“You can definitely say the Tiger has returned,” said festival director Vanja Kaludjercic this morning, as she unveiled the full line-up for the 2023 IFFR, taking place from 25 January-5 February, its first edition in its standard late-January slot since the pandemic hit. With more than 400 feature, mid-length and short films slated to premiere or take part in the retrospective sections, she hailed the fact that “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 went on to introduce the year’s programme in more depth, saying, “We stay committed to the path we set out for ourselves: celebrating great cinema in all its splendour and looking where others don’t look. Our entire programme, full of surprises, is a testament to that. In addition to those film cultures which traditionally are strongly present at IFFR, we are expanding to cover films from Sri Lanka, Cameroon, Ukraine, the Dominican Republic, Morocco and Taiwan, to name just a few. From remarkable debuts to cinematic grand masters and our specially commissioned Steve McQueen artwork [the installation Sunshine State, postponed from the 2022 event], it is our true pleasure to share IFFR 2023's wildly varied line-up.”

The opening-night film, Munch [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Henrik M. Dahlsbakken
scheda film], a biopic of the iconic Norwegian artist by Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken, will screen out of competition. Backed by Nordic streamer Viaplay, its experimental approach will see four actors – Alfred Ekker Strande, Mattis Herman Nyquist, Ola G Furuseth and Anne Krigsvoll – depicting the painter throughout his life.

This year, the Tiger Competition, the festival’s platform for emerging film talent, will showcase 16 titles from a vast national spread, including One Last Evening [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Lukas Nathrath
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scheda film] by Diego Llorente. The jury, composed of president Lav Diaz, Sabrina Baracetti, Anisia Uzeyman, Christine Vachon and Alonso Díaz de la Vega, will grant three prizes: the Tiger Award, worth €40,000, and two Special Jury Awards.

The Big Screen Competition, “bridging the gap between popular, classic and arthouse cinema”, will have its winner selected by an audience jury. The victor will receive a guaranteed theatrical release in the Netherlands, followed by a TV broadcast by VPRO and NPO. “For us, popular and avant-garde are not entirely contradictory ideas,” Kaludjercic concluded.

The two feature competition line-ups are as follows:

Tiger Competition

100 Seasons [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Giovanni Bucchieri
scheda film] - Giovanni Bucchieri (Sweden)
Gagaland - Teng Yuhan (China)
Geology of Separation [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] - Yosr Gasmi, Mauro Mazzocchi (Tunisia/Italy/France)
Birdland [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] - Leïla Kilani (Morocco/France)
One Last Evening [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Lukas Nathrath
scheda film] - Lukas Nathrath (Germany)
Mannvirki [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] - Gústav Geir Bollason (Iceland/France)
Munnel - Visakesa Chandrasekraram (Sri Lanka)
New Strains - Artemis Shaw/Prashanth Kamalakanthan (USA)
Notes on a Summer [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] - Diego Llorente (Spain)
Numb - Amir Toodehroosta (Iran)
The Breath of Life [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Guido van der Werve
scheda film] - Guido van der Werve (Netherlands)
La Palisiada [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Philip Sotnychenko
scheda film] - Philip Sotnychenko (Ukraine)
Playland - Georden West (USA)
Le Spectre de Boko Haram [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] - Cyrielle Raingou (Cameroon/France)
Thiiird - Karim Kassem (Lebanon)
three sparks [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] - Naomi Uman (Albania/Mexico)

Big Screen Competition

Before We Collapse [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] - Alice Zeniter/Benoît Volnais (France)
Before the Buzzards Arrive - Jonás N Diaz (Mexico)
Copenhagen Does Not Exist [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Martin Skovbjerg
scheda film] - Martin Skovbjerg (Denmark)
Drawing Lots [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] - Zaza Khalvashi/Tamta Khalvashi (Georgia)
Endless Borders [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Abbas Amini
scheda film] - Abbas Amini (Czech Republic/Germany/Iran)
Mida's Ants [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] - Edgar Honetschläger (Austria/Italy)
Four Little Adults [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Selma Vilhunen
scheda film] - Selma Vilhunen (Finland)
La Hembrita - Laura Amelia Guzmán Conde (Dominican Republic)
Joram - Devashish Makhija (India)
Luka [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Jessica Woodworth
scheda film] - Jessica Woodworth (Belgium/Italy/Netherlands/Bulgaria/Armenia)
My Little Nighttime Secret - Natalya Meshchaninova (Russia)
The Nothingness Club - Não Sou Nada [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Edgar Pêra
scheda film] - Edgar Pêra (Portugal)
Okiku and the World and the World - Sakamoto Junji (Japan)
One Win - Shin Yeon-Shick (South Korea)
La Sudestada - Daniel Casabé/Edgardo Dieleke (Argentina)
Voyages en Italie [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] - Sophie Letourneur (France)