International Film Festival Rotterdam
The International Film Festival Rotterdam is an annual film festival held at the end of January in various locations in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Since its foundation in 1972, it has maintained a focus on independent and experimental filmmaking by showcasing emerging talents and established auteurs. The festival also places a focus on presenting cutting edge media art and arthouse film, with most of the participants in the short film program identified as artists or experimental filmmakers. IFFR also hosts CineMart and BoostNL, for film producers to seek funding.
History
The first festival — then called 'Film International' — was organized in June 1972 under the leadership of Huub Bals. IFFR's logo is a tiger, loosely based on Leo, the lion in the MGM logo. From the beginning, the festival has profiled itself as a promoter of alternative, innovative and non-commercial films, with an emphasis on the Far East and developing countries. Around 1983, the festival founded CineMart to serve as a "regular film market," and later modified the business model to serve instead as a "co-production market", which helps a selected number of film producers connect with possible co-producers and funders for their film projects.After the festival founder's sudden death in 1988, a fund was initiated and named after him, used for supporting filmmakers from developing countries.
The non-competitive character of the festival changed in 1995, when the VPRO Tiger Awards were introduced—three yearly prizes for young filmmakers making their first or second film. The next year, Simon Field, formerly Cinema Director at the London Institute of Contemporary Arts, became director of the festival. In 2004 Sandra den Hamer took over as director of the festival, and from 2007 to 2015 the director was Rutger Wolfson. Film producer Bero Beyer was the next director and in 2020, Vanja Kaludjercic was appointed as the new director.
Despite financial difficulties in the mid-1980s, the festival has grown steadily, reaching more than 300,000 visitors in 2015.
Festival screening locations
The IFFR screens films at multiple locations, including the Pathé cinema at Schouwburgplein, De Doelen, Cinerama, WORM, Oude Luxor Theater, Theater Rotterdam Schouwburg, KINO and Lantaren Venster.Tiger Award winners
The Tiger Award has had various sponsors over the years. In the years leading up to and including 2010 it was sponsored by the VPRO. In 2011 the award was presented by the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds and since 2012 by Hivos.| Year | Film | Original title | Director | Country |
| 1995 | Postman | Youchai | Jianjun He | |
| 1995 | ' | |||
| 1995 | ' | |||
| 1996 | Sons | Erzi | Zhang Yuan | |
| 1996 | Like Grains of Sand | Nagisa no Shindobaddo | Ryōsuke Hashiguchi | |
| 1996 | Small Faces | Gillies MacKinnon | ||
| 1997 | ' | |||
| 1997 | The Day a Pig Fell into the Well | Daijiga umule pajinnal | Hong Sang-soo | |
| 1997 | ' | Patrick Keiller | ||
| 1998 | Buttoners | Knoflíkári | Petr Zelenka | |
| 1998 | ' | :it:Giuseppe M. Gaudino|Giuseppe Gaudino | ||
| 1998 | The Inheritors | Die Siebtelbauern | Stefan Ruzowitzky | |
| 1999 | ' | Alexander Bashirov | ||
| 1999 | :fr:Plus qu'hier moins que demain|More Than Yesterday | :fr:Plus qu'hier moins que demain|Plus qu'hier moins que demain | :fr:Laurent Achard|Laurent Achard | |
| 1999 | Following | Christopher Nolan | ||
| 2000 | Suzhou River | Suzhou he | Ye Lou | |
| 2000 | Crane World | Mundo Grúa | Pablo Trapero | |
| 2000 | Bye Bye Blue Bird | Katrin Ottarsdottír | ||
| 2001 | Bad Company | Mabudachi | Furumaya Tomoyuki | |
| 2001 | ' | :de:Maria Speth|Maria Speth | ||
| 2001 | 25 Watts | Juan Pablo Rebella & Pablo Stoll | ||
| 2002 | ' | :nl:Tussenland|Tussenland | ||
| 2002 | ' | Sinişa Dragin | ||
| 2002 | Wild Bees | Divoké vcely | Bohdan Sláma | |
| 2003 | ' | |||
| 2003 | ' | Santiago Loza | ||
| 2003 | Jealousy Is My Middle Name | Jiltuneun naui him | Park Chan-ok | |
| 2004 | ' | Kang-sheng Lee | ||
| 2004 | Summer in the Golden Valley | Ljeto u zlatnoj dolini | Srđan Vuletić | |
| 2004 | En Route | Unterwegs | ||
| 2005 | :it:Nemmeno il destino|Changing Destiny | :it:Nemmeno il destino|Nemmeno il destino | Daniele Gaglianone | |
| 2005 | 4 | Chetyre | Ilya Khrzhanovsky | |
| 2005 | :es:El cielo gira|The Sky Turns | :es:El cielo gira|El cielo gira | :es:Mercedes Álvarez |Mercedes Álvarez | |
| 2006 | ' | |||
| 2006 | :es:La perrera|The Dog Pound | :es:La perrera|La perrera | :es:Manolo Nieto|Manuel Nieto Zas | |
| 2006 | Old Joy | Kelly Reichardt | ||
| 2007 | Love Conquers All | Tan Chui Mui | ||
| 2007 | ' | :de:Pia Marais|Pia Marais | ||
| 2007 | :pt:Baixio das Bestas|Bog of Beasts | :pt:Baixio das Bestas|Baixio das Bestas | Claudio Assis | |
| 2007 | AFR | :da:Morten Hartz Kaplers|Morten Hartz Kaplers | ||
| 2008 | :da:Gå med fred, Jamil|Go With Peace Jamil | :da:Gå med fred, Jamil|Gå med fred Jamil - Ma salama Jamil | :da:Omar Shargawi|Omar Shargawi | |
| 2008 | Wonderful Town | Aditya Assarat | ||
| 2008 | Flower in the Pocket | Liew Seng Tat | ||
| 2009 | ' | |||
| 2009 | Breathless | Ddongpari | Yang Ik-june | |
| 2009 | Wrong Rosary | |||
| 2010 | ' | Paz Fábrega | ||
| 2010 | Alamar | To the Sea | ||
| 2010 | Mundane History | Jao nok krajok | Anocha Suwichakornpong | |
| 2011 | The Journals of Musan | Musanilgi | Park Jung-bum | |
| 2011 | ' | |||
| 2011 | ' | |||
| 2012 | Klip | Clip | Maja Miloš | |
| 2012 | ' | |||
| 2012 | ' | |||
| 2013 | My Dog Killer | Môj pes Killer | Mira Fornay | |
| 2013 | :de:Soldate Jeannette|Soldier Jane | :de:Soldate Jeannette|Soldate Jeannette | ||
| 2013 | Fat Shaker | Mohammad Shirvani | ||
| 2014 | ' | |||
| 2014 | ' | Ester Martin Bergsmark | ||
| 2014 | ' | Lee Su-jin | ||
| 2015 | ' | Carlos M. Quintela | ||
| 2015 | ' | Juan Daniel F. Molero | ||
| 2015 | ' | Jakrawal Nilthamrong | ||
| 2016 | ' | Babak Jalali | ||
| 2017 | Sexy Durga | Sanal Kumar Sasidharan | ||
| 2018 | The Widowed Witch | Xiao gua fu cheng xian ji | Cai Chengjie | |
| 2019 | Present.Perfect. | Wan mei jin xing shi | Shengze Zhu | |
| 2020 | ' | Ta fang jian li de yun | Xinyuan Zheng Lu |