Judit Elek, Yuasa Masaaki, Stanya Kahn, and arc at IFFR 2023

IFFR 2023 Focus programmes announced alongside first titles in Harbour.

International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) will celebrate the careers of four radical filmmakers and visual artists at its 52nd edition. Hungarian filmmaker Judit Elek, Japanese animator Yuasa Masaaki, American interdisciplinary artist Stanya Kahn and the long-running Bay Area expanded cinema project arc will all be placed in the spotlight with Focus programmes and Talks at IFFR 2023. The first titles in Harbour, the festival’s largest and broadest programme, are also announced.

Festival director Vanja Kaludjercic: “Our Focus programmes are a chance for us to celebrate the work of filmmakers whose remarkable careers haven’t always been given the attention they deserve. As always we’re committed to looking into unlikely spheres, be it rural documentaries from 1970s People’s Hungary, performance-based expanded cinema or wild free-form Japanese anime. The unexpected always shines brightly at IFFR.”

Harbour

IFFR announces the world premieres of three titles in its newest programme Harbour. Dutch visual artist and musician Dick Verdult embraces excess and bad taste in his darkly comedic take on the super-wealthy, Als uw gat maar lacht. Reality, hallucination, fantasy and terror blur in Alien Food by Italian filmmaker Giorgio Cugno, who plays his own lead character in a stark window into psychosis. An ex-special forces soldier will stop at nothing to protect his daughter in the latest thriller from John Swab, Little Dixie.

Acclaimed Japanese director Kawase Naomi was commissioned to make an official film for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. From 5,000 hours of footage, Kawase produced an extraordinary documentary, divided into two sides. Official Film of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 Side B has its international premiere at IFFR, turning its attention to the event organisers, workers, politicians and protestors. Also having its international premiere in Harbour is Masoud Kimiai’s Killing a Traitor, set against the turbulent streets of 1950s Iran.

Further titles in the Harbour programme will be unveiled in the coming weeks.

IFFR announces the world premieres of three titles in its newest programme Harbour / Clockwise, stills from the films: Als uw gat maar lacht, Alien Food, Killing a Traitor, Little Dixie / Courtesy of IFFR

Focus: Judit Elek

IFFR is honoured to present a vast retrospective of Hungarian filmmaker and writer Judit Elek, whose career deserves its long-awaited moment in the spotlight. Elek’s work often touches on issues of political oppression and Jewishness, varying between compassion, tenderness and fury. The programme includes the harsh and unsparing look at a dying relationship Maybe Tomorrow (1980), the sarcastic historical allegory Martinovics (1981) and the Holocaust anchored documentary portrait Elie Wiesel Goes Home (1996). Elek will be present to launch and sign copies of a publication on her life and career, specially commissioned by IFFR.

Focus: Yuasa Masaaki

A selection of films and episodic series make up a Focus programme on the critically acclaimed Japanese animator and filmmaker Yuasa Masaaki, who will also be in Rotterdam for an IFFR Talk. Alongside a selection of his characteristic wild free-form works, IFFR 2023 will show Yuasa’s charming fairytale Ride Your Wave and his latest work INU-OH, an anime rock opera about friendship and the power of sincere art.

Ride Your Wave by Yuasa Masaaki — A selection of films and episodic series make up a Focus programme on the critically acclaimed Japanese animator and filmmaker Yuasa Masaaki, who will also be in Rotterdam for an IFFR Talk. / Still from the film Ride Your Wave / Courtesy of IFFR

Focus: Stanya Kahn

A Focus programme is dedicated to the widely-exhibited American interdisciplinary artist and 2012 Guggenheim Fellow Stanya Kahn, featuring the international premiere of So Low You Can’t Get Over It (2022) in which animated paintings manifest uncertainty. She often collaborates with performers, visual artists and choreographers – such as with the artist Llyn Foulkes on Happy Song for You (2011). Kahn will discuss her work at an IFFR Talk.

Focus: arc

IFFR presents a rare profile of the single channel and performance-based expanded cinema project arc, with many works including multiple projectors and live accompanying scores. arc is the creation of San Francisco experimental art scene mainstay tooth, who also runs the Black Hole Cinematheque and the celluloid-only film festival Light Field, and will be present for an IFFR Talk.

Read more about the Focus programmes here.

Still from the film So Low You Can’t Get Over It / Courtesy of IFFR

arc is the creation of San Francisco experimental art scene mainstay tooth, who also runs the Black Hole Cinematheque and the celluloid-only film festival Light Field, and will be present for an IFFR Talk — Still from the film Palms (arc, 2012) / Courtesy of IFFR

IFFR Talks

IFFR Talks are an opportunity to see the craft of filmmaking from a unique and masterly vantage point – offering new perspectives and insights from selected filmmakers and visual artists. The full lineup of all the IFFR Talks will be confirmed following the IFFR 2023 Press Conference on December 19.

First confirmed lineup:

Harbour

Alien Food, Giorgio Cugno, 2023, Italy, Denmark, world premiere
Als uw gat maar lacht, Dick Verdult, 2023, Netherlands, world premiere
Another Spring, Mladen Kovačević, 2022, Serbia, Qatar
Blue Jean, Georgia Oakley, 2022, United Kingdom
Dalva, Emmanuelle Nicot, 2022, Belgium, France
DEMIGOD: The Legend Begins, Chris Huang Wen-chang, 2022, Taiwan
É noite na América, Ana Vaz, 2022, Italy
Fogo-Fátuo, João Pedro Rodrigues, 2022, Portugal, France
Hand, Matsui Daigo, 2022, Japan, international premiere
I AM HERE!, Ludwig Wüst, 2023, Austria, world premiere
Killing a Traitor, Masoud Kimiai, 2022, Iran, international premiere
Little Dixie, John Swab, 2023, United States, world premiere
Official Film of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 Side A, Kawase Naomi, 2022, Japan
Official Film of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 Side B, Kawase Naomi, 2022, Japan, international premiere
Pacifiction, Albert Serra, 2022, France, Spain, Germany, Portugal
Safe Place, Juraj Lerotić, 2022, Croatia
La tour, Guillaume Nicloux, 2022, France
Vera, Tizza Covi, Rainer Frimmel, 2022, Austria
We Had the Day Bonsoir, Narimane Mari, 2022, France

Focus: Judit Elek

A Commonplace Story, Judit Elek, 1975, Hungary
A Free Man: The Life of Erno Fisch, Judit Elek, 1998, Hungary, France
After All the Dead Sing Again, Judit Elek, 2018, Hongarije
Awakening, Judit Elek, 1994, Hungary, France, Poland
Az első fénykép, Judit Elek, 1974, Hungary
The Eighth Day of the Week, Judit Elek, 2006, Hungary, Poland
Elie Wiesel Goes Home, Judit Elek, 1996, Hungary, France, United States
How Long Does a Man Live?, Judit Elek, 1968, Hungary
Istenmezején, 1972-73-ban, Judit Elek, 1974, Hungary
Kastélyok lakói, Judit Elek, 1966, Hungary
The Lady From Constantinople, Judit Elek, 1969, Hungary
Maria’s Day, Judit Elek, 1984, Hungary
Martinovics, Judit Elek, 1981, Hungary
Maybe Tomorrow, Judit Elek, 1980, Hungary
Memories of a River, Judit Elek, 1989, Hungary, France
Retrace, Judit Elek, 2011, Hungary, Romania, Sweden
Tálalkozás, Judit Elek, 1963, Hungary
Találkozunk 1972-ben (Sötétben-világosban), Judit Elek, 1970, Hungary

Focus: Yuasa Masaaki

Happy Machine, Yuasa Masaaki, 2007, Japan
INU-OH, Yuasa Masaaki, 2021, Japan
Japan Sinks: 2020 Theatrical Edition, Yuasa Masaaki, 2020, Japan
Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!, Yuasa Masaaki, 2020, Japan
Kick-Heart, Yuasa Masaaki, 2013, Japan
Lu Over the Wall, Yuasa Masaaki, 2017, Japan
Mind Game, Yuasa Masaaki, 2004, Japan
Night Is Short, Walk on Girl, Yuasa Masaaki, 2017, Japan
Ride Your Wave, Yuasa Masaaki, 2019, Japan
The Tatami Galaxy, Yuasa Masaaki, 2010, Japan

Focus: Stanya Kahn

For the Birds, Stanya Kahn, 2013, United States
Friends in Low Places, Stanya Kahn, 2018, United States, international premiere
Happy Song for You, Stanya Kahn, Llyn Foulkes, 2011, United States
No Go Backs, Stanya Kahn, 2020, United States
So Low You Can´t Get Over It, Stanya Kahn, 2022, United States, international premiere
Stand in the Stream, Stanya Kahn, 2017, United States
Winner, Stanya Kahn, Harry Dodge, 2002, United States