Talks and special guests at IFFR 2025
Filmmakers including Costa Gavras, Steffen Haars & Joseph Kahn, Mohammad Rasoulof, Amie Siegel, Miike Takashi join the programme alongside Cate Blanchett & Guy Maddin, Lol Crawley, Cheryl Dunye & Albertina Carri, Alex Ross Perry and more. Across the festival the programme is full of discovery and dialogue, including in the Pro Hub industry programme and RTM Day.

We’ve announced new guests across our lineup of Talks for the upcoming 54th edition of the festival, taking place from 30 January – 9 February. IFFR will present two distinct strands of conversations: Big Talks, featuring dialogues between world-renowned minds from diverse disciplines and Tiger Talks, offering explorations of film-related themes and addressing issues including feminism, the legacy of colonialism, and cinema’s sociopolitical role.
Additional talks will take place during the RTM Day, IFFR’s programme dedicated to Rotterdam on 31 January, Furthermore, the IFFR Pro Dialogues programme of industry-focussed discussions will be held during the IFFR Pro Days, running between 31 January – 5 February.
Special guests and Q&As
Also during the festival, IFFR will welcome further special guests to present their titles in selection, including Payal Kapadia (All We Imagine as Light), Jan-Willem van Ewijk (Alpha.), Uberto Pasolini (The Return), Matthieu Delaporte (Le Comte de Monte-Cristo), Julie Gayet (Six jours), Albert Serra (Tardes de soledad), Lou Ye (An Unfinished Film) and Wang Bing (Youth: Trilogy).
More guests
- Anselm Chan Mou Yin (The Last Dance)
- Mélanie Thierry (La Chambre de Mariana)
- Omar Rodríguez-López (Luna Rosa: La 7ª ascensión de Atabey)
- Courtney Stephens (John Lilly and the Earth Coincidence Control Office)
- Michael Almereyda (John Lilly and the Earth Coincidence Control Office)
- Arianne Labed (September Says)
- Laura Basuki (Till Death Do Us Part)
- Michelle Wai (The Last Dance)
- Joseph Khan (Ick)
- Emmanuel Finkiel (La Chambre de Mariana)
- Uberto Passolini (The Return)
- Tom Wlaschiha (Die Ermittlung)
Big Talks
The new guests joining the Big Talks offering include Greek-French film director, screenwriter, and producer Costa Gavras, and Miike Takashi, one of Japan’s most prolific and acclaimed filmmakers. Miike’s presence in Rotterdam is particularly significant, as IFFR played a key role in propelling him to international fame. These latest names join previously announced Big Talk speakers, including the legendary filmmakers Albertina Carri and Cheryl Dunye, renowned for their daring explorations of unconventional narratives and complex identities.
Tiger Talks
Meanwhile, Tiger Talks, which will be held across a conference format on Sunday 2 February and throughout the festival, will explore topics including ‘Cinema and the Rise of Authoritarianism’, ‘Depicting Nightlife’’ and ‘True Crime’. The strand will also feature sessions with IFFR 2025’s Artists in Focus, exploring the history of women in film with Katja Raganelli, the interplay between history, archives and fiction with Timoteus Anggawan Kusno & Matthew Lax, and the socio-political evolution of Ukraine with Sergii Masloboishchykov – the first Ukrainian filmmaker to appear in competition at IFFR in 1995 and returning for this edition with the international premiere of Yasa.
Additionally, Saeed Nouri will share rare excerpts from 1940s-60s Iranian popular cinema to accompany the world premiere of his film Tehran, An Unfinished History, and filmmaker Jessica Sarah Rinland and art historian Sophie Berrebi will discuss how utilitarian photography and film challenge conventional notions of representation and knowledge. This year, Art Directions features a special programme of films and a conversation with renowned artist Amie Siegel followed by the screening of her works Panorama and Bloodlines.
The Tiger Talk Cinema and the Rise of Authoritarianism, presented also as one of the IFFR Pro Dialogues industry discussions, will be hosted together with the International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk, of which IFFR is a founding member together with IDFA and the European Film Academy, and welcomes Mohammad Rasoulof, Albertina Carri, Pier Giorgio Bellocchio, Erhan Örs and further speakers to be confirmed.
RTM Talks
The RTM programme will centre artists and stories from within the city with an impact far beyond. As part of the programme, the three RTM talks will include a conversation between Ine Lamers and Sam Koopman; collaboration between IFFR and Rotterdam Writers’ Room, which will feature a deep dive into the writing process of Drie dagen vis with writer/director Peter Hoogendoorn; and a speculation into the city of Rotterdam with in ‘Imagine the City Otherwise’ talk.
IFFR Pro Dialogues
Held during the festival’s professionals’ programme IFFR Pro Days, the IFFR Pro Dialogues will invite meaningful and practical reflection on issues facing the film industry, with speakers including notable filmmakers, festival programmers, and other special guests. As filmmakers worldwide confront growing challenges to their creative, political, and financial freedoms amidst a climate of repression, historical erasure, and threats to free expression, IFFR Pro Dialogues will host a number of incisive talks discussing these issues.
New this year to the IFFR Pro programme is a series of intimate Meet the Expert sessions featuring names including experienced international producers Alex Boden, Bianca Balbuena and script-consultant Claire Dobbin, who will share practical and insightful reflections on their practices to IFFR Pro delegates.
On Tuesday 4 February, IFFR Pro is pulling Dutch filmmaking talent into focus by hosting a day-long programme on the impact of Dutch cinematic creativity across the globe – titled Pulling Focus: NL 2025. Sessions will feature a conversation between Ena Sendijarević (Take Me Somewhere Nice, Sweet Dreams) and award-winning Dutch actress Renée Soutendijk, as well an investigation into Dutch international co-production hosted together with ACE Producers. The afternoon sessions are dedicated to artificial intelligence.
IFFR 2025 Talks
Get to the heart of cinema with this year’s IFFR Talks programme: a series in which the creative minds behind independent filmmaking from across the globe explore the art of filmmaking – and far beyond.
