Crude Oil is a 2008 Chinese documentary film directed by Wang Bing. Filmed in the Inner Mongolian portion of the Gobi Desert, it follows a group of oil field workers as they go about their daily routine.
Anocha Suwichakornpong is a Thai independent film director, screenwriter and producer. She is currently Professor of Film at Columbia University, where she advises thesis students in the MFA Film Program and teaches film directing. She was formally Visiting Lecturer on Art, Film, and Visual Studies at Harvard University.
Hubertus Bernardus "Huub" Bals was the first director and creator of International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), formerly named Film International. IFFR started small in the Calypso cinema and film theatre 't Venster in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, in 1972, with only 4500 visitors and 31 films. In the forthcoming years the film festival expanded gradually under the watchful cinephile eye of Bals to 150.000 visitors and multiple cinemas in 1988 – Bals' last festival – and developed into an annual film event of great international importance, with already more than 350.000 visitors in 2010. Thanks to Bals many new film countries and continents have been introduced to The Netherlands, among which Russia, China, Taiwan, Africa and Latin-America.
'The masters of the cinema of tomorrow are from the Third World.'
Flying Fish is a 2011 anthology film directed by Sri Lankan filmmaker Sanjeewa Pushpakumara. It was produced with the financial support of the Hubert Bals Fund of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR). The film made its world premiere on 28 January 2011, as part of the Rotterdam festival's Tiger Awards Competition. The film has been noted for its political value, beautiful cinematography, long takes, and shocking violence.
Sanjeewa Pushpakumara is a Sri Lankan film director, screenwriter and producer.
Vipin Vijay is an Indian film director and screenwriter. He received his post-graduate degree in filmmaking from the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute SRFTI, Calcutta. He received the Charles Wallace Arts Award for research at the British Film Institute, London, 2003. Vipin is the recipient of "The Sanskriti Award" (2007) for social & cultural achievement. His works are made under independent codes and defy any categorisation eluding all traditional genre definitions and merge experimental film, documentary, essay, fiction all into one.
My Blind Heart is an Austrian feature film drama written, directed and edited by Peter Brunner. The film premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam and Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, in January/February 2014 and was nominated for a Golden Frog at the prestigious Camerimage Film Festival in November 2014.
Woo Ming Jin is a Malaysian film director, writer and producer. His films have screened in film festivals such as Cannes, Berlin and Venice. He is also the co-founder of Greenlight Pictures, a film and television production house based in Kuala Lumpur.
Sexy Durga is a 2017 Indian Malayalam-language indie horror film directed by Sanal Kumar Sasidharan. The film is about the religious divide in the society of Kerala and its effect on marriage between two people from two different religious backgrounds.
Piano is an independent film production and distribution company based in Mexico City, started in 2011 by Julio Chavezmontes and Sebastián Hofmann as a platform for innovative filmmakers. It specializes in film production, finance, distribution, and international coproductions.
Julio Chavezmontes is a renowned Mexican producer and screenwriter, winner of the Best Screenplay award at the Sundance Film Festival in 2018 and twice nominated for the AMACC Ariel Award. He has produced more than 20 films, many of which have been screened at the world's leading film festivals, including Sundance, Berlin, Cannes, Venice, and Toronto, among others. His productions have received multiple accolades, most recently the Best Director Award (“Annette”) and the Jury Prize (“Memoria”) at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival.
Arun Karthick is an Indian film director. His directorial debut Sivapuranam (2016) a Tamil language Film premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Karthick's second feature film Nasir (2020) received the Hubert Bals Fund enabling it to become a coproduction with the Netherlands. Nasir premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2020, was an entry for the Tiger Competition and won the NETPAC Award for the best Asian feature film. The film's North American premiere will be at the New Directors/ New Films festival organized by the Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Centre.
The Reports on Sarah and Saleem is a 2018 international co-production drama film directed by Palestinian filmmaker Muayad Alayan.
Rajee Samarasinghe is a Sri Lankan filmmaker and visual artist. His work explores a wide array of topics including the Sri Lankan Civil War, his family, and the deconstruction of documentary and narrative film.
The 50th International Film Festival Rotterdam, was the 2021 installment of the International Film Festival Rotterdam, which took place on 1–7 February 2021 and 2–6 June 2021. The first part of the edition focused on the main Tiger, Big Screen, Ammodo Tiger Short, and Limelight programmes. Whilst, the second part focused on the Harbour, Bright Future, Cinema Regained, Classics and Short and Mid-Length Film sections.
The 49th International Film Festival Rotterdam, the 2020 installment of the International Film Festival Rotterdam, took place on 22 January–2 February 2020.
The Eternal Springtime is a 2021 Vietnamese documentary short film directed by Việt Vũ, which distributed by Mailuki Films. The film was selected to compete in the Ammodo Tiger Short section at the 50th International Film Festival Rotterdam.
The 51st International Film Festival Rotterdam, is the 2022 edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam, which took place online from 26 January 2022 to 6 February 2022. The festival, which was held online for the second consecutive year due to the spread of the Omicron variant across Europe, opened with Amanda Kramer's film Please Baby Please. The festival closed with the screening of 1967 sword fighting classic Dragon Inn by King Hu on 6 February 2022.
The 53rd International Film Festival Rotterdam, is the 2024 edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam, which began on 25 January 2024. The festival opened with Head South a New Zealand film by Jonathan Ogilvie. The complete line-up of films competing in the festival was revealed on 18 December 2023. The festival closed on 4 February 2024 with La Luna by M. Raihan Halim.
Leonardo Pirondi is a Brazilian film director from São Paulo. Pirondi's work explores the intersection between fiction and non-fiction filmmaking using non-conventional structures of documentary, experimental, and narrative modes. In his films he explores contemporary sociopolitical issues and collective anxieties as a lens to look into history, imagination, myth, and technology.
