Former Tiger competitors bring new films in ‘Return of the Tiger'

To mark its 40th anniversary, the International Film Festival Rotterdam is screening a selection of films made this year by former Tiger Award candidates, in its Return of the Tiger programme. Aimed at bringing new, unknown and innovative filmmakers to the attention of audiences and international film professionals, the Tiger Awards Competition has been a major feature of the IFFR since 1995.
 
This Return of the Tiger program will be accompanied by a one-off award, the Return of the Tiger Award. The fourteen directors with a film competing in the Tiger Awards Competition 2011 will be asked to decide together on the winner of this unique award, worth € 5,000. The winner will be announced at the IFFR Awards Ceremony in the Oude Luxor Theater on the evening of Friday, 4 February.
 
The Return of the Tiger program, brought together by festival programmer Gerwin Tamsma, and the Return of the Tiger Award, are intended as a gesture of appreciation towards those filmmakers who have taken the first steps of their careers on the international stage at the Rotterdam festival, and as a token of the festival's ongoing support for these filmmakers. Some of the 244 filmmakers who have competed for a Tiger Award over the years have become world famous, while others have remained more or less obscure.
 
As part of Return of the Tiger programme, David Verbeek will present the world première of his Club Zeus, a film about ‘hosts' in a club for wealthy women in Shanghai. This new production sees Verbeek return to Rotterdam, following his Tiger Award candidate Shanghai Trance and R U There (selected for Cannes in 2010).
 
Return of the Tiger also features new work by Tiger Award winners Kelly Reichardt, Patrick Keiller, Tan Chui Mui, Hong Sang-Soo and Santiago Loza. The programme furthermore includes 22nd of May, the latest film from Koen Mortier, whose Ex Drummer made a big impact at the IFFR in 2007.
 
The following fourteen films will be competing for the Return of the Tiger Award:
 
Oki's Movie by Hong Sang-Soo, South Korea (Tiger Award 1997 for The Day a Pig Fell Into the Well)
When Love Comes by Chang Tso-chi, Taiwan (Nomination Tiger Award 1997 for Ah-Chung)
Robinson in Ruins by Patrick Keiller, UK (Tiger Award 1997 for Robinson in Space)
Genpin by Kawase Naomi, Japan (Nomination Tiger Award and Rotterdam FIPRESCI Award 1997 winner for Suzaku)
Carancho by Pablo Trapero, Argentina (Tiger Award 2000 for Mundo grúa / Crane World)
Pulsar by Alex Stockman, Belgium (Nomination Tiger Award 2001 for Verboden te zuchten / I Know I'll See Your Face Again)
Los labios by Santiago Loza & Iván Fund, Argentina (Loza won een Tiger Award in 2003 for Extraño)
If the Seed Doesn't Die by Sinisa Dragin, Romania/Serbia (Tiger Award 2002 for Every Day God Kisses Us on the Mouth)
22 mei / 22nd of May by Koen Mortier, Belgium (Nomination Tiger Award 2007 for Ex Drummer)
Meek's Cutoff by Kelly Reichardt, USA (Tiger Award 2006 for Old Joy)
Year Without a Summer by Tan Chui Mui, Malaysia (Tiger Award 2007 for Love Conquers All)
Tres semanas después / Three Weeks Later by José Luis Torres Leiva, Chile (Nomination Tiger Award 2008 and Rotterdam FIPRESCI Award for El cielo, la tierra y la lluvia / The Sky, the Earth and the Rain)
Club Zeus by David Verbeek, Netherlands (Nomination Tiger Award 2008 for Shanghai Trance)