My Semba_Film still 1

Source: IFFR

‘My Semba’

International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) has unveiled the Tiger and Big Screen competition lineups for its 55th edition which takes place from January 29 – February 8.

The Tiger Competition, which showcases emerging voices from across the globe, has 12 world premieres, and 12 titles world premiere in Big Screen competition, which aims to bridge popular, classic and arthouse cinema. 22 titles are selected for IFFR’s Tiger Short Competition.

Additionally, IFFR has announced its opening film, the world premiere of Portuguese feature Providence And The Guitar by João Nicolau. Inspired by a short novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, the film follows Leon and Elvira, two performers trying to keep their stage careers afloat. Providence and the Guitar marks the acting debut of Portuguese musician Salvador Sobral, winner of the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest.

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. The film follows an enthusiastic Hitchcock scholar who becomes convinced that the neighbour 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.

Among the competition films is Variations on a Theme by South Africa’s Jason Jacobs and Devon Delmar, which comes after their debut film Carissa premiered in Venice’s Horizons selection in 2024. Variations on a Theme is about an elderly goat herder who falls victim to a scam promising financial reparations for her father, who was never paid for his service in WWII. It has received grant funding from the Doha Film Institute and from the Hubert Bals Fund.

Also selected is Georgian filmmaker Ana Urushadze’s Supporting Role. Urushadze’s debut feature Scary Mother won the Best First Feature Award at the Locarno Film Festival in 2017, and was Georgia’s submission to the Academy Awards. Last year, Supporting Role secured co-production funding from Eurimages. It tells the story of a once-famous Georgian cinema star attending a casting call for the debut movie by a young director.

The Tiger Competition also includes Angolan feature My Semba by Hugo Salvaterra, which was showcased at the Red Sea Souk in 2023 and this year won a slew of in-kind awards at this year’s Final Cut awards for projects in post-production at the Venice Production Bridge industry platform.

The Big Screen Competition line-up includes Butterfly, directed by Norwegian filmmaker Itonje Søimer Guttormsen, and starring Sentimental Value actor Renate Reinsve. The film is about two half-sisters who grow up as the only resident children at an all-inclusive resort on Gran Canaria, who reunite on the island twenty five years later to deal with their mother’s death. Protagonist handles international sales.

Also in Big Screen is The Fall Of Sir Douglas Weatherford, the debut feature from Scottish filmmaker Seán Dunn. Charades boarded for international sales last year, excluding UK and Ireland. Mubi has theatrical rights in the UK and Ireland.

Meanwhile, five short films backed by the Displacement Film Fund, which launched at IFFR last year, will have their world premiere at the festival.

Vanja Kaludjercic, festival director at IFFR, said: “The 2026 edition of IFFR unites new voices and returning artists whose works explore belonging, reinvention, humour, fear, beauty and the persistent human effort to understand our place in a changing world. Today’s announcement spotlights the competitions – the beating heart of the festival – with an array of titles that speak to our mission of audience discovery and championing filmmakers forging new paths in cinema.”

IFFR 2026 Tiger and Big Screen line-up

Tiger Competition

  • La belle année dir. Angelica Ruffier (Swed-Nor)
  • A Fading Man dir. Welf Reinhart (Ger)
  • The Gymnast dir. Charlotte Glynn (US)
  • A Messy Tribute to Motherly Love dir. Dan Geesin (Neth-Ger-Bel)
  • My Semba dir. Hugo Salvaterra (Ang)
  • Nangong Cheng dir. Shao Pan (Chi)
  • O profeta dir. Ique Langa (Moz-SA-Qat)
  • Roid dir. Mejbaur Rahman Sumon (Bang)
  • Supporting Role dir Ana Urushadze (Geo-Est-Tur-Switz-US)
  • Unerasable! dir. Socrates Saint-Wulfstan Drakos (Bel-Thai-Swed)
  • Variations on a Theme dir. Jason Jacobs, Devon Delmar (SA-Neth-Qat)
  • Yellow Cake dir. Tiago Melo (Bra)

Big Screen Competition

  • 2m² dir. Volkan Üce (Bel-Ger-Tur)
  • The Arab dir. Malek Bensmail (Alg-Fr-Switz-UAE-Bel)
  • Butterfly dir. Itonje Søimer Guttormsen (Nor-Swed-UK-Ger)
  • Cyclone dir. Philip Yung (HK)
  • The Fall of Sir Douglas Weatherford dir. Sean Dunn (UK)
  • Home dir. Marijana Janković (Den-Ser)
  • Master dir. Rezwan Shahriar Sumit (Bang)
  • Moonglow dir. Isabel Sandoval (Phil-Tai-Jap)
  • Now I Met Her dir Xiao Luxi (Chi)
  • Projecto Global dir. Ivo M. Ferreira (Port-Lux)
  • Talking to a Stranger dir. Adrián García Bogliano (Mex)
  • Tell Me What You Feel dir. Łukasz Ronduda (Pol)

Tiger Short Competition

  • A donde nos lleva la fe de José Gerónimo dir. Juliano Kunert (Dom Rep)
  • Acid City dir. Jack Wedge, Will Freudenheim (US)
  • The Apple Doesn’t Fall… dir. Dean Wei (Chi)
  • Body, remember… dir. Matthew Berka (UK)
  • CUL-DE-SAC ! dir. Clyde Gates, Gabriel Sanson (Bel-Fr)
  • Deep Cobalt dir. Petna Ndaliko Katondolo (DR Congo-US)
  • DISSONANCE* dir. Jordan Strafer (Ger) World Premiere (Festival)
  • Domestic Demon dir. Anahid Yahjian (US-Port)
  • Futuros luminosos dir. Ismael García Ramírez (Col)
  • Golden Island dir. Arief Budiman (Indon-Sing)
  • Home is where the heart is dir. Timothée Engasser (Fr)
  • I am a River dir. Heidi Piiroinen (Fin-Fr)
  • Last Shot dir. Parham Rahimzadeh (Neth)
  • like moths to light dir. Gala Hernández López (Sp-It-Fr)
  • Mirror Martyr Mirror Moon dir. Jesse Jones (Ire)
  • The Next World dir. Grau Del Grau (US)
  • Objet d’énigme dir. Chiara Caterina (It-Bel)
  • Orla dir. Marie Lukáčová (Czech Rep-Slovak Rep)
  • RELUCESCO dir. Shannon Lynn Harris (Can)
  • The Second Skin dir. Mariia Lapidus (US-Mex)
  • Smriti~ dir. Shahi A J (Ind)
  • The Tragic Movement of the Spheres dir. Simon Rieth (Fr)

Displacement Film Fund

  • Allies in Exile dir. Hasan Kattan (UK)
  • Rotation dir. Maryna Er Gorbach (Ukr-Tur)
  • Sense of Water dir. Mohammad Rasoulof (Iran-Ger)
  • Super Afghan Gym dir. Shahrbanoo Sadat (Ger)
  • Whispers of a Burning Scent dir. Mo Harawe (Som-Aus-Ger)

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