The 54th edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) opened on Thursday night with Dutch film Fabula at the Oude Luxor Theater, in front of more than 800 guests.
Dutch director Michiel ten Horn appeared onstage alongside actors Fedja van Huet and Sezgin Guleç as well as producers Sander Verdonk and Thomas den Drijver to introduce their crime comedy film.
“Fabula is a film that is a homage to the art of storytelling,” said Verdonk. “Stories are amazing — you can tell these little secrets, jokes or fables, and they tell you something about life, lift you up, change your mind, make you feel better or make you think.”
Den Drijver added: “Michiel’s insane vision inspired us to produce this film. We’ve been working on it for quite some time and we’re very proud to be showing it to you here today.”
The crime comedy film tells the story of Jos, born into a family haunted by disaster and determined to find out the cause of this. He meets a series of colorful characters who slowly bring him closer to the explanation he has been searching for.
Festival director Vanja Kaludjercic and managing director Clare Stewart highlighted new initiatives like the Displacement Film Fund as part of the festival’s ongoing mission to support displaced filmmakers and filmmakers with a proven track record in creating authentic storytelling on the experiences of displaced people. Cate Blanchett is set to chair the selection committee for the inaugural edition of the fund this year.
Kaludjercic’s opening night speech — made with newly-installed Rotterdam mayor Carola Schouten in attendance — requested the festival’s audience to pay attention to the ongoing petition for Cinerama to be preserved for the local community. Cinerama is one of the city’s theaters also used as a venue for IFFR.
The current lease for Cinerama will run out by end-2025 and the petition seeks the “municipality of Rotterdam to prevent the demolition of Cinerama for a new construction project.” The online petition has amassed nearly 30,000 signatures.
“Cinerama is not only a cinema, but also a communal space for the citizens of Rotterdam. It has become a space that needs and deserves to be protected and preserved,” said Kaludjercic. Her speech was met with cheers and rapturous applause from the audience.
“At the IFFR, we remain steadfast in our belief in democracy and the common good, a vision shaped not by individual gain, but by shared works and dreams,” added Kaludjercic. “This idea resonates through every film we showcase, every story we amplify, and every artist we bring together. While our role naturally operates on a slightly different scale, it does share a fundamental principle to give its ability to those who are unseen and to connect artists who might have never crossed paths.
“Cinema does not claim to save lives, but it does shape how we see them, how we understand our world, and how we imagine it could become,” added Kaludjercic.
The festival will screen a total of 400 films, including short films. IFFR will close on February 9 with independence epic This City Is A Battlefield by Indonesian filmmaker Mouly Surya, which is set during Indonesia’s fight for independence in 1946.
