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29 Jan – 8 Feb 2026

RTM Pitch 2027 winner announced

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We are pleased to announce the seventh winner of the RTM Pitch at the opening of the RTM Day, featuring local stories and makers from Rotterdam. Cyan Bae wins the 2027 RTM Pitch with the experimental film project How to Lie, Femme, and Pass.

The film project tells how the queer and feminist perspectives and insights can offer a reimagination of our relationship to algorithmic technologies. This winning project is supported by the Gemeente Rotterdam for €25,000 and will have its world premiere at IFFR 2027. The film Rain in August by previous RTM Pitch winner Ashley Röttjers premiered today at LantarenVenster.

Cyan Bae shares their insight on the film project: “Algorithmic security practices can reinforce inequality, rendering some bodies suspicious while others pass. How to Lie, Femme, and Pass aims to disrupt these systems through collaborative filmmaking with queer and feminist co-experimenters. I am stunned and deeply grateful that our experiment is supported by IFFR. Stay tuned for these femmes and our bodily, strange and playful interventions.”

About the Filmmaker

Cyan Bae is a visual artist and researcher with an obsession for lie detectors. Their research method focuses on emotional AI technologies and examines the socio-political implications of algorithmic practices for detecting deception in a trilogy of short experimental documentaries. How to Lie, Femme, and Pass forms the final chapter of the four-year research project. Cyan Bae is co-founder of First Cut, a film collective and curatorial platform, and has been a jury member at Leiden Shorts and the Movies that Matter Festival. IFFR 2026 is set to premiere Cyan’s film Welcome to Set in the RTM programme. 

About RTM Pitch 2027

Gemeente Rotterdam supports the winning film with a grant of €25,000 to encourage the development of local film talent and support film and media policy. The RTM Pitch 2027 jury consists of Koen de Rooij, Bas van der Ree and In-Soo Radstake. RTM Pitch 2027 is supported by VEVAM Fonds, G.Ph. Verhagen-Stichting, QISSA and Gemeente Rotterdam. 

An overview of previous winners and information about RTM Pitch can be found here.

Development Incentive Winner

In addition to the RTM Pitch winner, IFFR announces the winner of the RTM Pitch development incentive. The film project Nos e ke Nos by media maker and presenter Nelly Dos Reis receives €5,000 of support from IFFR and QISSA – an agency, community and talent house – to develop the film plan. With the film project, Nelly Dos Reis tells a story about the upcoming football World championships and the participation of Cape Verde – perhaps the smallest country in the world – from the perspective of a teenager in a Cape Verdean community in Rotterdam.

  • About IFFR

    International Film Festival Rotterdam’s (IFFR) upcoming 55th edition of the festival will take place from 29 January to 8 February 2026. IFFR presents a leading international film festival and year-round programme and actively supports new and adventurous filmmaking talent through its co-production market CineMart, its Hubert Bals Fund, Rotterdam Lab and other industry activities.
    IFFR seeks to expand, enrich and challenge people’s views of the world and each other through film and audiovisual arts. IFFR’s programme deepens appreciation of cinema in all its forms, broadens and diversifies audiences, and creates opportunities for independent filmmakers and artists from around the globe.
    Through IFFR’s visionary programming and forward-looking initiatives, we create a haven for the plurality of voices, audiovisual formats and diverse storytelling. We are an essential destination for film professionals and film lovers. We support filmmakers and artists with funding and development opportunities and advance the impact of their work in the world. We are accessible to everyone. Through screenings, talks, exhibitions, education, professional initiatives and funding schemes, we bring people from all backgrounds together, enabling discovery, recognition, dialogue, learning and development. We look where others don’t, and we open a space for ideas, pushing creative boundaries that have the power to transform.
    IFFR is grateful for the support of its partners, including Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap (OCW), Gemeente Rotterdam, Rotterdam Festivals, Creative Europe Media, NL Film Fonds, Fonds 21, de Volkskrant and VriendenLoterij.

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