Critics’ Choice 10 – Whisper
Ten years after (The Return of the) Critics' Choice at International Film Festival Rotterdam, Jan Pieter Ekker and Dana Linssen are organising a Critics' Choice programme in its current form for the last time at IFFR.
Video essays, post-screening talks, complete mash-ups of feature films, a 16-mm film shot, developed and screened during IFFR, a dismembered dcp, a live knitted scarf as an analogue data visualisation – what hasn’t been possible during Critics' Choice in the past decade? When we organised the first (The Return of the) Critics' Choice ten years ago, we had a few simple goals in mind: to bring more debate and excitement to IFFR, to strengthen the dialogue between festival, visitors, makers and critics by organising events and interventions, and above all to bring the video essay to the Netherlands and the festival.
Those video essays became the focal point of Critics' Choice, making IFFR the first international film festival to systematically screen video essays on a large scale. Not only on the big screen, which is already quite unique, but also occasionally preceding premieres and usually in the presence of the makers. Their reactions have been enthusiastic without exception, although seeing the essay ahead of the film screening could sometimes be met with initial trepidation, a reflection on their work, an invitation for a conversation. So if anyone should be thanked for the success of Critics' Choice, it is these makers and film teams. They have enabled us to produce more than 50 video essays over the past decade, many of which were subsequently given a new life in cinemas or at other festivals.
The silent voice of film review
By making video essays an annual feature, Dutch film journalists also benefited from Critics' Choice. They met foreign colleagues with more experience. And some of them continued to make videos. One of our most precious examples is how historian and art journalist Bianca Stigter steadfastly kept working on her Three Minutes after that first edition, until it had its world premiere as a feature-length documentary at the Venice Film Festival in 2021.
The theme chosen for the tenth edition is 'Whisper'. At a time when everyone threatens to shout over each other, we want to look for the quiet voice of film reflection; of depth and reflection. What do we have to say to be heard? What can and will we still say in public conversation? What are the dilemmas and opportunities we face as we encounter the human voice and that of artificial intelligence in film and film review? Do we howl along with the wolves in the forest? What are the opposing voices? Has independent journalism been definitively swallowed up by marketing machines and influencers on social media? To be heard and join the race for clicks, do film journalists now have to adopt forms of self-censorship – or self-denial?
Future prospects
This brings us full circle. Critics' Choice returned to IFFR in 2015 – partly at the instigation of programmer Gerwin Tamsma and director Rutger Wolfson – to investigate which forms of dialogue, debate and reflection were missing, new and needed at an international film festival that has a major impact on film and cinema culture in the Netherlands. Later directors Bero Beyer and Vanja Kaludjercic generously supported the program.
With Critics' Choice 10, we are organising a Critics' Choice at IFFR for the last time in this form, taking stock and developing future prospects for a sustainably anchored form of film journalism together with guests, audiences and chance passers-by – in a landscape increasingly defined by questions of representation, inclusion and equality, ever eroding journalism, Covid, #MeToo and Black Lives Matter, the Hollywood strikes, wars in Ukraine and Gaza.
Related themes such as sustainability (‘Sustainable Criticism’ in 2018 and ‘On Collectivity’ in 2020) and diversity and inclusion (‘On Positionality’ in 2021) have been the subject of previous editions of Critics' Choice and, as every year, we hope to build on previous and new insights. In that respect, Critics' Choice is a mindset, a shared enquiry, a laboratory and a playground where critics are invited to infuse their craft with creative impetus. In any case, after the festival, this will continue on the new platform for viewing culture aPoV (another Point of View: www.apov.space) and who knows, maybe soon on a film screen near you.
Jan Pieter Ekker and Dana Linssen