International Film Festival Rotterdam
SPIRAL’s Lookout List
The SPIRAL crew is getting ready for this year’s International Film Festival Rotterdam. Silver jumpsuits on, wrap-around goggles donned. We’ve all been eagerly browsing the IFFR Film Finder (powered by the Tiger Hadron Collider), a handy tool by which to watch trailers, rate them, and have further films suggested based on your likes and dislikes. The whole office has been buzzing.
The team, in a heated roundtable, has finally been able to agree on a few highlights. Coffee cups were thrown, tears were shed, nails were broken. We all like the look of Owen Kline’s Funny Pages, the story of a young, aspiring cartoonist. Maybe he could do something for us.
Aftersun, featuring Paul Mescal as a young father on holiday, also comes to mind. After all, he was nominated for Best Actor at the Oscars for it! The Whale is an obvious must not just for Brendan Fraser’s don’t-call-it-a-comeback comeback, but also for his stellar performance as a sympathetic English literature tutor.
We’ve also got our eyes on Eo, a highly polished Polish film about a donkey’s life in a circus. This one, by the by, is in the race for this year’s Academy Award for Best International Feature. Our cultural editor insists on everyone seeing Hlynur Pálmason’s Godland about a 19th century Danish priest travelling to Iceland and having his faith tested by its harsh conditions. “Lol, tell me about it” our editor is quoted to have said.
Our local favourite has to be Goodbye Stranger, a mandatory Dutch production for all the quirky freelancers out there. It follows a successful playlist curator for a music streaming service on the eve of a major promotion in a wild 24 hours in Amsterdam. We’ve all been there.
Extra-Curricular Activities
There’ll also be a variety of other activities. Steve McQueen will be exhibiting his latest piece ‘Sunshine State’ and giving a talk. The ‘Critic’s Choice’ talk delves into film criticism and the relationship between aesthetics and up-to-date inclusiveness. Joy Delima, Jonnah Bron and an intimacy coach will be getting into on-screen close contact during the ‘Intimacy’ talk and how it shapes things on and off set.
There’ll also be book launches, a whole blind dating service, and loads of parties. For once, the silver-clad SPIRAL team won’t have to infiltrate the premises like a bunch of well-dressed bank robbers. We’ve already got our tix. See you there.
Yours Spooly,
SPIRAL Editorial
little tiger by Kateryna Skipochka