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Welcome to Portugal, 1968! António de Oliveira Salazar’s political life has reached its end after decades as the head of Portugal’s regime. That fact is known and acknowledged by everyone, except the dictator himself… That is the starting point for Our Father – The Last Days of a Dictator, the new film from Portuguese director José Filipe Costa (A Pleasure, Comrades!; Red Line). The character study, world premiering in the Big Screen Competition program of the Rotterdam International Film Festival (IFFR), is sure to make audiences reflect on the past, the present, and the future.

“The world’s longest-serving fascist dictator has ruled for 36 years over his country and its sprawling colonies,” explains a synopsis on IFFR’s website. (There are ongoing discussions among experts about whether his regime was fascist or “simply” authoritarian.) “But after a fall leaves him frail and incapacitated, Salazar is sent to the Palacete de São Bento,...

International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) will debut 14 feature works in its main competition and host on-stage talks with Cate Blanchett and Cheryl Dunye during its upcoming 54th edition, which runs 30 January – 9 February 2025.

The festival announced its competition lineups and talks this morning during a presser.

IFFR’s main Tiger Competition comes with a €40,000 cash prize. The festival also hands out two Special Jury Awards worth €10,000 each. The films selected this year include Im Haus meiner Eltern by Tim Ellric, Bad Girl by Varsha Bharath, and Guo Ran by Li Dongmei. Scroll down for the full list of titles. The Tiger Competition Jury will feature Yuki Aditya, Soheila Golestani, Winnie Lau, Peter Strickland, and Andrea Luka Zimmerman.

The headline guests of the festival’s talks lineup are Cate Blanchett and Guy Maddin, who will discuss their collaboration on Rumours. Also set for discussions in Rotterdam are DoP Lol Crawley and American...

The International Film Festival Rotterdam revealed the lineups of its Tiger, Big Screen and Tiger Short competition sections Tuesday, and the first tranche of speakers for the Talks program, who include Cate Blanchett and Guy Maddin.

Following their recent collaboration on “Rumours,” Blanchett and Maddin will come together for “an expansive dialogue about creative collaboration, the role of film festivals, and the enduring power of the short film form,” IFFR said.

IFFR will also welcome Robby Müller Award recipient Lol Crawley, in conversation with writer and film critic Peter Bradshaw to discuss his cinematography, including his work on “The Brutalist” and other highlights from his career.

Filmmaker Alex Ross Perry, known for Locarno’s “Listen Up Philip,” Toronto’s “Her Smell” and Sundance’s “Golden Exits,” will talk about his documentary “Videoheaven,” part of the Focus program “Hold Video in Your Hands,” celebrating the community spirit of VHS culture. Perry...

The International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) unveiled its 2025 Big Screen and Tiger Short competitive sections on Tuesday. Typical for Rotterdam, the selection is truly global, with films traversing from Montenegro to Malaysia, and from Congo to India.

The Big Screen Competition, which features films that bridge arthouse and popular cinema, features highlights including The Assistant from Polish directors Anka and Wilhelm Sasnal, whose It Looks Pretty from a Distance was in Rotterdam’s Tiger competition in 2012, Albert Oehlen’s Bad Painter starring Udo Kier, and the Japanese drama Yasuko, Songs of Days Past from director Negishi Kichitaro.

Oscar-winner Cate Blanchett and Canadian avant-garde filmmaker Guy Maddin will attend IFFR 2025 as part of the festival’s IFFR Talks lineup, to discuss their recent collaboration on Maddin’s Rumours. Other IFFR talks include a conversation with The Brutalist cinematographer Lol Crawley — winner of the IFFR’s Robby Müller lifetime achievement award — and...

International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) has unveiled the Tiger and Big Screen competition line-ups for its 54th edition which takes place from January 30 – February 9.

The Tiger Competition, which showcases emerging voices from across the globe, has 14 world premieres spanning Montenegro to Malaysia and Congo to India. IFFR said one of the Tiger titles will be revealed closer to the festival due to sensitivities surrounding its release. Another 20 titles play in IFFR’s Tiger Short Competition.

The competition includes Julian Chou’s Blind Love, which recently won the Screenplay Award at Taiwan’s Golden Horse Film Project Promotion (Fpp) project market.

European Film Promotion has unveiled the 10 European documentary features that will play as part of the third edition of the Changing Face of Europe section that runs as part of Hot Docs Film Festival’s industry program.

The industry program plays in a digital format this year, starting on April 30 and running until May 31. The festival’s public screenings have been postponed and will be rescheduled for a later date.

The films in the Changing Face of Europe were selected by the festival, based on recommendations by Efp member organizations, representing Europe’s film promotion institutes.

The documentaries will be presented to buyers, distributors and programmers through the films’ participation in the Doc Shop, Hot Docs’ online market that offers access to curated playlists of documentary titles on-demand and the hub for this year’s industry content.

The filmmakers of the 10 selected films have been invited to participate in the new digital industry program,...

Celebrating its 72nd edition this year, the Locarno Film Festival has been the birthplace for the finest in international arthouse cinema and this year’s lineup looks to continue the tradition. Ahead of the festival, running August 7-17, the full slate has been announced.

Top highlights include the world premieres of Pedro Costa’s Vitalina Varela (pictured above), Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s To the Ends of the Earth, Ben Rivers & Anocha Suwichakornpong’s Krabi, 2562, Ben Russell’s Color-blind, Denis Côté’s Wilcox, Fabrice Du Welz’s Adoration, as well as a new 12-minute short film from Yorgos Lanthimos titled Nimic and starring Matt Dillon. Other titles that have caught out eye are Echo, from Sparrows director Rúnar Rúnarsson, and A Girl Missing, from Harmonium director Koji Fukada.

The festival will also kick off with some star power as Patrick Vollrath’s 7500, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, will premiere. Check out the lineup below,...