Vanja Kaludjercic

Source: Courtesy of IFFR

Vanja Kaludjercic

International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) will be back in cinemas from October 14-16 with IFFR 2022: Return of the Tiger, after the last two editions of the festival were moved online due to the pandemic.

The city’s Cinerama Filmtheater and LantarenVenster venues will host screenings of selected films from the festival’s 51st edition, which was held online from January 26-February 6. Filmmakers and special guests from the selected films will be in attendance.

The event will screen 13 films from the 2022 Tiger Competition, including Paz Encina’s Tiger award winner Eami, and Morgane Dziurla-Petit’s special jury award winner Excess Will Save Us.

Eight titles from the Big Screen Competition to play at the October event include Mabrouk El Mechri’s Big Screen award winner Kung Fu Zohra, with El Mechri present to accept the award in-person.

Having been one of the last festivals to run in-person in January 2020 before the pandemic began, IFFR was unable to host its 2021 edition in-person due to lockdowns across much of the world at that time. It then had to move its 2022 edition online just weeks before the event, due to the spread of the Omicron variant of the Covid-19 virus. The festival held a summer event in June 2021 as an extension of the main festival.

Festival director Vanja Kaludjercic, who is still waiting to host her first full physical edition of the festival having started her role after the 2020 festival, described the Return of the Tiger event as “a warm welcome” to the 2022 competition filmmakers that “will be a very special moment.”

The 52nd IFFR is scheduled to take place from January 25 to February 5, 2023.