Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken’s multi-layered essay on Edvard Munch’s life and art, Munch – a surprising mix of classical cinema and formal experiment, will open the 2023 International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) on Wednesday 25 January, 2023.

Varun Grover’s All India Rank, a witty, well-observed portrait of middle-class India’s aspirations and the attendant pressures on its children, will bring the festival to a close on Sunday 5 February, 2023.

IFFR revealed the films selected for its 2023 Tiger, Big Screen and Ammodo Tiger Short competitions. IFFR’s flagship Tiger Competition is the festival’s platform for emerging film talent and features a selection of 16 titles for its 52nd edition. The Big Screen Competition offers a wide-ranging selection, bridging the gap between popular, classic and arthouse cinema features. 16 titles have been selected for IFFR 2023 and 24 short films selected for the Ammodo Tiger Short Competition.

The festival will present Sunshine State, a Steve McQueen artwork commissioned by IFFR. The work will be presented in the Depot in collaboration with Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen from January 26 to February 12 2023. Sunshine State from the Oscar-winning filmmaker and Turner Prize-winning artist will be the first presentation to be hosted on the fifth floor of the Depot since it opened in November 2021.

French cinematographer Hélène Louvart (Beach Rats, Eliza Hittman, 2017; Lazzaro felice, Alice Rohrwacher, IFFR 2019; Un petit frère, Léonor Serraille, IFFR 2023) will receive the fourth annual Robby Müller Award. Awarded in collaboration with the Netherlands Society of Cinematographers (NSC) and Andrea Müller-Schirmer, Robby Müller’s wife, the award annually honors an outstanding “image maker” in the spirit of the late Dutch cinematographer.

Festival director Vanja Kaludjercic: “In shaping this year’s program we stay committed to the path we set out for ourselves: celebrating great cinema in all its splendor and to look where others don’t look. Our entire program, full of surprises, is a testament to that. In addition to those film cultures which traditionally are strongly present at IFFR, this year’s Tiger Competition, Big Screen Competition and Ammodo Tiger Short Competition, expand to films from Sri Lanka, Cameroon, Ukraine, the Dominican Republic, Morocco and Taiwan to name just a few. From remarkable débuts, to cinematic grand masters and our specially-commissioned Steve McQueen artwork, it is our true pleasure to share IFFR 2023’s wildly varied lineup.”

Tiger Competition 2023

• 100 årstider, Giovanni Bucchieri, 2022, Sweden, world premiere
• Gagaland, Teng Yuhan, 2023, China, world premiere
• Geology of Separation, Yosr Gasmi, Mauro Mazzocchi, 2023, Tunisia, Italy, France, world premiere
• Indivision, Leïla Kilani, 2023, Morocco, France, world premiere
• Letzter Abend, Lukas Nathrath, 2023, Germany, world premiere
• Mannvirki, Gústav Geir Bollason, 2023, Iceland, France, world premiere
• Munnel, Visakesa Chandrasekaram, 2023, Sri Lanka, world premiere
• New Strains, Artemis Shaw, Prashanth Kamalakanthan, 2023, United States, world premiere
• Notas sobre un verano, Diego Llorente, 2023, Spain, world premiere
• Numb, Amir Toodehroosta, 2023, Iran, world premiere
• Nummer achttien, Guido van der Werve, 2022, Netherlands, world premiere
• La Palisiada, Philip Sotnychenko, 2023, Ukraine, world premiere
• Playland, Georden West, 2023, United States, world premiere
• Le spectre de Boko Haram, Cyrielle Raingou, 2023, Cameroon, France, world premiere
• Thiiird, Karim Kassem, 2023, Lebanon, world premiere
• three sparks, Naomi Uman, 2023, Albania, Mexico, world premiere

Big Screen Competition 2023

• Avant l’effondrement, Alice Zeniter, Benoît Volnais, 2023, France, world premiere
• Before the Buzzards Arrive, Jonás N. Díaz, 2023, Mexico, world premiere
• Copenhagen Does Not Exist, Martin Skovbjerg, 2023, Denmark, world premiere
• Drawing Lots, Zaza Khalvashi, Tamta Khalvashi , 2023, Georgia, world premiere
• Endless Borders, Abbas Amini, 2023, Czech Republic, Germany, Iran , world premiere
• Le formiche di Mida, Edgar Honetschläger, 2023, Austria, Italy, world premiere
• Four Little Adults, Selma Vilhunen, 2023, Finland, world premiere
• La hembrita, Laura Amelia Guzmán Conde, 2023, Dominican Republic, world premiere
• Joram, Devashish Makhija, 2022, India, world premiere
• Luka, Jessica Woodworth, 2023, Belgium, Italy, Netherlands, Bulgaria, Armenia, world premiere
• My Little Nighttime Secret, Natalya Meshchaninova, 2023, Russia, world premiere
• Não Sou Nada – The Nothingness Club, Edgar Pêra, 2023, Portugal, world premiere
• Okiku and the World, Sakamoto Junji, 2023, Japan, world premiere
• One Win, Shin Yeon-Shick, 2023, South Korea, world premiere
• La Sudestada, Daniel Casabé, Edgardo Dieleke, 2022, Argentina, world premiere
• Voyages en Italie, Sophie Letourneur, 2023, France, world premiere

Ammodo Tiger Short Competition 2023

• Aqueronte, Manuel Muñoz Rivas, 2023, Spain, world premiere
• Blinded by Centuries, Parinda Mai, 2023, Thailand, United States, world premiere
• Delivery Dancer’s Sphere, Kim Ayoung, 2023, South Korea, world premiere (festival)
• Fälle, Mischa Hedinger, Michela Flück, 2023, Switzerland, world premiere
• From Voice to Pulse, Zeno van den Broek, 2023, Netherlands, world premiere
• La Grande Arche, Camille Authouart, 2023, France, world premiere
• I Can See the Sun but I Can’t Feel It Yet, Joseph Wilson, 2023, United Kingdom, world premiere
• Last Days of Summer, Stenzin Tankong, 2023, India, France, world premiere
• Light of Light, Neritan Zinxhiria, 2023, Greece, world premiere
• Natureza humana, Mónica Lima, 2023, Portugal, Germany, world premiere
• Never Come Back, Assaf Gruber, 2023, Austria, world premiere (festival)
• Pátio do Carrasco, André Gil Mata, 2023, Portugal, world premiere
• Phalène, Sarah-Anaïs Desbenoit, 2023, France, world premiere
• Pure Land, Tenzin Phuntsog, 2022, United States, world premiere (festival)
• Night and Fear, Lipika Singh Darai, 2023, India, world premiere
• Remendo, Roger Ghil, 2023, Brazil, world premiere
• Repetitions, Morgan Alaric Quaintance, 2023, United Kingdom, world premiere
• Shabnam, Reetu Sattar, 2023, Bangladesh, world premiere
• Skin in the Crosswinds, Andrew Rubin, 2023, United States, world premiere
• Square the Circle, Hanna Hovitie, 2023, Finland, world premiere (festival)
• Theta, Lawrence Lek, 2023, United Kingdom, world premiere (festival)
• Tito, Kerven Jimenez, Taylor McIntosh, 2023, Haiti, world premiere
• What the Soil Remembers, José Cardoso, 2023, South Africa, Ecuador, world premiere
• Zabriskie Point, Cho Seoungho, 2023, United States, world premiere