FESTIVALS

The Rotterdam International Film Festival

An overview. A description of Rotterdam International Film Festival profile, and a review of the main films and authors presented there.

What is unimaginable everywhere else in Europe is normal at the Rotterdam International Film Festival — the director of the Festival is not a native Dutch but an »imported« British. This year, festival has earned about half a billion dollars, it had around 215,000 attendance, and about fourteen hundred guests from other countries. The »wander formula« of this year Festival was thematic — violence and sex. There were several programs: documentary, populist feature, presentations of several authors (this year Russian Aleksandar Sokurov, Japanese Mochizuky Rokure and American Ernie Gehr).

Important part of the festival was the CineMart market of film projects, where European producers and authors gathered around a project they were interested to coproduce; then Euroimage conference, and presentation of Hubert Bals Fund films — films from the developing countries subisidized by the Fund. The top documentaries were films by Austrian Michael Haneke, and Kirby Dick. In the feature program there was an interesting retrospective of Italian seventies’ and eighties’ exploitation films (films by Dario Argento, Joe D’Amato Richardo Fredo, Ludia Fulcia). Some individual films presented at the Festival are reviewed too.

Rada Šešić