Meet our RTM Curators for 2027
RTM is IFFR’s programme dedicated to Rotterdam, presenting the best local films and talent. Once again, we’ve invited three guest curators from the city’s creative scene to put together the programme at IFFR 2027: Leana Boven, Ciska Meister and Rocky Roos. Meet the curators and find out how they plan to approach the programme.
“We – Ciska Meister, Rocky Roos and Leana Boven – are absolutely thrilled to be the RTM curators for IFFR 2027! We’re looking forward to getting started on the selection process and developing the programme over the coming months.
We want to create a programme in which different communities from Rotterdam and the surrounding area can recognise themselves, and from which new insights and imaginations can emerge. We want to provide a space for unconventional and surprising stories, whilst valuing intergenerational perspectives as well as new talent. We hope the RTM programme reflects Rotterdam’s unique character, whilst ensuring a sense of collective ownership, because ultimately it is the filmmakers who shape the programme. Through the diversity of our public programmes, we hope to bring together filmmakers, film experts and enthusiasts, with scope for depth, inspiration and, above all, enjoyment.”
“We hope the RTM programme reflects Rotterdam’s unique character, whilst ensuring a sense of collective ownership”
“As RTM curators we share an interest in ‘full’ films: films that are packed with complex ideas, questions, stylistic experiments, rich imagery and multiple narrative forms. But also films with, for example, a rich world of sound design. We want to leave room for work that doesn’t necessarily fit neatly within certain expectations, but can also be weird, funny, uncomfortable or formally unconventional. Films that may not be super polished, but that are certainly distinctive. We want to put wonder and curiosity first; that you take the time to reflect on something, that you are allowed to have doubts and experience conflicting feelings.”
Leana Boven
Leana Boven is a curator, programme maker, writer, and researcher whose work explores solidarity practices, counterculture, diasporic identity, spatial justice, ecological grief, and Indigenous knowledge systems. She is interested in anti-capitalist and anti-colonial artistic and design practices. She curated her first exhibition, On Collective Care & Togetherness, at MAMA (2020) and has organised exhibitions and programmes at Casco Art Institute and Gemaal op Zuid. Currently, she is at Stroom Den Haag and has curated shows at Casco Art Institute: Working for the Commons, Gemaal op Zuid, MAMA, Kunsthal Mechelen and de Brakke Grond a.o. Leana writes for platforms including Metropolis M, is an educator at the Design Academy Eindhoven and co-founded Periphery Center, a queer BIPOC collective of writers, curators, and graphic designers.
“I look forward to putting together a film programme that is challenging and multi-layered, and which manages to combine critical perspectives with enjoyment and curiosity.”
Ciska Meister
Ciska Meister is a filmmaker and artist. Their work is characterised by a hopeless dedication to a playful yet serious approach, in which they continuously ask unanswerable questions (usually without a conclusion) and dissect supposed paradoxes (which often remain ambiguous). Thematically, their work touches upon issues surrounding the ethics of documentary filmmaking, community-based representation, and the positioning of queer identities within a broader discourse. Their films A Place Where Reality Lies (2022), The Ozard (2025), and Pussymagnet, Baby! (2026) have been screened at national and international festivals.
“Films that resemble Rotterdam, with its mosaic cityscapes and constantly shifting social dynamics”
“When curating the RTM programme, I look for films that are packed with quirky ideas, questions both big and small, rich imagery, playful narrative styles, risky ventures and gentle reflections, that there will never be enough time for Q&As. In other words: films that resemble Rotterdam, with its mosaic cityscapes and constantly shifting social dynamics.”
Rocky Roos
Rocky Roos is a Rotterdam-based film director and creative director. He works across fiction, music videos, and commercials, and is particularly interested in what lies beneath the surface. In his work, he explores emotion, tension, desire, and everything people prefer to leave unsaid. Visuals, performance, sound, and rhythm aren’t decoration to him – they’re tools to get closer to those underlying feelings. Beautiful shots without a purpose feel to him like a beautifully plated dish with no flavour: great for a photo, but easily forgotten. In 2025, he directed the NPO pilot Drive Pitch. His latest short film, An Elephant (2026), is set to begin its festival circuit shortly. He draws inspiration from film, photography, music, art, fashion, and anything that unexpectedly resonates.
“I’m particularly drawn to films where something is simmering just beneath the surface”
“I’m particularly drawn to films where something is simmering just beneath the surface. A glance that lasts just a little too long, a silence in which all sorts of things are actually happening, sound that slowly creeps under your skin, a performance that makes you forget that you’re watching an actor.’’
