Canadian feature Incendies by Denis Villeneuve has won the UPC Audience Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam 2011. The other award decided by the audience - the Dioraphte Award for Best Hubert Bals Fund-supported film - went to former CineMart Project If the Seed Doesn't Die by Serbian filmmaker Sinisa Dragin. This was announced on the evening of Saturday, 5 February in the Grote Zaal in de Doelen, Rotterdam.
IFFR 2011 racked up 340,000 visits to its films, exhibitions, performances and events. The 41st International Film Festival Rotterdam will take place from 25 January to 5 February 2012.
 

Festival head Rutger Wolfson looks back with satisfaction on an energetic anniversary festival:
"We bring together filmmakers from all over the world for ten days in Rotterdam. Introducing their films, the fruits of tremendous efforts, to a full auditorium can lead to beautiful and emotional situations especially with debut filmmakers. For me, this festival had many highlights, including the opening of the Out of Fashion exhibition, with the performance by Japanese artist Pyupiruu; the live wuxia performances in the Chinese Water Tiger Inn Tavern; the Not Kidding programme for the youngest generation of festival visitors; the Metropole Orchestra, opening the Red Westerns programme; the attendance by prominent filmmakers such as Lee Chang-Dong, Jan Svankmajer, Kore-eda Hirokazu, Ali Khamraev, Mathieu Amalric, Denis Villeneuve, Daniele Luchetti, Denis Côté and Tsukamoto Shinya, and actors such as Marisa Paredes, Stellan Skarsgård and Will Oldham."
 
Another striking feature of IFFR 2011 was the renewed energy felt among the film professionals visiting the festival. 2009 and 2010 were characterized by caution owing to the economic crisis. This year, however, Wolfson has noticed optimism and vitality: "The crisis may not be over, but young filmmakers and young producers in particular now know what its effects are. The energy and dynamism on display here on their part give grounds for hope."
 
Friday February 4, the three Tiger Awards were granted to feature débuts The Journals of Musan by Park Jung-Bum (South Korea, 2010, also winner of the Rotterdam FIPRESCI Award 2011), Finisterrae by Sergio Caballero (Spain, 2010) and Hubert Bals Fund supported film Eternity by Sivaroj Kongsakul (Thailand, 2010).
On the occasion of IFFR's 40th jubilee edition, the one-off and shared Return of the Tiger Award went to Oki's Movie by Hong Sang-Soo (South Korea) and Club Zeus by David Verbeek (Netherlands/China).
This edition, the Tiger Awards Competition is supported by the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds.
 
The NETPAC Award is shared between Hubert Bals Fund supported Black Blood by Zhang Miaoyan (China/France, 2011) and The Day I Disappeared by Atousa Bandeh Ghiasabadi (Netherlands/Iran, 2011); the KNF Award went to Winter Vacation by Li Hongqi (China, 2010).
 
Monday January 31, Nicolas Provost's Stardust (Belgium), Nathaniel Dorsky's Pastourelle (USA) and Natasha Mendonca's Jan Villa (USA/India) were awarded the three equal Rotterdam Tiger Awards for Short Films 2011. Alberto De Michele's I Lupi (The Wolves, Italy) took the Rotterdam Short Film Nomination for the European Film Awards 2011. The New Arrivals Award went to Silent Things by Rob Brown (UK).
The Rotterdam Tiger Awards Competition for Short Films is supported by the City Marketing Office Rotterdam.
 
The 28th CineMart, co-production market of the International Film Festival Rotterdam concluded, Wednesday February 2 in Rotterdam, with the announcement of the two awards for best CineMart Projects 2011. Touch Me Not by Adina Pintilie (Romania/France) wins the Arte France Cinéma Award and Kid by Fien Troch (Belgium/Netherlands) takes the Eurimages Award. The Jury gave a Special Mention to A Spell to Ward of the Darkness by Ben Russell & Ben Rivers (Germany/France).
 
Managing director Janneke Staarink is positive about the renewed cooperation with many institutions in Rotterdam within the framework of the XL festival. "Working with the new LantarenVenster for the first time has been a success. With a view to the expected cutbacks in government spending on culture, the festival has set up the Tiger Film Mecenaat (Tiger Film Patrons' Fund), in cooperation with the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, whereby festival fans are called upon to support the festival financially. This marks a pro-active step towards the future."
 
This year, the visitor figure (340,000) is based more on counted, actual visits to the festival. Staarink: "The total number is complex as only part can be measured, for example tickets sold, and part has to be estimated, such as those events to which admission is free. This new counting method involves fewer assumptions, which means it may seem like we have had fewer visitors, whereas in fact we have sold in excess of 12,000 more film tickets than last year."
 
 
The 40th International Film Festival Rotterdam in figures*:
 
 
Audience attendance
Total number of visits: 340,000 (2010: 353,000)
 
Festival website
Unique visitors to festival website January 1-February 2011: 406,910 (2010: 321,418)
Page views festival website January 1-February 2011: 3,510,102 (2010: 3,074,417)
 
Delegates
Number of festival guests (filmmakers, delegates, CineMart and press): 2,472 (2010: 2,717)
Number of festival guests from The Netherlands: 716 (2010: 888)
Number of international festival guests: 1,756 (2010: 1,829)
 
Number of attending filmmakers: 327 (2010: 337)
 
Number of journalists (total): 373 (2010: 384)
Number of international journalists: 179 (2010: 163)
Number of Dutch journalists: 194 (2010: 225)
 
Number of CineMart guests: 754 (2010: 850)
Number of international CineMart guests: 630 (2010: 769)
Number of CineMart guests from The Netherlands: 124 (2010: 221)
 
*Source of 2010 figures: IFFR Year report 2009-2010; 2011 figures subject to change, final figures will be published in the IFFR Year report 2010-2011.
 
(End of press release)
 
Note to the Editor, not for publication:
 
Film information, search by film title:
http://www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com/professionals/programme/film_titles_az/
 
Hi res downloads of film stills:
http://www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com/professionals/press/film-stills-2011-downloads/

Images material of Competitions and CineMart Awards winners:
http://www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com/professionals/press/images_presskits/

Press information IFFR:
IFFR Press Office (Bert-Jan Zoet or Nancy van Oorschot)
press@filmfestivalrotterdam.com, +31 10 8909090
 
http://www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com/