
There are some intriguing projects being presented to the funders, sales agents, distributors and festival programmers. For instance, Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk, the Ukrainian director who made a splash in Cannes in 2022 with his debut feature Pamfir is back with his latest feature, Something Strange Happened To Me. This is being made through Mellivora Production and is about a mother dealing with the trauma of losing her son defending their village after the Russian invasion.
Also in the selection is Bosnian director Una Gunjak with her feature How Melissa Blew a Fuse, produced through SCCA/pro.ba and about a Bosnian woman in Dortmund who steals money from her workplace and then hits the road.
Showing the range of storytelling styles on offer, another title being showcased in CineMart is Indian director Ashim Ahluwalia’s Unidentified Actress, telling the tragic but revealing story of Tarana Devi, a forgotten child star whose career imploded and who ended up forced into prostitution. This is being made through Mumbai-based Future East Film.
The Darkroom, the programme of work-in-progress screenings, is likewise increasing numbers with 12 projects showcased this year. The selection includes Indian director Bikas Ranjan Mishra’s detective drama Bayaan and Chilean filmmaker Thomas Woodroffe’s Erratics, which has a voice-over from Denis Lavant and imagines the ghost of French filmmaker Lucien Castelnau breaking free after being trapped in the glaciers of Patagonia and wandering through the landscapes of Tierra del Fuego.
The rise in the number of CineMart projects is deliberate: Rabarts says it is important for the industry programme to achieve “a critical mass of project for people to come and consider.” If there are going to be 600 delegates in town, Rabarts reasons, it is common sense to make sure there are enough projects for them all to be able to have fruitful meetings.
Dutch industry focus
The new IFFR Pro head has also set up an industry day - Pulling Focus: NL 2025 - dedicated to the Dutch film ecosystem, held on February 4. This builds on Boost NL, the development programme overseen by IFFR together with the Holland Film Meeting, part of the Netherlands Film Festival in Utrecht, which has helped both Dutch and selected international projects that had already received support from IFFR’s Hubert Bals Fund or have been presented at CineMart.
“It was generally felt that that had done a great job and run its course. Also, with the changes going on at Utrecht, it felt like it was time for something new. Me coming in was an opportunity to bring about that change.” [The municipality of Utrecht last summer withdrew support from The Netherlands Film Festival].
Locarno artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro will host a discussion with top top Dutch talents, fast rising director Ena Sendijarević (Take Me Somewhere Nice, Sweet Dreams) and legendary star Renée Soutendijk (Suspiria, Spetters). “We’ve got one of our brightest young talents and one of our brilliant veterans who worked together very successfully on Sweet Dreams. They’ll be talking about the journey they went on together as artists, but also looking at their individual journeys,” Rabarts explains.
There will also be sessions on AI as well as a focus on Dutch co-production moderated by ACE producers. “Probably the best co-producers in the world?” is the playfully provocative title Rabarts has chosen for the latter. “I genuinely do believe the Dutch are among the best co-producers in the world because they don’t bring a great mass of cultural baggage that they need to unload into a coproduction. I think they are highly skilled at finding a way to understand a project and then bring what is best for that project,” he says.
Participants are expected to include Erik Glijnis from Lemming Film, whose credits include Sweet Dreams, Pleasure and Mr K, and Baldr’s Frank Hoeve, the co-producer of Cannes prize winning All We Imagine As Light. “It’s a great line-up. It came to me because I kept seeing people know well standing on red carpets in Cannes or in Venice, at A Festivals. All these Dutch producers, I was really proud of them. It just made sense to go: ‘look at how good they are!’”
This year also marks the 25th anniversary of the Rotterdam Lab, the training workshop for producers at the start of their careers. It is, says Rabarts, a good excuse for a “a very nice party.” The Lab has a glittering record in unearthing new talent. Figures like Erik Hemmendorff (Triangle Of Sadness), Jonas Dornbach (Maria) and Mia Bays (director of the BFI Film Fund) are all former participants. “We are dealing with the brightest and the best from any given year and so it doesn’t surprise me that they go on to do so well.”
The IFFR dates have changed this year as the festival moves closer to the Berlinale. This will make it easier for international delegates from far flung locations to attend both events but it also means IFFR is happening at exactly the same time as the Rotterdam ATP Tennis Tournament. “We’ve been kicked out of the Marriott which is one of our usual big hotels,” Rabarts says of the Carlos Alcaraz effect. “Tennis and filmmakers? Well, we just had Challengers last year!
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