International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) has selected 24 short films for the 2019 Ammodo Tiger Short Competition. Selections include exciting newcomers like German filmmaker Lucia Margarita and Moroccan artist Meriem Bennani, as well as filmmakers who have been in competition in Rotterdam before, such as Belgium-based artist Vincent Meessen or Taiwanese artist Su Hui-yu. Sara Cwynar (Rose Gold) and Daniel Jacoby (Mountain Plain Mountain), both winners of an Ammodo Tiger Short Award in 2018, return to Rotterdam in 2019 to present their films Red Film and Nehemías. Familiar names such as Simon Liu, Mike Hoolboom, Luke Fowler and Kevin Jerome Everson have shown several films at IFFR in the past, and this year make their competition debuts.
Two of the selected filmmakers will also hold Artist Talks at IFFR: Diana Vidrascu, selected with her film Le silence des sirènes, and Andrew Norman Wilson, selected with Kodak. American artist Cauleen Smith, selected with her short film Sojourner, also features in other parts of the IFFR 2019 program: she presents her performance Black Utopia LP as part of the exhibition Blackout, is showing a number of her short films in a Deep Focus Short Profile and presents a restoration of her 1998 film Drylongso.
The jury is made up of Vietnamese artist Nguyen Trinh Thi, who previously participated in the Tiger Awards Competition for Short Films with her film Letters from Panduranga; John Canciani, festival director of Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur; and Lawrence Abu Hamdan, who will also be presenting his film Walled Unwalled at IFFR 2019 as part of Bright Future Short, as well as his performance After SFX, which is presented in collaboration with Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art (who are hosting his solo exhibition).
Alongside the films in the Ammodo Tiger Short Competition, IFFR will also present a large number of short films throughout its program. Bright Future Short screens more experimental, artistic short films such as the world premiere of Johann Lurf’s 3D film Cavalcade, while Voices Short is the home for more narrative-driven short films, such as the world premiere of Tomek Popakul’s Acid Rain.
International Film Festival Rotterdam 2019 Ammodo Tiger Short Competition
27 thoughts about my father, Mike Hoolboom, 2019, Canada, world premiere
ALTIPLANO, Malena Szlam, 2018, Chile/Argentina/Canada, international premiere
Anteu, João Vladimiro, 2018, Portugal/France
La bala de Sandoval/Sandoval’s Bullet, Jean-Jacques Martinod, 2019, Ecuador, world premiere
Black Bus Stop, Kevin Jerome Everson/Claudrena N. Harold, 2018, USA, international premiere
E-Ticket, Simon Liu, 2019, Hong Kong/USA/UK, world premiere
Freedom of Movement, Nina Fischer/Maroan el Sani, 2018, Germany/Italy, international premiere
The Glamorous Boy of Tang, Su Hui-yu, 2018, Taiwan, world premiere (festival)
Kodak, Andrew Norman Wilson, 2018, USA, international premiere
Lost Tune, Reetu Sattar, 2018, Bangladesh, world premiere (festival)
Maman Maman Maman, Lucia Margarita Bauer, 2019, Germany, world premiere
The Mental Traveller, Taiki Sakpisit, 2019, Thailand, world premiere
Mum’s Cards, Luke Fowler, 2018, UK, European premiere
Nehemías, Daniel Jacoby, 2019, Netherlands/Peru, world premiere
Paranon, Zeno van den Broek, 2019, Netherlands, world premiere
Party on the CAPS, Meriem Bennani, 2018, Morocco/Switzerland, world premiere (festival)
Primeiro ato/First Act, Matheus Parizi, 2019, Brazil, world premiere
Red Film, Sara Cwynar, 2018, USA, world premiere (festival)
The Sasha, Maria Molina, 2019, Netherlands, world premiere
Le silence des sirènes/Silence of the Sirens, Diana Vidrascu, 2019, France, world premiere
Sojourner, Cauleen Smith, 2018, USA, world premiere (festival)
These Silences Are All the Words, Madiha Aijaz, 2018, Pakistan, world premiere (festival)
Ultramarine, Vincent Meessen, 2019, Belgium/France, world premiere
Wong Ping’s Fables 1, Wong Ping, 2018, Hong Kong, world premiere (festival)