Norwegian director Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken’s Munch will open the 2023 International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), taking place from January 25-February 5 in the Netherlands. It is the first in-person festival following two online pandemic events and the first physical one for festival director Vanja Kaludjercic since taking over from Bero Beyer after the 2020 event.
Munch, which will screen out of competition, explores the life of the tortured Norwegian artist, celebrated for his painting of ‘The Scream’, and who endured mental turmoil throughout his life. Four actors depict Munch throughout his life: Alfred Ekker Strande, Mattis Herman Nyquist, Ola G Furuseth, and Anne Krigsvoll.
Scroll down for the Tiger and Big Screen line-ups
It is backed by Nordic streamer Viaplay and will have a theatrical release in Norway from January 27 before playing on the platform from March 24.
Munch heads a line-up that celebrates art and film and includes a special commission of a new work by Steve McQueen, the Turner Prize-winning winning artist and Oscar-feted filmmaker. ‘Sunshine State’ is being presented in collaboration with Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen from January 26 to February 12. The multi-channel video project consists of two screens placed side by side. It starts with a ruining sun that unravels while playing images from 1927 film The Jazz Singer.
The 52nd edition of IFFR will close with All India Rank by Varun Grover, a comedy set in India in the late 1990s. Kaludjercic explained the film has been programmed partly as a “tribute to our massive special programme ’The Shape Of Things To Come’,” which looks at the changing socio-political landscape of India through documentaries and fictional narratives 75 years on from independence,
Notable guests due in Rotterdam next month include legendary Italian director Marco Bellocchio, who will be in town to discuss his latest work Exterior Night as well as the rest of his career. The full IFFR Talks programme will be announced in January.
“You can definitely say the Tiger has returned,” said Kaludjercic today as she announced a full programme of more than 400 films, talks, installations, and events for the event. ”Finally, after two enforced online editions, IFFR 2023 will mark our full return to cinemas and to an in-person event all across the city.”
Kaludjercic also confirmed the festival’s industry events, including the CineMart, Rotterdam Lab and Reality Check, will fully return to “the festival’s heart” in the Doelen building in the city centre.
Tiger and Big Screen competitions
Among the 16 first or second-time directors with films selected for the flagship TIger Competition are Moroccan filmmaker Leïla Kilani’s Indivision, German director Lukas Nathrath’s Letzter Abend and Spanish director Diego Llorente’s Notas Sobre Un Verano.
Among the films vying for the Big Screen award will be Belgium-based Jessica Woodworth’s solo directed feature Luka; South Korean director Shin Yeon-Shick’s One Win and Austrian director Edgar Honetschläger’s Le Formiche Di Mida.
The winning film receives a guaranteed theatrical release in the Netherlands and will be broadcast by VPRO. “For us, popular and avant garde are not entirely contradictory ideas,” Kaludjercic commented of the Big Screen selection
Kaludjercic confirmed the festival’s Robby Müller award will go to renowned French cinematographer Hélène Louvart.
She also underlined IFFR’s continuing commitment to short film. ““With short films having grown into IFFR’s picture with their own section and competition for two decades now, it feels natural to us that this is a sphere of creativity carefully to cultivate. IFFR has a keen eye on future talent often introducing themselves by way of shorts.”
IFFR 2023
Tiger competition
100 årstider (Swe)
Dir. Giovanni Bucchieri
Gagaland (China)
Dir. Teng Yuhan
Geology Of Separation (Tunisia-It-Fr)
Dirs. Yosr Gasmi, Mauro Mazzocchi
Indivision (Mor-Fr)
Dir. Leïla Kilani
Letzter Abend (Ger)
Dir. Lukas Nathrath
Mannvirki (Ice-Fr)
Dir. Gústav Geir Bollason
Munnel (Sri)
Dir. Visakesa Chandrasekaram
New Strains (US)
Dirs. Artemis Shaw, Prashanth Kamalakanthan
Notas Sobre Un Verano (Sp)
Dir. Diego Llorente
Numb (Iran)
Dir. Amir Toodehroosta
Nummer Achttien (Neth)
Dir. Guido van der Werve
La Palisiada (Ukr)
Dir. Philip Sotnychenko
Playland (US)
Dir. Georden West
Le Spectre De Boko Haram (Came-Fr)
Dir. Cyrielle Raingou
Thiiird (Leb)
Dir. Karim Kassem
Three Sparks (Alb-Mex)
Dir. Naomi Uman
Big Screen competition
Avant L’effondrement (Fr)
Dirs. Alice Zeniter, Benoît Volnais
Before The Buzzards Arrive (Mex)
Dir. Jonás N. Díaz
Copenhagen Does Not Exist (Den)
Dir. Martin Skovbjerg
Drawing Lots (Geo)
Dirs. Zaza Khalvashi, Tamta Khalvashi
Endless Borders (Czech-Ger-Iran)
Dir. Abbas Amini
Le Formiche Di Mida (Austria-It)
Dir. Edgar Honetschläger
Four Little Adults (Fin)
Dir. Selma Vilhunen
La Hembrita (Dom Rep)
Dir. Laura Amelia Guzmán Conde
Joram (Ind)
Dir. Devashish Makhija
Luka (Bel-It-Neth-Bul-Arm)
Dir. Jessica Woodworth
My Little Nighttime Secret (Rus)
Dir. Natalya Meshchaninova
Não Sou Nada – The Nothingness Club (Port)
Dir. Edgar Pêra
Okiku And The World (Jap)
Dir. Sakamoto Junji
One Win (S Korea)
Dir. Shin Yeon-Shick
La Sudestada (Arg)
Dirs. Daniel Casabé, Edgardo Dieleke
Voyages En Italie (Fr)
Dir. Sophie Letourneur
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