Fresh blood. First or second films by filmmakers from whom the festival expects a lot in the future.

The Bright Future program section, in which International Film Festival Rotterdam presents debut or second feature films, will this year screen eighteen world premieres, ten international premieres and eleven European premieres. Both fiction films and documentaries are included, as are many films that have little time for such distinctions. The selection as a whole, which encompasses a wide range of subjects and filmic forms, demonstrates young filmmakers’ unflagging faith in the possibilities offered by film as a means of expression. In total, this year’s Bright Future is made up of eighty films selected from thirty-eight countries.

Fifteen of these films received support from IFFR’s Hubert Bals Fund. These include the world premiere of Yulene Olaizola´s impressive fiction debut, Paraísos artificiales (Mexico) and the international première of Theo Court’s debut film Ocaso (Chile). Chinese independent filmmakers supported by the HBF devote attention to rural settings: Zhang Miaoyan’s second film, the black-and-white drama Black Blood (picture), and Li Ruijuns engaging Old Donkey, focus in on people who for one reason or another have not left for the mega cities.