Meet our RTM curators for 2026

RTM is IFFR’s programme dedicated to Rotterdam, presenting the best local films and talent. Three guest curators have once again been invited to shape the lineup for the RTM programme during IFFR 2026.

We asked them a little about themselves and how they’ll be approaching the programme this year. Take a look at the biographies and statements they sent us!

Hasret Emine

“Hasret Emine (Turkey, 1992) is a writer, creator and researcher. Their work focuses on stories that are more important than the empty promises of capitalism and hypocritical ideals of the West: “Not business, but love.”

Through their platform pembe, Hasret archives stories of queer and trans Muslims, including through film screenings that are often also partly fundraisers, drag shows or live performances. Recent projects they have collaborated on include Id Not Detected, a documentary about trans refugees in the Netherlands, for which they are involved as a screenwriter. Hasret can also regularly be found in the cinema introducing queer films, sometimes in the form of a performance.”

How will Hasret approach the programme this year? 

“Anyone can make a film, because everyone has a story to tell. In a city where ugly, unaffordable residential towers seem to dominate the streetscape, it is important that we remember this. After all, Rotterdam’s intangible heritage can only be safeguarded and preserved by its residents, not by the crooks in suits who only care about prestige. With this year’s RTM programme, I hope that we as a city will see all these stories, pass them on and keep them alive, in the hope that they will touch a Rotterdammer who also dares to share a story, dares to make a film.”

Suzanne Koopstra 

“Suzanne Koopstra (1996) grows up in Rotterdam, a city where the world feels hardened yet strangely complete. She watches, eyes wide. People spit each other out and cannot live without one another. The city is raw, therefore real. And it is this reality that demands to be captured – primarily when a capitalism driven, right oriented, thunderous storm cloud comes to roll in. The city trades its extraordinary richness – its vast mosaic of people from countless backgrounds, beliefs, and ways of thinking – for an elite, affluent newcomer. Slowly, her heart for the city begins to erode. Stone and steel, once seemingly indestructible, prove once more to be anything but.

It is no surprise that her Film Academy graduation documentary, The Future Is Bankrupt, casts a skeptical eye on Rotterdam’s prospects in the face of destructive plans for a segregating geographical restructuring.

Yet despite gloom surfacing her films, Suzanne insists that none of her work will ever touch life without a trace of humour. This is evident in her third-year film at the Academy film Pleasant Hell, which was selected for IFFR 2024.”

How will Suzanne approach the programme this year? 

“This world is not designed for most people, so whose hands make the films? And how did those hands go about their work? With or without the destructive outcome of an antisocial amount of AI use. Apologies. Absurdity lies – as far as I am concerned – in human beings, not in a prompt. The temptation is made impossible for us, but I keep an extra eye out for those who resist. Work – as far as I am concerned – is once again delightfully slow and stubbornly clumsy, with the flaws of human limitations in ideas and intentions.”

(Timaeus)

“(Timaeus) is a visual artist and art director based in Rotterdam. He focuses on speculative storytelling and worldbuilding narratives, and works across a variety of media, such as live performances, installations, lights and sculptures. He specialises in real-time technology and has an interest in minimising the borders between the digital and physical.

He researches how creative technologies can help us to reimagine our present and future, surrounding the topics of ecology, technology and non-human agency. By introducing these topics to realms bordering the fantastical and otherworldly, he strives for a form of storytelling that challenges an Anthropocentric point of view.

His work, consisting of installations, live performances and layered animated works, has been exhibited at International Film Festival Rotterdam, Fiber Festival, Nieuwe Instituut, Kunsthal, Vincent van Gogh museum, and more.  He has worked with clients such as Tommy Hilfiger, Louis Vuitton, Dekmantel, DGTL and Goldband. Often working with studios and agencies for a meaningful collaboration. 

Next to his artistic work he teaches at a variety of art academies, he currently holds a position at St Joost School of art and design in Breda.”

How will (Timaeus) approach the programme this year? 

“As a guest curator, I am interested in exploring what a film experience can be, and how creators can convey stories in various ways that break free from a linear form. My fascination lies with works that question our perception of reality and open up new questions about how we relate to one another and to our environment. In Rotterdam, many realities intertwine, and it is an honor to contribute to making the diverse worlds shaped by Rotterdam-based makers visible.”