International Film Festival Rotterdam has revealed the lineup of films selected across the Tiger, Big Screen and Tiger Short competitions for the festival’s 55th edition, running from Jan. 29-Feb. 8.
IFFR will open with the world premiere of the Portuguese feature “Providence and the Guitar” by João Nicolau, which festival director Vanja Kaludjercic described as “a generous and witty film which places the present alongside echoes of the past.”
Inspired by a short novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, the film follows Leon and Elvira, two performers trying to keep their stage careers afloat. The film marks the acting debut of Salvador Sobral, one of Portugal’s best loved musicians and the winner of the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest.
“Providence and the Guitar”
Courtesy of IFFR
The festival will close with the world premiere of crime comedy “Bazaar (Murder in the Building)” from French filmmaker Rémi Bezançon, and starring Laetitia Casta, Gilles Lellouche and Guillaume Gallienne. Kaludjercic said the film had “style, intelligence and a sense of fun.”
The film follows an enthusiastic Hitchcock scholar who becomes convinced that the neighbor across the courtyard has murdered his wife. With her husband, a successful thriller novelist, she launches an investigation that is by turns risky, absurd and revealing.
Kaludjercic said: “The 2026 edition of IFFR unites new voices and returning artists whose works explore belonging, reinvention, humor, fear, beauty and the persistent human effort to understand our place in a changing world.”
“Bazaar (Murder in the Building)”
Courtesy of IFFR
Tiger Competition
“La belle année,” dir. Angelica Ruffier (Sweden, Norway)
“A Fading Man,” dir. Welf Reinhart (Germany)
“The Gymnast,” dir. Charlotte Glynn (United States)
“A Messy Tribute to Motherly Love,” dir. Dan Geesin (Netherlands, Germany, Belgium)
“My Semba,” dir. Hugo Salvaterra (Angola)
“Nangong Cheng,” dir. Shao Pan (China)
“O Profeta,” dir. Ique Langa (Mozambique, South Africa, Qatar)
“Roid,” dir. Mejbaur Rahman Sumon (Bangladesh)
“Supporting Role,” dir. Ana Urushadze (Georgia, Estonia, Turkey, Switzerland, United States)
“Unerasable!,” dir. Socrates Saint-Wulfstan Drakos (Belgium, Thailand, Sweden)
“Variations on a Theme,” dir. Jason Jacobs, Devon Delmar (South Africa, Netherlands, Qatar)
“Yellow Cake,” dir. Tiago Melo (Brazil)
Big Screen Competition
“2m²,” dir. Volkan Üce (Belgium, Germany, Turkey)
“The Arab,” dir. Malek Bensmail (Algeria, France, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, Belgium)
“Butterfly,” dir. Itonje Søimer Guttormsen (Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom, Germany)
“Cyclone,” dir. Philip Yung (Hong Kong)
“The Fall of Sir Douglas Weatherford,” dir. Sean Dunn (United Kingdom)
“Home,” dir. Marijana Janković (Denmark, Serbia)
“Master,” dir. Rezwan Shahriar Sumit (Bangladesh)
“Moonglow,” dir. Isabel Sandoval (Philippines, Taiwan, Japan)
“Now I Met Her,” dir. Xiao Luxi (China)
“Projecto Global,” dir. Ivo M. Ferreira (Portugal, Luxembourg)
“Talking to a Stranger,” dir. Adrián García Bogliano (Mexico)
“Tell Me What You Feel,” dir. Łukasz Ronduda (Poland)
Tiger Short Competition
“A donde nos lleva la fe de José Gerónimo,” dir. Juliano Kunert (Dominican Republic)
“Acid City,” dir. Jack Wedge, Will Freudenheim (United States)
“The Apple Doesn’t Fall…,” dir. Dean Wei (China)
“Body, Remember…,” dir. Matthew Berka (United Kingdom)
“Cul-De-Sac!,” dir. Clyde Gates, Gabriel Sanson (Belgium, France)
“Deep Cobalt,” dir. Petna Ndaliko Katondolo (Congo, Democratic Republic, United States)
“Dissonance,” dir. Jordan Strafer (Germany), world premiere (festival)
“Domestic Demon,” dir. Anahid Yahjian (United States, Portugal)
“Futuros luminosos,” dir. Ismael García Ramírez (Colombia)
“Golden Island,” dir. Arief Budiman (Indonesia, Singapore)
“Home Is Where the Heart Is,” dir. Timothée Engasser (France)
“I Am a River,” dir. Heidi Piiroinen (Finland, France)
“Last Shot,” dir. Parham Rahimzadeh (Netherlands)
“Like Moths to Light,” dir. Gala Hernández López (Spain, Italy, France)
“Mirror Martyr Mirror Moon,” dir. Jesse Jones (Ireland)
“The Next World,” dir. Grau Del Grau (United States)
“Objet d’énigme,” dir. Chiara Caterina (Italy, Belgium)
“Orla,” dir. Marie Lukáčová (Czech Republic, Slovakia)
“Relucesco,” dir. Shannon Lynn Harris (Canada)
“The Second Skin,” dir. Mariia Lapidus (United States, Mexico)
“Smriti~,” dir. Shahi A J (India)
“The Tragic Movement of the Spheres,” dir. Simon Rieth (France)
Displacement Film Fund
“Allies in Exile,” dir. Hasan Kattan (United Kingdom)
“Rotation,” dir. Maryna Er Gorbach (Ukraine, Turkey)
“Sense of Water,” dir. Mohammad Rasoulof (Iran, Germany)
“Super Afghan Gym,” dir. Shahrbanoo Sadat (Germany)
“Whispers of a Burning Scent,” dir. Mo Harawe (Somalia, Austria, Germany)
