Art Directions 2026
Celebrating thirty years since IFFR’s Exploding Cinema ignited a dialogue between digital technology and cinematic language, Art Directions continues to shape the cultural landscape, nurturing bold experiments that stretch far beyond the screen. Discover the lineup for 2026 now.
On display in Katoenhuis: installations
In Katoenhuis, the hub for immersive experiences, and the home of Art Directions, we present four installations for which you buy one entrance ticket. Our Immersive Media programme is also located at Katoenhuis (see below), for which separate tickets are available – buying a ticket for our Immersive Media programme automatically provides access to the four installations as well.
A list of films
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3 Scenes from a Marriage
Leopold Emmen | 19′ | Netherlands | World premiere
Leopold Emmen’s latest work invites you to experience what cinema might become when time and space unravel -
Café Kuba: Who Dared to Awaken the Dead Memory
David Shongo | 27′ | Congo, Democratic Republic | Dutch Premiere
A mobile coffee cart traverses public space in Kinshasa, where creative forms of resistance emerge. -
Krakatoa
Carlos Casas | 60′ | Spain | World premiere
Images, sound and vibration echo “the loudest scream ever”: the 1883 eruption of the Indonesian Krakatoa volcano. -
Preludio
Silvia Gatti | 7′ | Netherlands | Dutch Premiere
Video and sound installation that unfolds as a sensory architecture in which the subconscious arises.
On display in Katoenhuis: immersive media
IFFR’s Immersive Media programme invites you to experience the world differently. Become a cat, an escaping houseplant, or part of a future in the making. Across six playful and thought-provoking VR and immersive works, artists explore urgent themes including climate change, Europe’s external borders, mental health and technology.
A list of films
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After the Game
Jana Stallein | 17′ | Germany | World premiere
Through items left behind, After the Game explores traces of structural violence at Europe’s borders. -
If You See a Cat
Atsushi Wada | 35′ | Japan | Dutch Premiere
Young Naoki’s grief for his beloved cat ensnares him in the machinery of psychiatric care. -
The Great Escape
Joren Vandenbroucke | 20′ | Belgium | Dutch Premiere
Three bored geraniums long to leave their lonely owner’s windowsill to be out in the world. -
The Great Orator
Daniel Ernst | 40′ | Netherlands | Dutch Premiere
In a shared consciousness, an all-seeing narrator tells endless stories that depend on your interaction. -
The World Came Flooding In
Isobel Knowles, Van Sowerwine | 25′ | Australia | International premiere
A VR immersive reflection that rebuilds spaces and memories of lives affected by flooding.
Visit Art Directions on other locations
The Art Directions programme can be experienced across Rotterdam: at Brutus, Rotterdam Central Station, Plein – Fenix, Nieuwe Instituut, Doelen Studio 2, V2_ Lab for the Unstable Media, and WORM.
A list of films
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Alterity
Jacco Gardner | 60′ | Netherlands | World premiere
Jacco Gardner playfully and optimistically dives into the creativity shared by man and machine. -
Homecoming
Mark Dorf | 16′ | USA | World premiere
Mark Dorf’s Homecoming reimagines Homer’s Odyssey as a quest for ‘home’ in a world driven by algorithms, screens and ecological insecurity. -
My Sweet Elora
Luuk Van Raamsdonk | 5′ | Canada | Dutch Premiere
A layered visual archive reveals the hidden stories that have lain dormant within a family for generations. -
One Drawing a Day: A Retrospective Exhibition of Auto Cartoons by Gertjan Zuilhof
Gertjan Zuilhof | 480′ | No premiere
Remembering Gertjan Zuilhof, one of IFFR’s most influential film programmers, through his daily drawings. -
Raftsmen and Canoeists
Jonathas de Andrade | 13′ | Brazil | World premiere
Jonathas de Andrade follows jangadeiros – traditional fishermen – and canoeists in Alagoas, Brazil.
sound//vision
Of course, the sound//vision programme at WORM is once again part of the festival! Enjoy three evenings of audiovisual live performances, where music blends with film, celluloid and light, transforming the traditional concert experience into a fully immersive journey of sight and sound.
A list of films
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“It’s too cold for the spirits to live here”
Tosca Schift | 45′ | Netherlands | World premiere
Through expanded cinema, a live radio séance and performance, the search for spirits becomes a method. -
DIsINCARNATE (I-III)
Cinzia Nistico | 40′ | Netherlands | World premiere
Cinzia Nistico presses human skin and hair into 16mm film emulsion, asking whether a trace can become a different form of life. -
Echoes Between Seeing #3
Nan Wang | 20′ | Netherlands | World premiere
An audiovisual experiment combining 16mm travel footage shot in Spain and China with AI image-to-image processes. -
Pedra e Montanha
Tetsuya Maruyama | 50′ | Brazil | International premiere
Multiple 35mm slide projectors are manipulated live and accompanied by music by Robert Kroos. -
VJ Emmy: Ugandan live dubbing
VJ Emmy | 60′ | Uganda | World premiere
Uganda’s VJ Emmy brings the art of live dubbing to IFFR for a sound//vision performance. -
水托邦 (Hydrotopia)
Chiemi Shimada, Jamie Man | 50′ | United Kingdom | World premiere
Hydrophones in a block of ice capture the disintegration of a frozen body as a projected film emerges into clarity.