The CineMart selection unveiled for the 40th edition

The Rotterdam International Film Festival has unveiled its selection of 20 feature film projects and five immersive projects for the 40th edition of CineMart, the festival's co-production market, which runs from January 29 to February 1. After two online editions, the market is organized in person for the first time since 2020.

Filmmakers from Indonesia, Paraguay, Democratic Republic of Congo and Ukraine are among of programming, which includes topics such as hip-hop, gender migration and fluidity, as well as a cowboy.

Inke Van Loocke, Head of IFFR Pro, said, "In fragmented times, bringing incredible filmmakers and projects from so many different territories continues to be an invaluable contribution to filmmaking across the globe.

"Together with the producers of the Rotterdam lab, the filmmakers of the selection and our extended family of press and industry, it will be a comforting feeling to feel the hum of a real IFFR again at De Doelen.”

Plattform Produktion of Sweden - the company behind Cannes winner 'Triangle of Sadness' - returns to CineMart to present John Skoog's "Redoubt", sequel to a 2014 short film of the same name, with the portrait of a farm worker Karl-Göran Persson who has turned his house into a fortress.

Features also include Kurt Oderson's "Apetown" which is a South African urban story weaving together hip-hop, graffiti, segregation and camaraderie; Anna Zamecka's hybrid documentary "Słońce", which follows the stories of young Iraqi Kurds making the trip to Belarus. In "Boifriend", UK-based Jack Goessens presents a character-driven story about the fluidity of gender and sexuality, exploring dysphoria and euphoria.

Set in Dordrecht in the Netherlands, Marta Parlatore explores the struggle of a Polish migrant between the creative expression and motherhood in "Grushka", which also participates in the BoostNL program.

Several titles in the selection have already been supported by IFFR's Hubert Bals Fund. "Manta Ray" (IFFR, 2019) director Phuttiphong Aroonpheng presents a confrontation between a displaced migrant and the Thai government official who burned down his house in "The Burning Giants".

In Barbara Sarasola-Day's "Little War", an Anglo-Argentine family at the foot of the Andes face off the imminent Malvinas/Falkland war.

Marina Stepanska explores the lives of three generations of Ukrainian women in "Consider Vera".

A young woman's journey through Colombia in search of the missing spirit of her missing brother is the premise of "Las tierras que te buscan" by Juanita Onzaga, whose short film "Tomorrow is a water palace" screened in competition at IFFR 2022.

Pablo Lamar won the Special Jury Prize in the Tiger competition at IFFR 2016 for his debut "La última tierra," and now features "Remanso," set in the 1970s during the dictatorship in Paraguay.

As part of a cooperation between CineMart and WEMW (When East Meets West), the forum of co-production at the Trieste Film Festival, “When the Kids Sing the Hits” by Mina Djukic will have the chance to screen in both markets. The project is a portrait of three friends during the last days of Yugoslavia.

Five projects make up CineMart's range of immersive projects, chosen from those presented on the Content section of Impulse at VRDays Immersive Tech Week. Rapper, artist and filmmaker Baloji ("Zombies", IFFR 2020) presents "Anti-Muse" - a surreal narrative mixing music, dance and scenography set among the tropical plants of the Serres Royales, symbol of the Belgian colonization of the Congo. "Gay Simulator" by Iris van der Meule is an interactive virtual reality artwork and video game, which will immerse the user in the experiences of a lesbian girl.