By Scott Roxborough. Europe Bureau Chief. Dark comedy Fabula , by Dutch director Michiel ten Horn, about a provincial criminal grappling with personal and professional failures, will open the festival, the first Dutch movie to do so since The Netherlands and its former colony signed a co-production agreement in December, opening access to Dutch subsidies for Indonesian productions, including a potential 35 percent cash rebate through the Netherlands Film Production Incentive.
Last summer, the city of Utrecht also withdrew its subsidies for the Netherlands film festival. Rotterdam, so far, has avoided similar cuts. This is a critical place for discovery and the nurturing of talent, of storytellers, filmmakers, and artists.
And also for the discovery within the industry, so these first-time filmmakers who come to Rotterdam can use it as this launchpad into the film industry, as a place to find the right partners and the right collaborators for their work.
Clare Stewart The festival played a very formative role in my early development as a programmer and curator. Rotterdam was the first festival I came to outside of Australia, 25 years ago, also very much for that USP. At that time, it was already indeed the first international film festival that was working in the space of artists and filmmakers who were moving into more installation and immersive-based work, it was really ground-breaking.
Vanja Kaludjercic Our closing film is an excellent example. There are Dutch and Indonesian films throughout the overall program, including the opening and closing night films, but in all the competitive sections as well. How political do you see your roles, given the current right-wing government in the Netherlands and the rise of far-right politics across Europe? Vanja Kaludjercic The IFFR has always taken the view that when making our whole program, the key thing is that we have to reflect the world we live in.
