Talent development at IFFR 2023
12 January 2023
IFFR Pro’s newly shaped talent development initiatives will be in full swing at IFFR 2023. Rotterdam Lab, Creative Producer Indaba and BoostNL are all welcomed back to Rotterdam, hosting a combined total of 160 participants. See what we’ve got in store for these emerging talents.
Rotterdam Lab
Each year, IFFR Pro’s international partners nominate and select outstanding emerging film producers to attend the festival for the Rotterdam Lab. Now in its 23rd edition, the five-day programme of plenary sessions, roundtables and networking events offers participants an opportunity to hone their producing skills and expand their international network.
Following the previous two online editions, the programme returns on-site to Rotterdam, welcoming 74 producers selected through 49 partner organisations. In addition, this year, we’re delighted to welcome back a selection of 55 alumni from the online editions, who will join the new cohort in Rotterdam for a parallel advanced programme, and to share what they’ve learned since taking part in the Lab in this tumultuous period.
We are happy to renew most of our long-term partnerships, while celebrating new collaborations with the Greek Film Centre, MECAS, IDM Südtirol and Unifrance.
Rotterdam Lab kicks off with a conversation between programme advisor David Pope and Rotterdam Lab 2020 producer Lara Costa-Calzado (Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Silver Bear at Berlinale), followed by a speed dating event for participants to mingle and break the ice. Among many sessions and roundtables with experts tracing the journey that a film goes through to make it to the screen and beyond, Ido Abram (director of SEE NL and deputy director of Eye Filmmuseum), keeps a programme classic alive, returning with a masterclass on the ins and outs of the art of pitching.
We’ll delve into the co-production set-up of the Hubert Bals Fund-supported and IFFR 2023 title Pamfir by Ukrainian filmmaker Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk. In Between Film will join us to talk financing strategy, while distribution consultant Síle Culley will help us navigate the audience design waters to identify potential audiences and to learn how to position a project in an ever-competitive marketplace.
Creative Producer Indaba
15 participants form a hive-mind of producers who are either in the process of developing, or want to collaborate on, an African film project – in order to develop their entrepreneurial and leadership expertise, foster their creative skills, and create long-lasting and significant networks.
The cohort met in November at the Atlas Workshops of the Marrakech International Film Festival, and conclude their programme in Rotterdam.
Creative Producer Indaba is presented by Realness Institute, in partnership with EAVE, IFFR Pro, and the Marrakech International Film Festival’s Atlas Workshops; with the support of IEFTA, Projeto Paradiso and The StoryBoard Collective.
The producers will join-up with the rest of the talent programmes to participate in panels and keynotes, as well as having their own full-week programme consisting of group work sessions, seminars and individual meetings.
The expert team guiding the programme features Sata Cissokho (sales & distribution), Constanza Arena (marketing), Linda Beath (finance) and Mmabatho Kau (story expert).
See the Creative Producer Indaba participants
BoostNL
Eight projects come to Rotterdam as part of their bespoke development programme. BoostNL brings Dutch projects together with international ones – those supported by our Hubert Bals Fund – to create a unique international platform for co-development. IFFR collaborates with the Holland Film Meeting (HFM), the industry event at the Netherlands Film Festival which took place in September 2022, to run the five-month programme.
The projects will be doing their tailor made trajectories of workshops, expert sessions and follow up meetings during CineMart. Among the participating projects is Grushka, which is also found in the CineMart selection.
The three-part workshop led by Argentinian producer Agustina Costa Varsi and Dutch freelance consultant and project manager Fay Breeman will dig deep into professional group working, proposing a method that allows a whole new attitude through giving and receiving feedback on each other's work in process, both in terms of artistic and production value while expanding the possibilities for learning.
Talent Development team
The team behind the newly formed talent initiative in IFFR Pro is Facundo Lema, Alberto Pickers and Vittoria Leardini. If you want to get in touch, email [email protected].