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Tag: International Film Festival Rotterdam

  • Trailer for Ivo M. Ferreira’s Thriller ‘Projecto Global’ Debuts Ahead of Rotterdam Festival Premiere (EXCLUSIVE)

    Ivo M. Ferreira‘s thriller “Projecto Global,” which has its world premiere in the Big Screen Competition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam, has debuted its trailer (below).

    The world sales rights are held by The Match Factory.

    The film is set in Lisbon in the 1980s. The Carnation Revolution, which heralded Portugual’s transition to democracy, and the euphoria of freedom belong to the past. The country faces turbulent times: factories close, workers raise barricades, and politics dominates every street corner.

    As social tensions deepen, the far-left armed group FP25 emerges. Its members follow a path of no return, living underground lives built on bank robberies, attacks, friendship, family, and love — all under the perpetual threat of prison or death.

    As they abandon everything and everyone except each other, they begin to lose their own identities, while an officer fighting against them faces a moral dilemma of his own.

    Ferreira comments: “ ‘Projecto Global’ speaks of a dream of equality from which one is forced to awaken, and of the difficulty of accepting defeat when ideas collide with reality – made up of compromises, interests, pettiness, and renunciations. We swing between the euphoria of wanting to change the world and creeping despair.”

    The cast is led by Jani Zhao, Rodrigo Tomás and José Pimentão. The screenplay is by Ferreira and Hélder Beja. The producers are Luís Urbano, Sandro Aguilar and Donato Rotunno. The lead production company is O Som E A Fúria. The film is co-produced by Tarantula.

    In 1998, Ferreira’s short film “O que foi” was released, and his first feature film, “Em Volta,” came out in 2002. In 2006, he received a scholarship from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation to attend a screenplay writing course at the London International Film School, which led him to write and direct “Águas Mil,” screened at several film festivals in 2009.

    In 2010, he released “The Foreigner and Vai com o Vento.” In 2016, he wrote and directed “Letters From War,” a feature film based on the book by António Lobo Antunes, which premiered in competition at the Berlinale. His next film, “Empire Hotel,” shot in Macau, was released in 2018.

    Leo Barraclough

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  • ‘Yellow Cake’ Fuses Pulpy, Political Sci-Fi With Brazil Folklife, Radioactivity, and the Pending Apocalypse (Exclusive IFFR Clips)

    Tiago Melo (Azougue Nazaré) returns to the clash between folklife and modern threats in rural Brazil, and to the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), with his second feature, Yellow Cake, which will world premiere in the Tiger Competition of the 55th edition of the Dutch fest on Feb. 2.

    Miners and researchers in Brazil’s Northeast face the apocalypse in the genre hybrid after failed experiments with uranium as an insect repellent threaten to bring about the End of Days. The insect in question is the aedes aegypti, whose unofficial English names include the Dengue Mosquito and Yellow Fever Mosquito.

    IFFR advertises Yellow Cake as a “pulpy, politically charged sci-fi fusing local myth, dark humor, working-class grit and radioactivity.” And its website adds: “Brazil’s working class faces the storm troopers of global capital. All of it is grounded in truths of the region, with the fantasy elements brought in to make these forces visible and, in a sense, easier to grasp.”

    Rejane Faria, Valmir do Côco, Spencer Callahan, and Tânia Maria star in Yellow Cake.

    Melo directed the movie from Urânio Filmes, Lucinda Produções, and Jaraguá Produções based on a screenplay that he wrote with Amanda Guimarães, Anna Carolina Francisco, Jeronimo Lemos, and Gabriel Domingues. Gustavo Pessoa and Ivo Lopes Araújo were the cinematographers, with André Sampaio serving as the editor. The producers are Melo, Carol Ferreira, Leonardo Sette, and Luiz Barbosa. Urânio Filmes is handling rights.

    THR can now exclusively premiere two clips from Yellow Cake. The first teaser takes us inside the lab – but not without those yellow protective suits, and not without driving music. Plus, the Yellow Cake of the film title gets a mention here. So, watch closely, and watch out!

    The second teaser from Yellow Cake underlines the sense that its characters can’t trust many people and that things start looking really dire. At the same time, as the end of this scene drives home, the clock is ticking. Watch the second clip from Yellow Cake here.

    Georg Szalai

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  • L.A. Comedy ‘The Dispute,’ Acquired by Riley Keough and Donald Glover’s Production Companies, Among Rotterdam Film Festival Projects

    International Film Festival Rotterdam has unveiled its selection of 21 feature projects for the 43rd edition of CineMart, its co-production market, running Feb. 1 to 4, as well as 10 projects for its work-in-progress platform Darkroom.

    Commenting on the CineMart lineup, Marten Rabarts, head of IFFR Pro, said: “The urgency is palpable: from stories grappling with war and displacement to narratives exploring climate change, queerness and the struggle to define and preserve identities in turbulent times, all amongst bold cinematic creativity and forays into genres including sci-fi, horror and musical.”

    The CineMart selection includes the comedy “The Dispute” by debut U.S. directors Andrea Ellsworth and Kasey Elise Walker, which has been acquired by Riley Keough’s Felix Culpa and Donald Glover’s Gilga for feature development.

    The film follows two best friends from South Central, down on their luck and desperate for more, who take a chance encounter as an invitation to trade their dead-end lives in Los Angeles for something new. When chaos ensues during their seemingly lucrative adventure, they realize the true cost of their actions.

    Ellsworth is an actress and filmmaker, who stars as Deja in “The Vince Staples Show” on Netflix. Walker is a writer-director-actress, whose directorial debut, “Hoop Dreams,” premiered at Tribeca Festival after winning the Soho Script Lab.

    The project was selected for this year’s Sundance Institute Directors and Screenwriters Lab.

    Also selected for CineMart is an exploration of trans friendship, “Worse Together,” by Canadian filmmaker Luis De Filippis (“Something You Said Last Night,” IFFR Youth Jury Award, 2023).

    Japanese filmmaker Tanaka Toshihiko (“Rei,” IFFR, 2024) is also a returning IFFR award-winner, with his next film “Shumari,” which is set in Japan’s remote northern frontier.

    Further selections from Asia include filmmaker Lê Bảo with the poetic, touching portrait “Hearing,” following his Berlinale Encounters Special Jury Award-winning “Taste” (2021); alongside Kang Bo’s horrific, fantastical vision of the forests of north eastern China in “Kingdom of the Insomniacs,” and the sci-fi queer rom-com “Noodles, Our Love Was Instant and Forever” by debut Filipino filmmaker Whammy Alcazaren (“Bold Eagle,” best international short at the Fantasia Film Festival, 2023).

    Additional selections include the fifth feature from Spanish filmmaker Lois Patiño (“Ariel,” IFFR, 2025) titled “Adarna” and set in the Philippines, and the comedic “Portuguese Man O’ War” by Ridham Janve (“The Gold-Laden Sheep & the Sacred Mountain,” IFFR, 2018). A further colonial period piece comes from South Africa in “Pale Faces,” by debut filmmaker Chantel Clark.

    Lebanese filmmakers and artists Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige present “Beirut Baby,” with their previous works including “Perfect Day” (Locarno, 2005, Fipresci Prize), “Je Veux Voir” (Cannes, 2008), and “Memory Box” (CineMart, 2016, Berlinale, 2021). Egyptian filmmaker Morad Mostafa (“Aisha Can’t Fly Away,” Un Certain Regard, Cannes, 2025) presents his second feature “Animals,” meanwhile set in Russia at war, Nicolas Graux will showcase “The Son of the Poet” (Porcupine, IFFR, 2023 co-dir. Trương Minh Quý).

    Several filmmakers in the selection explore the complexities of relationships and belonging through intimate personal journeys, including “Lux,” the debut from Danish filmmaker Thomas Elley (“Europa Endlos,” CPH:DOX, 2025); “When the Goats Came” from New Zealand filmmaker Arthur Elias Gay; and “After the Night, the Night,” the feature debut by Swiss-Dutch artist and filmmaker Naomi Pacifique (“Looking She Said I Forget,” Locarno, 2024).

    New for 2026, six of the CineMart titles have been selected for the inaugural CineMart x HBF lineup – a curated strand of projects previously awarded development support by IFFR’s Hubert Bals Fund.

    The six projects include Martika Ramirez Escobar’s “Daughters of the Sea,” which intertwines three stories; two Brazilian projects – Lillah Hallah’s surrealist satire “Golden Balls” and “Neon Phantom” by Leonardo Martinelli, a follow-up to the award-winning short of the same name; alongside Senegalese filmmaker Mamadou Dia’s latest project “Coumba,” following his HBF-backed debut, “Nafi’s Father” (IFFR, 2020), winning the Pardo d’Oro in Locarno’s Cineasti del Presente section in 2019. The love story “Birdwoman” by Indian feature debut filmmaker Lipika Singh Darail; and “Vika,” which resonates with ongoing conflicts around the world, by Tamar Shavgulidze, complete the lineup.

    Darkroom presents recently or nearly completed films to the international industry seeking gap or completion funding, sales agents and festivals with the support of expert consultancy. Each project has either an attached Rotterdam Lab graduate producer or received previous support from CineMart or the Hubert Bals Fund.

    Selections include Brazilian filmmakers Laís Santos Araújo and Pethrus Tibúrcio (“Tell Her What Happened to Me,” IFFR, 2025), who co-direct the Hubert Bals Fund-supported and CineMart-presented coming-of-age drama “Marina”; Èlia Gasull Balada and Matteo Norzi present the hybrid documentary “The Hummingbird Paints Fragrant Songs,” and Costa Rican filmmaker Neto Villalobos will bring the tropical dystopia “Amor Es El Monstruo.”

    Further Darkroom projects include Mario Piredda returning with Sardinian road movie “Làstima,” alongside Víctor Moreno’s sci-fi “The Outside,” first presented at CineMart 2022. Two Dutch projects feature in the lineup: Mari Sanders returns to themes of disability and belonging with “Get Up Stand Up,” while Kenya-born Dutch filmmaker Amira Duynhouwer presents “Sugar.”

    Rounding out the selected works are BAFTA New Talent award-nominee Joshua Loftin’s docu-fiction “LFD Hope”; Paris-based Korean artist and filmmaker Jeunghae Yim presenting “Sea, Star, Woman,” and Fil Ieropoulos’s (Avant-Drag!, IFFR 2024) experimental docu-essay “Uchronia: Parallel Histories of Queer Revolt.”

    The IFFR Pro Awards will recognize projects from the CineMart and Darkroom selections and will be presented on the evening of Feb. 4.

    Additionally, the festival has announced that next year’s immersive media projects will be presented under Lightroom, IFFR’s new industry platform for immersive storytelling. Lightroom brings together all XR, VR and interactive projects previously presented across CineMart and Darkroom, creating one unified space for immersive work.

    Ellen Kuo, formerly of NewImages Festival and manager and curator at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, joins IFFR Pro as a consultant for Lightroom, working with IFFR’s Eva Langerak, who oversees both Art Directions and Lightroom. The selection of Lightroom projects will be announced next month.

    Full selection details below:
    CINEMART
    Adarna, dir. Lois Patiño, Spain
    Produced by: Elástica Films, Matriuska Producciones

    After the Night, the Night, dir. Naomi Pacifique, Netherlands, Switzerland
    Produced by: Grom Productions, Lemming Film, GoldenEgg production

    Animals, dir. Morad Mostafa, Egypt, France
    Produced by: Bonanza Films, Wrong Films

    Beirut Baby, dir. Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, Lebanon, France
    Produced by: Abbout Productions, Haut et Court

    Hearing, dir. Lê Bảo, Singapore, Vietnam
    Produced by: E&W Films, Sensory Ocean Films

    Kingdom of the Insomniacs, dir. Kang Bo, China
    Produced by: Rediance

    Lux, dir. Thomas Elley, Denmark
    Produced by: Frau Film

    Neon Phantom, dir. Leonardo Martinelli, Brazil
    Produced by: Duas Mariola Filmes

    Noodles, Our Love Was Instant and Forever, dir. Whammy Alcazaren, Philippines
    Produced by: Daluyong Studios, Two Fold

    Pale Faces, dir. Chantel Clark, Netherlands, South Africa
    Produced by: Baldr Film, Cadence

    Portuguese Man O’ War, dir. Ridham Janve, India
    Produced by: Bombay Berlin Film Productions, The Film Cafe

    Shumari, dir. Toshihiko Tanaka, Japan
    Produced by: ColorBird, No Saint. & Bloom

    The Dispute, dir. Andrea Ellsworth and Kasey Elise Walker, United Kingdom, United States of America
    Produced by: Felix Culpa, Watermark Media, Gilga

    The Poet’s Son, dir. Nicolas Graux, Belgium, France, Germany
    Produced by: Tarantula, Petit à Petit Production, Yellow Blackbird, Clin d’Œil

    When the Goats Came, dir. Arthur Gay, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Greece
    Produced by: In Two Minds Productions, Exa Films, Ossian International

    Worse Together, dir. Luis De Filippis, Canada, Switzerland
    Produced by: JA Productions Inc., Cloud Fog Haze Pictures

    CINEMART X HBF SELECTION
    Birdwoman, dir. Lipika Singh Darai, India, France
    Produced by: Salt For Sugar Films

    Coumba, dir. Mamadou Dia, Senegal, France
    Produced by: Maayo, Les Films du Bilboquet

    Daughters of the Sea, dir. Martika Ramirez Escobar, Philippines, Spain
    Produced by: This Side Up, Arkeofilms, Alba Sotorra Cinema Productions

    Golden Balls, dir. Lillah Halla, Brazil, Uruguay
    Produced by: Manjericão Filmes, Cimarrón Cine, Arissas

    Neon Phantom, dir. Leonardo Martinelli, Brazil
    Produced by: Duas Mariola Filmes

    Vika, dir. Tamar Shavgulidze, Georgia, Netherlands
    Produced by: Nushi Film GEO, GoGoFilm

    DARKROOM
    Amor es el monstruo, dir. Neto Villalobos Brenes, Costa Rica, Peru, Panama, Chile
    Produced by: La Sucia Centroamericana, Cine Infinito, Expansiva Cine, Clara Films

    Get Up Stand Up, dir. Mari Sanders, Netherlands, Greece
    Produced by: The Film Kitchen, Neda Film

    Làstima, dir. Mario Piredda, Italy, Switzerland
    Produced by: Articolture and DOK MOBILE

    LFD Hope, dir. Joshua Loftin, United Kingdom, Hungary
    Produced by: Sea Fox Films, Lorenz Films, Gallivant Film, Good Kids Productions

    Marina, dir. Laís Santos Araújo and Pethrus Tibúrcio, Brazil
    Produced by: Aguda Cinema, Carnaval Filmes

    Sea, Star, Woman, dir. Jeunghae Yim, France, Korea
    Produced by: 5à7 Films, Seesaw Pictures

    Sugar, dir. Amira Duynhouwer, Netherlands, Belgium
    Produced by: Studio Ruba, Mirage Film

    The Hummingbird Paints Fragrant Songs, dir. Èlia Gasull Balada, Matteo Norzi, Peru, United States, Spain, Chile
    Produced by: Shipibo Conibo Center, Desfase Films, Funicular Films, Pista B

    The Outside, dir. Víctor Moreno, Spain, Belgium
    Produced by: KV Films, Womack Studios, Transit Transat

    Uchronia: Parallel Histories of Queer Revolt, dir. Fil Ieropoulos, Greece, Netherlands
    Produced by: FYTA Films, GROM Productions

    Leo Barraclough

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  • Brazilian World Sales Company O2 Play Nabs Marcelo Gomes’ ‘Portrait of a Certain Orient’ Ahead of Rotterdam Premiere (EXCLUSIVE)

    Brazilian World Sales Company O2 Play Nabs Marcelo Gomes’ ‘Portrait of a Certain Orient’ Ahead of Rotterdam Premiere (EXCLUSIVE)

    Marcelo Gomes’ new film “Portrait of a Certain Orient” will be represented for world sales by Brazil’s O2 Play. The deal was sealed ahead of the film’s premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, where it plays as part of the Big Screen Competition.

    O2 Play is the distribution arm of O2 Filmes group, a production, post-production and advertising company owned by Fernando Meirelles, the Oscar-nominated director behind “City of God,” “The Constant Gardener” and “The Two Popes.” Meirelles heads the company alongside Andrea Barata and Paulo Morelli. Founded by Igor Kupstas in 2013, O2 Play has theatrically released over a hundred films in Brazil, including Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Drive My Car,” Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” and, most recently, Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla.”

    Gomes, whose 2005 feature debut “Cinema, Aspirins and Vultures” was funded by IFFR’s Hubert Bals Fund, returns to the festival with his eighth feature, an adaptation of eminent Brazilian-Lebanese writer Milton Hatoum’s eponymous 1989 novel about a trio of Lebanese immigrants heading to Brazil.

    Gomes said: “In my film, I try to show that the only way to deconstruct prejudices is by viewing the world through the eyes of others as an antidote to fanaticism. In view of the many crises engulfing us around the world that seems more important today than ever.”

    Igor Kuptsas, director of O2 Play, said: “Marcelo’s body of work is proof that he is one of the most renowned Brazilian filmmakers working today, and his sensitive and incisive treatment of questions of migration and belonging go to the heart of one of today’s most pressing global issues in a family saga that is universally relatable.”

    Speaking exclusively to Variety ahead of the film’s premiere, Gomes says he was attracted to Hatoum’s novel due to it being “unfilmable,” going on to explain he appreciated the idea of adapting a book featuring several streams of consciousness. The story, which follows two Catholic Lebanese siblings who meet a Muslim Lebanese man on a boat to Brazil, felt like a “puzzle” to the “Joaquim” director.

    Marcelo Gomes
    Courtesy of Getty

    “I wanted to show the Amazon through the eyes of someone who had never been there, to show Brazil from the perspective of a foreigner. My first film is about a foreigner in the northeast of Brazil and I think that film made me understand my country better than any other films,” he added. “I love the thought of someone coming from the Middle East, from the desert, and landing in the Amazon.”

    The director went on to describe the making of a film as a “saga.” “This film is a miracle! We were three days into shooting when we had to stop because of the pandemic. We all went back home and had to raise money again later on to restart production.” Still, even with the difficulties, Gomes managed to produce a film in several languages including Arabic, French and the Tucano Indigenous language, and featuring an international cast including Wafa’a Celine Halawi, Charbel Kamel, Zakaria Al Kaakour and Eros Galbiati.

    This was vital to the director because, in the book, the Brazilian city of Manaus is described as a Babylon, with immigrants coming from countries such as Spain, Portugal and Lebanon to work in the region’s many plantations and factories. “It was a very cosmopolitan city, so I thought this film needed to be in multiple languages,” said Gomes. “I had to invite Lebanese actors because I needed actors speaking in their language and their own accents and I also wanted actors who had never seen the country with their own eyes. I thought this would give a truth to the film that was very important.”

    Of broaching contemporary issues such as land demarcation and immigration in a period film, the director said: “Immigrants want a place to call home. This is a problem we have in Brazil. In the Amazon, farmers want to steal the land from the natives. The book was written in 1981, but I am a person living in 2024 and touched by the issues that are going on around me. I had to include Indigenous issues in the film, I had to mention the Middle East issues in the film and the immigration crisis.”

    Premiering the film in Rotterdam has a special meaning to Gomes, who claims the festival to be “the most important of my career.” “I have shown my shorts there and, when I was developing the script for my first feature back in the late 90s, I had no money. So I applied for the Hubert Bals Fund and received the grant. Because of that grant, I wrote the script, applied for other grants, succeeded to make my film and then presented it at Cannes. The festival is like my mother.”

    “Portrait of a Certain Orient” will premiere at IFFR on Jan. 27.

    Leo Barraclough

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  • Laura Basuki, Robby Ertanto on Rotterdam Title ‘Yohanna’ Where Child Labor and Faith Collide, Teaser Unveiled (EXCLUSIVE)

    Laura Basuki, Robby Ertanto on Rotterdam Title ‘Yohanna’ Where Child Labor and Faith Collide, Teaser Unveiled (EXCLUSIVE)

    Top Indonesian star Laura Basuki headlines auteur Razka Robby Ertanto’s “Yohanna,” which has its world premiere in competition at International Film Festival Rotterdam.

    The film follows young nun Yohanna, whose encounter with the underworld of child labor in the eastern island of Sumba, one of the poorest places in Indonesia, restores her sense of purpose in life.

    For Ertanto, whose “Cross the Line” (2022) looked at migrant workers and “Ave Maryam” (2018) that examined aspects of the Christian faith, the idea for “Yohanna” was born after a visit to Sumba, where he was saddened to see eight-year-old laborers who looked like worn out elders. He resolved to tell their story and present the case for their freedom.

    “Child labor in Indonesia is a very important topic that we need to raise awareness about in my country and abroad. Many people fight for good causes whether it’s for the country or for a community but the problem of child labor and children suffering in the poorest areas of Indonesia is often neglected,” Ertanto told Variety. “I also wanted to show that faith should not be limited to the interaction with God but include having faith in humans and helping those around us who struggle in their lives. We should remember that all creatures are equal in the eyes of God and we should not think about faith only in a religious practicing sense.”

    “We need to stop child labor even if it’s traditionally been part of local life in some regions. Allowing children to work from 5am until the school day starts and then making them work again after school until late at night is the same as legalizing child slavery. We should be fighting for letting children grow up in their own world, educating parents and the social environment that every child should grow and develop naturally without trauma,” Ertanto added.

    Basuki won an acting Silver Bear at the 2022 Berlinale for Kamila Andini’s “Before, Now & Then” and was one of the leads in Yosep Anggi Noen’s 2023 Busan and Singapore selection “24 Hours with Gaspar.” For “Yohanna,” Basuki prepped via readings with Ertanto and children from Sumba and several conversations with nuns. She also had to learn to play the guitar, drive a pickup truck and get on a wild horse.

    “Portraying Yohanna was thrilling. She is truly one of the most unique characters I’ve ever played. I actually learned a lot from the children in Sumba, they got such beautiful and pure hearts. So the most challenging aspect was to leave them after the shoot. I left a piece of my heart in Sumba,” Basuki told Variety.

    The film is produced by Denis Krupnov and Ertanto. Production companies include Reason8 Films, Summerland and Pilgrim Film. Reason8 Films is handling international sales.

    Watch the teaser for “Yohanna” here:

    Naman Ramachandran

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