Green Border

Source: VENICE FILM FESTIVAL

‘Green Border’

Agnieszka Holland’s Green Border  won the audience award of the 2024 International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR).

It was the final award presented at this year’s festival which ran January 25-February 4. Green Border follows a group of people caught in the Belarus–European Union border crisis. It premiered at Venice last year where it won the special jury prize. However, it  was condemned by some politicians in Holland’s native Poland, causing a public outcry. 

Last year’s audience award went to Dalva, a debut feature by Emmanuelle Nicot.

The festival’s main awards were handed out on Friday, with Tanaka Toshihiko’s Rei winning the Tiger Award, with Oktay Baraheni’s Iranian drama The Old Bachelor collecting the VPRO Big Screen Award.

Visitors 

IFFR recorded 253,500 visits across its programme of films, art installations and talks for its 2024 edition, which closed with M. Raihan Halim’s Malaysian comedy La Luna. The festival showcased 211 features films, of which 83 were world premieres (compared to 97 in 2023).

It was IFFR’s fourth edition with Vanja Kaludjercic at the helm, who this year was joined for the first time by Clare Stewart as the IFFR’s managing director.

Stewart said: “We are thrilled that, despite a reduction in scale to match our resources, the 53rd edition of IFFR has maintained its public reach, exceeded ticket sales targets and increased our overall occupancy rate to 75%. This affirms our strategic focus on ‘impact over scale’ and puts us in a great position to continue the recalibration of IFFR for future years.”