Tiger, Big Screen, and Tiger Short Competitions Announced for IFFR 2025 in the Netherlands

International Film Festival Rotterdam

Netherlands

The International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) has revealed the lineups for its Tiger, Big Screen, and Tiger Short competitions, forming the core of its 54th edition in 2025. With a focus on emerging global talent and boundary-pushing narratives, the festival is set to feature films from countries including Congo, Malaysia, and Argentina, offering a platform for groundbreaking voices in cinema.

Tiger Competition

The Tiger Competition, the festival’s flagship program, includes 14 films, each making its world premiere. These works explore personal and historical themes, with selections spanning continents. Highlights include L’arbre de l’authenticité by Sammy Baloji (Democratic Republic of Congo/Belgium) and Tears in Kuala Lumpur by Ridhwan Saidi (Malaysia). A 14th film will be announced later due to release sensitivities. The jury, led by notable names like Peter Strickland and Andrea Luka Zimmerman, will award the Tiger Award (€40,000) and two Special Jury Awards (€10,000 each).

Big Screen Competition

Bridging the gap between arthouse and popular cinema, the Big Screen Competition features 14 films, with titles such as De idylle by Aaron Rookus (Netherlands/Belgium/Estonia) and Yasuko, Songs of Days Past by Negishi Kichitaro (Japan). This category supports distribution in the Netherlands, awarding €15,000 each to the winning filmmaker(s) and the Dutch distributor acquiring the film.

Tiger Short Competition

The Tiger Short Competition spotlights innovative film art, with 20 films vying for three €5,000 awards. Notable entries include Common Pear by Gregor Božič (Slovenia/United Kingdom) and Merging Bodies by Adrian Paci (Italy).

Talks and Spotlight

IFFR’s Talks lineup will feature Cate Blanchett and Guy Maddin in a dialogue about creative collaboration, and Lol Crawley discussing his celebrated cinematography. Alex Ross Perry will present his documentary Videoheaven, and Cheryl Dunye and Albertina Carri will explore radical queerness in cinema.

Opening and Closing Films

The festival opens with Fabula, a dark comedy by Dutch director Michiel ten Horn, and closes with This City Is a Battlefield by Indonesian filmmaker Mouly Surya. The latter, supported by IFFR’s Hubert Bals Fund, is an ambitious historical epic.

Tiger Competition 2025

1. "L’arbre de l’authenticité" / Sammy Baloji / Democratic Republic of Congo, Belgium
2. "Bad Girl" / Varsha Bharath / India
3. "Blind Love" / Julian Chou / Taiwan
4. "Fiume o morte!" / Igor Bezinović / Croatia, Italy, Slovenia
5. "La gran historia de la filosofía occidental" / Aria Covamonas / Mexico
6. "Guo Ran" / Li Dongmei / China
7. "Im Haus meiner Eltern" / Tim Ellrich / Germany
8. "Perla" / Alexandra Makarová / Austria, Slovakia
9. "Primeira pessoa do plural" / Sandro Aguilar / Portugal, Italy
10. "Tears in Kuala Lumpur" / Ridhwan Saidi / Malaysia
11. "Vitrival – The Most Beautiful Village in the World" / Noëlle Bastin, Baptiste Bogaert / Belgium
12. "Wind, Talk to Me" / Stefan Djordjevic / Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia
13. "Wondrous Is the Silence of My Master" / Ivan Salatić / Montenegro, Italy, France, Croatia, Serbia
14. (To be announced closer to the festival)

Big Screen Competition 2025

1. "The Assistant" / Wilhelm Sasnal, Anka Sasnal / Poland, United Kingdom
2. "Back to the Family" / Sharunas Bartas / Lithuania, France, Poland, Latvia
3. "Bad Painter" / Albert Oehlen / Germany, United States
4. "¡Caigan las rosas blancas!" / Albertina Carri / Argentina, Brazil, Spain
5. "Gowok: Javanese Kamasutra" / Hanung Bramantyo / Indonesia
6. "De idylle" / Aaron Rookus / Netherlands, Belgium, Estonia
7. "Macai" / Sun-J Perumal / Malaysia
8. "Orenda" / Pirjo Honkasalo / Finland, Estonia, Sweden
9. "L’oro del Reno" / Lorenzo Pullega / Italy
10. "Our Father – The Last Days of a Dictator" / José Filipe Costa / Portugal
11. "The Puppet’s Tale" / Suman Mukhopadhyay / India
12. "Raptures" / Jon Blåhed / Sweden, Finland
13. "Soft Leaves" / Miwako Van Weyenberg / Belgium
14. "Yasuko, Songs of Days Past" / Negishi Kichitaro / Japan

Tiger Short Competition 2025

1. "Baby Blue Benzo" / Sara Cwynar / United States, Germany
2. "BAN♡ITS" / Omar Chowdhury / Belgium, Bangladesh, South Korea
3. "Bury Us in a Lone Desert" / Nguyễn Lê Hoàng Phúc / Vietnam
4. "Capitol Limited" / Lily Ekimian Ragheb, Ahmed T. Ragheb / United States
5. "Common Pear" / Gregor Božič / Slovenia, United Kingdom
6. "La durmiente" / Maria Inês Gonçalves / Portugal, Spain
7. "Empty Rider" / Lawrence Lek / Switzerland, United Kingdom
8. "The Garden of Electric Delights" / Billy Roisz / Austria
9. "Hepingli Playthrough" / Zheng Yuan / China
10. "I Wan’na Be Like You" / Margit Lukács, Persijn Broersen / Netherlands, France, Belgium, United Kingdom, Germany
11. "Memory Is an Animal, It Barks with Many Mouths" / Eva Giolo / Belgium, Italy
12. "Merging Bodies" / Adrian Paci / Italy
13. "A Metamorphosis" / Lin Htet Aung / Myanmar
14. "Now, Hear Me Good" / Dwayne LeBlanc / United States
15. "Les rites de passage" / Florian Fischer, Johannes Krell / Germany
16. "The Rock Speaks" / Amy Louise Wilson, Francois Knoetze / South Africa, Spain
17. "Suspicions About the Hidden Realities of Air" / Sam Drake / United States
18. "Temo Re" / Anka Gujabidze / Georgia
19. "Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World" / Kevin Walker, Irene Zahariadis / Greece, United States
20. "World at Stake" / Susanna Flock, Adrian Jonas Haim, Jona Kleinlein / Austria