from IFFR

Canadian feature Incendies by Denis Villeneuve has won the UPC Audience Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam 2011. The other award decided by the audience – the Dioraphte Award for Best Hubert Bals Fund-supported film – went to former CineMart Project If the Seed Doesn’t Die by Serbian filmmaker Sinisa Dragin. This was announced on the evening of Saturday, 5 February in the Grote Zaal in de Doelen, Rotterdam.

IFFR 2011 racked up 340,000 visits to its films, exhibitions, performances and events. The 41st International Film Festival Rotterdam will take place from 25 January to 5 February 2012.

Festival head Rutger Wolfson looks back with satisfaction on an energetic anniversary festival:

“We bring together filmmakers from all over the world for ten days in Rotterdam. Introducing their films, the fruits of tremendous efforts, to a full auditorium can lead to beautiful and emotional situations especially with debut filmmakers. For me, this festival had many highlights, including the opening of the Out of Fashion exhibition, with the performance by Japanese artist Pyupiruu; the live wuxia performances in the Chinese Water Tiger Inn Tavern; the Not Kidding programme for the youngest generation of festival visitors; the Metropole Orchestra, opening the Red Westerns programme; the attendance by prominent filmmakers such as Lee Chang-Dong, Jan Svankmajer, Kore-eda Hirokazu, Ali Khamraev, Mathieu Amalric, Denis Villeneuve, Daniele Luchetti, Denis Côté and Tsukamoto Shinya, and actors such as Marisa Paredes, Stellan Skarsgård and Will Oldham.”

Another striking feature of IFFR 2011 was the renewed energy felt among the film professionals visiting the festival. 2009 and 2010 were characterized by caution owing to the economic crisis. This year, however, Wolfson has noticed optimism and vitality: “The crisis may not be over, but young filmmakers and young producers in particular now know what its effects are. The energy and dynamism on display here on their part give grounds for hope.”

Tiger Awards and Return of the Tiger Award

Friday February 4, the three Tiger Awards were granted to feature débuts The Journals of Musan by Park Jung-Bum (South Korea, 2010, also winner of the Rotterdam FIPRESCI Award 2011), Finisterrae by Sergio Caballero (Spain, 2010) and Hubert Bals Fund supported film Eternity by Sivaroj Kongsakul (Thailand, 2010).

On the occasion of IFFR’s 40th jubilee edition, the one-off and shared Return of the Tiger Award went to Oki’s Movie by Hong Sang-Soo (South Korea) and Club Zeus by David Verbeek (Netherlands/China).