Rotterdam Film Festival Kicks Off Second Virtual Event, Market

The International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), arguably the largest cinema event devoted to alternative international cinema, kicks off its 51st edition Wednesday with the world premiere of Amanda Kramer’s Please Baby Please.

Rotterdam was forced to go online-only again this year after the Netherlands went into lockdown in December amid an omicron-driven surge in COVID-19 infections.

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Festival director Vanja Kaludjercic notes the shutdown happened “practically at the finish line” but that even before the lockdown, earlier restrictions, including a 5 pm curfew for cinemas, would have made an in-person festival a challenge.

“Can you imagine having a big film festival, a celebration of cinema with almost 300 films, all those world premieres, and 2 pm is your primetime slot?” Kaludjercic tells The Hollywood Reporter.

Still, the show must go on and Kaludjercic noted that after the experience of last year’s all-virtual event, “there was a lot of interest and support from the international industry and press, and from the filmmakers to make this work.”

Filmmakers like Thai auteur and Rotterdam festival veteran Apichatpong Weerasethakul, whose Blissfully Yours won at IFFR in 2003 and who has relied on help from Rotterdam’s Hubert Bals fund, named after the IFFR founder, to finance his movies ever since, including his 2010 Palme d’Or winner Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, and his latest, the Tilda Swinton-starrer Memoria.