IFFR announces first 10 world premieres for 2027 Bright Future and Harbour sections

Mixed · 2The International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) announced on Thursday 29 October the first 10 titles set for world premiere at its 56th edition, which runs from 28 January to 7 February 2027. 1 2 Left · 1The films will screen in the festival's Bright Future section, which focuses on debut features, and its Harbour section, which the festival describes as "a safe haven to the full range of contemporary cinema". 1 Left · 2Bright Future titles named are Lucila Las Heras's dark fairy tale "The Muglur" (Mexico, Argentina), Mohamed El Zayat's Egyptian dramedy "In the Name of Galeela", Ben Hicks's "Kids Go Free" (U.S., Taiwan, Japan), made over 15 years across three countries, and Parbat Chapagai's "Portrait of a Young Criminal" (U.S., Nepal), a Nepal-set adaptation of Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment". 3 1

Left · 1Harbour titles include "Karl Marx, Luanda" by Kiluanji Kia Henda (Angola, Portugal), a satirical future history of Angola imagined as a Marxist state, and "Yiannis" by Kyros Papavassiliou (Cyprus, Greece), about a Cypriot teenager searching for a bird psychologist after his father's body vanishes from a morgue. 3 Left · 3Three Harbour directors are returning to IFFR: Kia Henda, who had a Short Profile in 2020 and a commissioned performance, "Resetting Birds' Memories", in 2021; Papavassiliou, whose "Impressions of a Drowned Man" was in the 2015 Tiger Competition; and Hong Kong's Rita Hui Nga Shu, whose "Decameron" premiered in 2021 and who now brings "The Lapse" (Taiwan, U.K.), which uses declassified government documents and her AI-cloned voice. 1 2 3 Mixed · 2Newcomers include the Malaysian siblings Iskander and Feisal Azizuddin with the comedy cannibal horror "Ali and Ben's Spicy Meats", and Omer Shamir with "Waiting Room" (France), a documentary portrait of Palestinian photojournalist Mohammed Zaanoun's family in exile in Egypt after fleeing Khan Younis. 2 3

Left · 3The tenth title is Ali Bakhtiari's Iranian documentary "Tehran the Obscure Atelier of Desire", a portrait of artists in their Tehran studios "while outside the threat of war looms". The Hollywood Reporter places it in Harbour and calls it his debut feature, while Deadline's prose groups it with Bright Future and Variety's text mentions it among Bright Future titles but lists it under Harbour. 1 2 3 Mixed · 2Festival director Vanja Kaludjercic said: "Cinema is at its most exciting when it challenges our expectations... These first 10 films already offer a glimpse of that incredible range, from the playful and provocative to the intimate and politically urgent." 3 2 Mixed · 2IFFR also unveiled its 2027 campaign, developed with Rotterdam design studio 75B, and said the complete lineup will be announced on 16 December. 2 3