Tiger Competition

The competition was founded in 1995 with the aim of discovering, raising the profile of and rewarding up-and-coming international film talent. The Tiger Award is accompanied by a €40,000 cash prize, to be shared between the director and producer of the winning film. Two Special Jury Awards worth €10,000 will also be presented for exceptional artistic achievement within the competition. Equally important is the international recognition for the nominees and their works that a Tiger Competition nomination brings with it. The Tiger Awards are an indispensable backdrop for many filmmakers: it can be the final step to convince financiers to allow a next project.

Winners per edition

2023
Le spectre de Boko Haram by Cyrielle Raingou
Special Jury Award: Munnel by Visakesa Chandrasekaram
Special Jury Award: New Strains by Artemis Shaw, Prashanth Kamalakanthan

2022
EAMI van Paz Encina
Special Jury Award: Excess Will Save Us by Morgane Dziurla-Petit
Special Jury Award: To Love Again by Gao Linyang

2021
Pebbles by Vinothraj P.S.
Special Jury Award: I Comete – A Corsican Summer by Pascal Tagnati
Special Jury Award: Looking for Venera by Norika Sefa

2020
The Cloud in Her Room by Zheng Lu Xinyuan
Special Jury Award: Beasts Clawing at Straws by Kim Yonghoon

2019
Present.Perfect. by Zhu Shengze
Special Jury Award: Take Me Somewhere Nice by Ena Sendijarević

2018
The Widowed Witch by Cai Chengjie
Special Jury Award: the screenplay of The Reports on Sarah and Saleem, written by Rami Alayan

2017
Sexy Durga by Sanal Kumar Sasidharan
Special Jury Award: Rey by Niles Atallah

2016
Radio Dreams by Babak Jalali
Special Jury Award: La última tierra by Pablo Lamar, for exceptional artistic achievement in sound design

2015
La obra del siglo by Carlos M. Quintela
Videophilia (and Other Viral Syndromes) by Juan Daniel F. Molero
Vanishing Point by Jakrawal Nilthamrong

2014
Anatomy of a Paper Clip by Ikeda Akira
Han Gong-Ju by Lee Su-Jin
Something Must Break by Ester Martin Bergsmark

2013
Fat Shaker by Mohammad Shirvani
My Dog Killer by Mira Fornay
Soldate Jeannette by Daniel Hoesl

2012
Clip by Maja Miloš
De jueves a domingo by Dominga Sotomayor
Egg and Stone by Huang Ji

2011
Tee-rak / Eternity by Sivaroj Kongsakul
Musan il-gy / The Journals of Musan by Park Jung-Bum
Finisterrae by Sergio Caballero

2010
Mundane History by Anocha Suwichakornpong
Alamar by Pedro González-Rubio
Agua fría de mar by Paz Fábrega

2009
Be Calm and Count to Seven by Ramtin Ravafipour
Breathless by Yang Ik-June
Wrong Rosary by Mahmut Fazil Coskun

2008
Flower in the Pocket by Liew Seng Tat
Go with Peace Jamil by Omar Shargawi
Wonderful Town by Aditya Assarat

2007
Love Conquers All by Tan Chui Mui
Die Unerzogenen by Pia Marais

Ex aequo:
AFR by Morten Hartz Kaplers
Bog Of Beasts by Claudio Assis

2006
Old Joy by Kelly Reichardt
La Perrera by Manuel Nieto Zas
Walking On the Wild Side by Han Jie

2005
4 by Ilya Khrzhanovsky
El cielo gira by Mercedes Alvarez
Nemmeno il destino by Daniele Gaglianone

Speciale vermeldingen voor:
Bride of Silence by Doan Minh Phuong & Doan Thanh Nhgia
Sanctuary by Ho Yuhang

2004
The Missing by Lee Kang-sheng
Summer in the Golden Valley by Srdjan Vuletic
Unterwegs by Jan Krueger

2003
Extraño by Santiago Loza
Jealousy Is My Middle Name by Park Chan-Ok
With Love. Lilya by Larisa Sadilova

2002
Everyday God Kisses Us On The Mouth by Sinisa Dragin
Tussenland by Eugenie Jansen
Wild Bees by Bohhdan Slama

2001
25 Watts by Juan Pablo Rebella and Pablo Stoll
Bad Company by Furumaya Tomoyuki
In den Tag hinein by Maria Speth

2000
Bye Bye Blue Bird by Katrin Ottarsdottír
Mundo grúa by Pablo Trapero
Suzhou River by Lou Ye

1999
Following by Christopher Nolan
The Iron Heel of Oligarchy by Alexander Bashirov 
Plus qu'hier, moins que demain by Laurent Achard

1998
Die Siebtelbauern by Stefan Ruzowitzky
Giro di Lune tra terra e mare by Giuseppe Gaudino
Knoflíkari by Petr Zelenka

1997
The Day a Pig Fell into the Well by Hung Sang-Soo
Last Holiday by Amir Karakulov
Robinson in Space by Patrick Keiller

1996
Erzi by Zhang Yuan 
Like Grains of Sand by Hasiguchi Ryosuke
Small Faces by Gillies MacKinnon

1995
Fuyu no kappa by Kazama Shiori
Postman by He Jianjun
Thalassa, Thalassa, Rückkehr zum Meer by Bogdan Dumitrescu

Tiger Competition 2023

Check the 2023 Tiger Competition lineup

Jury 2023

Alonso Díaz de la Vega

Alonso DÍAZ DE LA VEGA is a Mexican film critic for Gatopardo. In 2015 he was the first critic from his country to attend Berlinale Talents. He has written on film for La Tempestad, El Universal, Revista Ambulante, Tierra Adentro, Frente, Butaca Ancha and Cuadrivio. He also participated in Mexican television on Canal Once’s Mi cine, tu cine, and is part of the selection committee at the Morelia International Film Festival.

Anisia Uzeyman

Anisia UZEYMAN is an actress, playwright and director born in Rwanda. She studied drama at the Superior School of Theater in France. She is the co-director and Spirit Award 2023 nominee cinematographer of the critically acclaimed sci-fi musical Neptune Frost, co-directed by Saul Williams, which premiered in Cannes Directors' Fortnight. Her experimental debut feature, Dreamstates, a road-movie entirely shot on iPhones premiered at the LA Film Festival (2016). As an actress Anisia starred in the award winning film Tey, Aujourd’hui by Alain Gomis (2014) and the feature film Ayiti Mon Amour by Guetty Felin (2017). Her first book, a poetic treatment of her original screenplay Saolomea, Saolomea is published by Not a Cult  (2021).

Christine Vachon

Christine VACHON is an Independent Spirit Award and Gotham Award winner, who co-founded indie powerhouse Killer Films with producer Pamela Koffler in 1995. Over the past two decades, they have produced over 100 films, including: Still Alice (2014), Boys Don't Cry (1999), Kids (1995), Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001), and I Shot Andy Warhol (1996). Vachon has a longstanding collaboration with fellow Brown University alum and filmmaker Todd Haynes, together they've worked on films like: Carol (2015), Far From Heaven (2002), Velvet Goldmine (1998), Safe (1995), and I'm Not There (2007), and the upcoming May December starring Natalie Portman, Julianne Moore, and Charles Melton. In television, Vachon executive-produced the Emmy and Golden Globe-awarded miniseries Mildred Pierce (2011; Todd Haynes) as well as Z: The Beginning of Everything (2015). Recent releases include Janicza Bravo's Zola (2020), Mona Fastvold's The World to Come (2020), and the limited series Halston (2021).

Lav Diaz

Lav DIAZ (1958, Philippines) has been labelled "the ideological father of the New Philippine Cinema" by the Venice Film Festival. His breakthrough came with the five-hour feature Batang West Side (2002), which won prizes at the film festivals of Brussels and Singapore. Since his 630-minute-long Evolution of a Filipino Family (2004), many of Diaz's films have been shown at IFFR. From What Is Before (2014) won the Golden Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival and The Woman Who Left (2016) won a Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Diaz received the Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences (FAMAS) Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018.

Sabrina Baracetti

Sabrina BARACETTI is a founding member and president of Udine Far East Film Festival and president of cultural organisation and arthouse exhibition company Centro Espressioni Cinematografiche, head of acquisitions of the distribution company Tucker Film, co-founder and consultant for Ties That Bind and member of the Board of Directors at Gemona Film Archive. She served as a jury member on various film festivals dedicated to Asian Cinema.