Rotterdam Reveals First 13 Titles Including Latest From Tiger Winner Daniel Hoesl, Venice Winner Alexander Kluge

International Film Festival Rotterdam has unveiled the first tranche of films selected for its 54th edition, which runs Jan. 30 – Feb. 9. These 13 titles, which will play in the Bright Future or Harbour sections, will each have their world premiere at IFFR.

Bright Future is dedicated to feature-length debuts, while Harbour offers a broad range of contemporary cinema.

The first wave of titles includes several IFFR alumni, including Daniel Hoesl, a former Tiger Award winner for micro-budget experimental feature “Soldate Jeannette,” with his new work “Un gran casino”; Hubert Bals Fund awardee Pelin Esmer, who returns to the festival with a world premiere of “And the Rest Will Follow”; Christina Friedrich presenting “The Night Is Dark and Brighter Than the Day,” which comes after her IFFR debut this year with “Zone”; and avant-garde trailblazer Alexander Kluge returns, after the world premiere of “Cosmic Miniatures” in the most recent edition of the festival, with “Primitive Diversity” for the 2025 instalment. Kluge, who began his career as an assistant to Fritz Lang, was awarded a Golden Lion at Venice in 1968 for “Artists Under the Big Top: Perplexed.”

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The Bright Future selection includes Lilly Hu’s debut feature “1 Girl Infinite,” a Chinese queer drama with Academy Award-winning screenwriter Eric Roth (“Forrest Gump”) serving as executive producer.

Vanja Kaludjercic, festival director at IFFR, said: “One of the biggest joys of curating IFFR is working with our team of programmers to create a lineup that showcases the breadth of cinematic experiences and a multitude of perspectives – and our first selection of titles demonstrates our commitment to this ambition.

“We can also see each year what a vital launch platform this is for titles which go on following their IFFR debut to commercial and critical success – and continue to champion and celebrate the progress of the projects we shared earlier this year in our 2024 edition.

“Across Bright Future and Harbour, we already have some incredible emerging and established voices, and an amazing blend of genres and human stories, that we know our avid and curious audiences are going to love discovering.”

The complete program will be launched on Dec. 17.

The first selections across Bright Future and Harbour are as follows:

BRIGHT FUTURE

1 GIRL INFINITE (World Premiere)
Director: Lilly Hu
U.S., Latvia, Singapore
Two teenage girls, Yin Jia and Tong Tong, live together in this color-drenched vision of Changsha, China. When Tong Tong drifts away and falls in with a drug dealer, Yin Jia’s love for her means she’ll risk everything to keep Tong Tong by her side.

CAMP D’ÉTÉ (World Premiere)
Director: Mateo Ybarra
Switzerland, France
In Switzerland, the Scout Movement is not a nostalgic fantasy but a vibrant social reality. This bubbly documentary captures the communal cycle of activities during a 14-day camp for youth. No reality TV-style contrived scenes here, this is a moving, joyful glimpse into life-changing experiences.

LATER IN THE CLEARING (World Premiere)
Director: Márton Tarkövi
Hungary, Spain
In a small Hungarian town, painter Péter Molnár leads filmmaker Márton Tarkövi on a journey through meadows, clearings and Molnár’s drawings. The viewer joins them, as they discuss art, time and life itself.

INVISIBLE FLAME (World Premiere)
Director: Oskar Weimar
Kenya
When fish begin to vanish, community members are quick to blame Dani, the elderly woman rumored to be a witch. Daisy, a fisherman’s daughter, must decide whether to stand by her friend or heed the warnings of those around her.

YOUR TOUCH MAKES OTHERS INVISIBLE (World Premiere)
Director: Rajee Samarasinghe
Sri Lanka, U.S.
As many as 100,000 people, predominantly members of the minority Tamil community, are estimated to have disappeared during the 26-year-long Sri Lankan Civil War. Through a synthesis of interviews, news clips and re-enactments this docufiction feature reflects on this harrowing history as families search for loved ones that disappeared without a trace.

HARBOUR

AND THE REST WILL FOLLOW (World Premiere)
Director: Pelin Esmer
Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania
Dreamy housekeeper Aliye spends her days between hotel rooms, escaping into the lives of the guests. But after a brief encounter with a famous filmmaker, Aliye decides that she has a story to tell, which leads to an entanglement of lives and fictions.

DEAD DOG (World Premiere)
Director: Sarah Francis
Lebanon
Walid and Aida, husband and wife, are reunited after Walid’s many years spent living abroad. Answers to long-hidden secrets are sought in Sarah Francis’ dissection of an estranged marriage.

FINDING RAMLEE (World Premiere)
Director: Megat Sharizal
Malaysia
An endearing retro dramedy set in swinging seventies Kuala Lumpur. Destitute and deep in debt, Zakaria is offered a lifeline by his loan shark: impersonate the Malaysian screen icon P. Ramlee in order to entertain his homebound, time-warped sister.

NO DEJES A LOS NIÑOS SOLOS (World Premiere)
Director: Emilio Portes
Mexico
A mother moves into a new house with her two children. One night she must leave the siblings home alone. What begins as a blast of carefree play soon turns into a claustrophobic horror story.

PRIMITIVE DIVERSITY (World Premiere)
Director: Alexander Kluge
Germany
Filmmaker Alexander Kluge loves to use the expression “primitive diversity” in relation to the origins of his art: the first films that were made, their genres, motives and moods. With the development of AI, Kluge asks, what could its primitive diversity look like?

THANK YOU SATAN (World Premiere)
Director: Hicham Lasri
Morocco, France
In this dark comedy set in the early 1990s, all Serge wants to do is write his “fucking best-seller!” When his publisher nags him to shake things up and bring out his “mainstream potential,” he gives it all he has and, with a killer edge.

THE NIGHT IS DARK AND BRIGHTER THAN THE DAY (World Premiere)
Director: Christina Friedrich
Germany
Filmmaker Christina Friedrich asks 33 primary school children about their fears, taking us on a long night-journey through a magic world of their creation. What can the “real world” learn from the games and rituals of children?

UN GRAN CASINO (World Premiere)
Director: Daniel Hoesl
Austria
The largest casino in Europe but is it just a big mess? Daniel Hoesl presents “Un gran casino” as an angry musing on a building, an Italian village and all that is done in the name of the unfettered creation of wealth.