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From Argentina to Austria, Congo to China, films from all corners of the globe are peppered through the programme of the Rotterdam International Film Festival (IFFR), which opens tomorrow, Thursday January 30.

Now in her fifth year at Rotterdam, festival director Vanja Kaludjercic – whose previous roles include stints at the Coproduction Office and as head of acquisitions at Mubi – says the 2025 edition presents filmmakers, themes and topics “that you do not often get a chance to see”.

Rotterdam’s two competitions – Tiger and Big Screen – each screen 14 films. Tiger is for emerging auteur filmmakers, while Big Screen “presents more classical cinema from dramas to arthouse,...

Greek-French filmmaker Costa Gavras, Japanese director Miike Takashi and Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof, whose latest film “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” is Oscar shortlisted, have joined the roster of speakers at International Film Festival Rotterdam for the upcoming 54th edition, running from Jan. 30 – Feb. 9.

IFFR will present two strands of conversations: Big Talks, featuring dialogues between world-renowned figures from diverse disciplines, and Tiger Talks, offering explorations of film-related themes and addressing various issues including feminism, the legacy of colonialism, and cinema’s sociopolitical role.

Additional talks will take place during the Rtm Day, IFFR’s program dedicated to Rotterdam on Jan. 31.

Furthermore, the IFFR Pro Dialogues program of industry-focused discussions will be held during the IFFR Pro Days, running between Jan. 31 – Feb. 5.

Also during the festival, IFFR will welcome further special guests to present their titles in selection, including Payal Kapadia (“All We Imagine as Light”), Jan-Willem van Ewijk (“Alpha.

Dutch filmmaker Michiel ten Horn’s Fabula will open the 2025 International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) on January 30, while Indonesian filmmaker Mouly Surya’s historical epic This City Is A Battlefield will close the event on February 9.

Fabula is a dark comedy about a provincial criminal grappling with personal and professional failures, starring Fedja van Huet, Anniek Pheifer, Sezgin Gulec, Michiel Kerbosch, Georg Friedrich, and David Kross. It is a co-production between the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany. Michiel most recently directed the family feature Hotel Sinestra in 2023.

Surya’s This City is a Battlefield is set in 1946 during Indonesia’s fight for independence.

The International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) is to hold retrospectives of Croatian-German documentarian Katja Raganelli and Ukrainian auteur Sergii Masloboishchykov as part of its 2025 Focus programme.

Katja Raganelli’s work on public television, often aired only once and now largely faded from view, focused on the history of women in filmmaking. It includes: Margery Wilson – Vom Stummfilmstar Hollywoods zur Filmregisseurin (1996), Valie Export – Portrait einer Filmregisseurin (1981), and Die Liebe ist ein Mythos – Delpine Seyrig (1978).

The Focus programme will also present Raganelli’s portraits of figures like Agnès Varda, Márta Mészáros, Valie Export, Alice Guy-Blaché and Lotte Reiniger.

Sergii Masloboishchykov’s retrospective...

U.S. indie filmmaker Alex Ross Perry’s long-awaited work Videoheaven, celebrating video stores in Hollywood cinema, will world premiere at the Rotterdam International Film Festival.

The film, which has been more than a decade in the making, comes hot on the heels of Pavements, which debuted at Venice this year, and follows festival hits such as Listen Up Philip and Her Smell.

The Videoheaven world premiere was announced by Rotterdam as part of one of four Focus strands in its 54th edition, running from January 30 to February 9, 2025.

The film will be unveiled in a Focus strand entitled “Hold Video in Your Hand”, celebrating the community spirit of VHS culture.

Other works in the selection include Rotterdam filmmaker Gyz’s Videotheek Marco, an investigation into local video store history and connected audiovisual activities like community television.

The program also includes Indian documentary Videokaaran (2011) and David Cronenberg’s latest work The Shrouds...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options—not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves–each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and an archive of past round-ups here.

HBO Max

The latest streaming service has arrived with HBO Max, which pulls together what was offered on the HBO platform with quite an expanded library. While the WarnerMedia platform is certainly the most scattered of its competitors in terms of the range of content, if you dig deeper, there’s plenty of worthwhile offerings. Led by the Studio Ghibli catalog, they also have a Turner Classic Movies channel, featuring Criterion Collection classics, a Charlie Chaplin collection, landmark westerns, all of the A Star is Borns, Citizen Kane, Casablanca, The Abyss, and more. Happy watching.

Where to Stream: HBO Max

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