A diverse competition bridging the gap between popular, classic and art house cinema. An expert audience jury picks the winner.

IFFR 2024

Leticia Tonos Paniagua

In the near future, a scientist races against time to change humanity’s fate.

In this visually dazzling and rare example of Caribbean sci-fi, a scientist’s attempts to preserve humanity’s future are threatened by the arrival of a stranger and a constantly developing artificial intelligence system exhibiting the pernicious traits of envy.

Competitions

Big Screen Competition

Aire: Just Breathe

Ville Suhonen

A nation’s chilling desire for war and the toll it took on its children.

A chilling and urgent documentary about Finland’s authoritarian policy in the years immediately following its declaration of independence in 1917, when the country’s youth were drilled to prepare for conflict, and how such a mindset permeated the national psyche for generations to come.

Children of War and Peace

Daniele Luchetti

Revered teacher Pietro has an affair with one of his students in this exquisite thriller.

Filmmaker Daniele Luchetti collaborates for a fourth time with acclaimed actor Elio Germano, who plays Pietro, a revered teacher who engages in an illicit affair with one of his students, Teresa. <strong>Confidenza</strong> is an exquisite thriller with a deep analysis of human behaviour.

Confidenza

Ulaa Salim

A deeply moving sci-fi drama of the heart that ruminates on ‘what if?’

An earthquake causes a huge fissure at the bottom of the ocean, potentially destabilising the Earth’s already precarious environment, but also forcing a young scientist to decide whether to pursue his career or continue a relationship. Over time, he ruminates on the decision he made.

Eternal

Sophia Bösch

In a dystopian near-future, a young girl has to choose between servitude or freedom.

In a community cut off from the world, a young girl finds solace in her friendship with an outsider she encounters near her home. But it’s a relationship that breaks her community’s strict codes, leaving the girl to choose between servitude or freedom.

Milk Teeth

Oktay Baraheni

An Iranian-set family drama of Shakespearean proportions which explores the corrosiveness of patriarchy.

A bullying father finds his plans to remarry undermined by his son. In his sophomore feature, Oktay Baraheni explores the devastating impact of patriarchy within one family – a microcosm of the malaise that permeates all societies where gender inequality exists as the status quo.

The Old Bachelor

Marcelo Gomes

A potent parable of religious intolerance and cultural difference, about Lebanese migrants living in Brazil.

A tale of religious intolerance and the challenges faced by migrants revolves around the journey of Emilie and Emir, two Catholic siblings, who leave their home in Lebanon to settle in Brazil, but find their close bond threatened when one of them falls in love.

Portrait of a Certain Orient

An immortal and an everyman meet in this irresistible mix of melodrama, comedy and spectacle.

Tamil filmmaker Ram’s fifth feature successfully combines tropes of mainstream Indian cinema with a philosophical exploration of love, pain, suffering, compassion and redemption, through the encounter between a thirty-something and an 8,000-year-old immortal.

Seven Seas Seven Hills

Adilkhan Yerzhanov

A visceral, absurdist revenge thriller, embracing elements of the Western, set across the Kazakh steppes.

In prolific filmmaker Adilkhan Yerzhanov’s allegorically rich and frequently visceral thriller, a civil war rages as a mute woman and a ruthless killer search for her son. Along the way they face many obstacles – most of which are other people.

Steppenwolf

Inrasothythep Neth

Sokyou Chea

A manga artist experiences terrifying visions when visiting her ancestral home in Phnom Penh.

Following her mother’s death, manga artist Soriya travels to her ancestral home in Phnom Penh in the hope of reconnecting with her distant family and drawing inspiration for her work. However, the journey turns ominous when she experiences bizarre and bloody visions.

Tenement

Rodrigo Areias

Art lover. Rogue. Blackmailer. A fascinating portrait of Victorian art dealer Charles Augustus Howell.

Rodrigo Areias revels in period details and the outrageous life story of Victorian art dealer Charles Augustus Howell, who charmed his way into London society, built a network of contacts, business partners and artists, and when things didn’t go his way, resorted to blackmail.

The Worst Man in London

Razka Robby Ertanto

A nun’s search for her car leads to crisis in this enthralling neorealist-tinged drama.

Laura Basuki is a wonder as the titular nun, whose search for her car on the Indonesian island of Sumba finds her drawn into the world of child labour, in Razka Robby Ertanto’s gem of a film, whose style evokes Italian neorealist cinema.

IFFR 2025
30 Jan – 9 Feb 2025