The International Film Festival Rotterdam has announced a selection of 21 featured projects for its 43rd Cinemart, a co-production market to be held from February 1st to 4th, and 10 projects for its ongoing platform Darkroom.
Commenting on CineMart’s lineup, IFFR Pro Director Maarten Labarz said, “The urgency is clear. From stories fighting war and displacement to stories exploring climate change, homosexuality, and the struggle to define and maintain identity in turbulent times, all are taking place amidst bold cinematic creativity and forays into genres such as science fiction, horror, and musicals.”
CineMart’s selection includes the comedy “The Dispute” from debut U.S. directors Andrea Ellsworth and Casey Ellis Walker, which was acquired for feature development by Riley Keough’s Felix Culpa and Donald Glover’s Gilga. In addition to directing, Ellsworth and Walker will also write the screenplay and co-star. Gemma Doll-Grossman is the DP.
The film is about two best friends from South Central who are down on their luck and looking for something more, and they take a chance meeting as an invitation to exchange their stalled lives in Los Angeles for something new. When chaos ensues during their seemingly lucrative adventure, they realize the true cost of their actions.
Ellsworth is an actress and filmmaker who appears as Deja on Netflix’s “The Vince Staples Show.” Walker is a writer, director, and actress whose directorial debut, the short film Hoop Dreams, premiered at the Tribeca Festival after winning the SoHo Script Lab.
The project was selected for this year’s Sundance Institute Directors and Writers Lab.
“Worse Together,” an exploration of transgender friendship by Canadian filmmaker Louis de Filippis, was also selected for Cinemart (“Something You Said Last Night,” IFFR Youth Jury Award, 2023).
Japanese director Toshihiko Tanaka (Rei, IFFR, 2024) has also won another IFFR Award for his next film, Shumari, set in Japan’s remote northern frontier.
Also selected from Asia is Le Bao, a film director who created the poetic and moving portrait “Hearing”, following on from “Taste” (2021), which won the Berlinale Encounters Special Jury Prize. Also on the list are Kang Bo’s Kingdom of the Insomniacs, a horrifying and fantastical vision of the forests of northeastern China, and debut Filipino director Warmy Alcazaren’s sci-fi queer romantic Noodles, which won Best International Short Film at the 2023 Fantasia Film Festival.
Additional selections include Spanish director Royce Patiño’s fifth feature set in the Philippines, titled Adarna (Ariel, IFFR, 2025), and Ridham Janve’s comedic Portuguese Man o’ War (The Gold Sheep and the Sacred Mountain, IFFR, 2018). Yet another colonial period drama comes out of South Africa in debut filmmaker Chantelle Clarke’s Pale Faces.
Lebanese filmmakers and artists Joana Hadji-Thomas and Khalil Joreij will present Beirut Baby alongside their previous works such as Perfect Day (Locarno, 2005, Prix de Fiplessis), Je Vous Voir (Cannes, 2008) and Memory Box (Cinemart, 2016, Berlinale, 2021). Egyptian director Morad Mostafa (Aisha Cannot Fly, Un Certain Regard, Cannes, 2025) will screen his second feature, Animals, while director Nicolas Gros will screen The Poet’s Son (Porcupine, IFFR, 2023 co-director, Chung Min Quy), set in wartime Russia.
Several of the selected filmmakers explore the complexities of relationships and belonging through intimate personal journeys. “When the Goats Came” by New Zealand director Arthur Elias Gay. and Swiss-Dutch artist and director Naomi Pacificik’s feature debut, After the Night (Looking She Said I Forget, Locarno, 2024).
New for 2026, six CineMart titles have been selected for the first CineMart x HBF lineup. This is a select set of projects that have previously received development support from IFFR’s Hubert Bals Fund.
The six projects include Martica Ramírez Escobar’s Daughters of the Sea, which intertwines three stories; Two Brazilian projects – Lila Jara’s surrealist satire “The Golden Ball” and Leonardo Martinelli’s “Neon Phantom,” a sequel to the award-winning short story of the same name. Alongside Senegalese filmmaker Mamadou Dia’s latest project, “Coumba,” the film will also screen “Bird Woman,” a love story by Indian feature debut director Lipika Singh Dalail, following her HBF-backed debut “Nafi’s Father” (IFFR, 2020), which won the Pardo d’Oro in Locarno’s Cineaste del Presente category in 2019. Tamar Shabugridze’s “Vika”, which resonates with the ongoing conflicts around the world, completes the lineup.
Darkroom, with the support of expert consultants, introduces recent or nearly completed films to international trade, distributors and festivals seeking gap or completion funding. Each project has a graduate producer from the Rotterdam Institute or has received previous support from CineMart or the Hubert Bals Fund.
Brazilian filmmakers Lais Santos Araujo and Petrus Tibucio (What Happened to Her, IFFR, 2025) have been selected, and they co-directed the coming-of-age drama Marina, supported by the Hubert Barls Foundation and presented by Cinemart. Elia Gasul Barrada and Matteo Norzi will screen their hybrid documentary “The Hummingbird Paints a Scented Song,” while Costa Rican filmmaker Neto Villalobos will screen his tropical dystopia “Amor Es El Monstrue.”
The Dark Room project also includes Mario Piredda’s return with the Sardinian road movie “Làstima” and Victor Moreno’s sci-fi “The Outside,” which premiered at CineMart 2022. Two Dutch projects are included in the lineup. Mari Saunders returns to themes of disability and belonging with ‘Get Up Stand Up’, while Kenyan-born Dutch filmmaker Amira Duynhauer presents ‘Sugar’.
Rounding out the selection is Joshua Loftin’s documentary LFD Hope, which was nominated for a BAFTA New Talent Award. Paris-based Korean artist and filmmaker Jeonghye Im presents “Sea, Star, Woman” and Phil Ieropoulos’ (Avant-Drag!, IFFR 2024) experimental docu-essay “Uchronia: Parallel Histories of Queer Revolt.”
The IFFR Pro Awards will recognize selected projects from CineMart and Darkroom and will be announced on the evening of February 4th.
Additionally, the festival announced that next year’s immersive media projects will be announced under Lightroom, IFFR’s new industry platform for immersive storytelling. Lightroom brings together all the XR, VR, and interactive projects previously presented on CineMart and Darkroom, creating one unified space for immersive work.
Former NewImages Festival and National Taiwan Museum of Art manager and curator Ellen Kuo has joined IFFR Pro as a Lightroom consultant, collaborating with IFFR’s Eva Langerak, who oversees both art direction and Lightroom. A selection of Lightroom projects will be announced next month.
Details of the selections are below.
Cinemart
Adarna, director. Lois Patiño, Spain
Production: Elástica Films, Matriuska Producciones
After the Night, director. Naomi Pacific, Netherlands, Switzerland
Produced by: Grom Productions, Lemming Film, Golden Egg Productions
Animals, director. Morad Mostafa, Egypt, France
Produced by: Bonanza Films, Wang Films
Beirut Baby, directed. Joanna Hadji-Thomas and Khalil Jorege, Lebanon, France
Produced by: About Productions, Haut et Court
I hear you, Director. Rakuho, Singapore, Vietnam
Production: E&W Film, Sensory Ocean Film
Kingdom of the Insomniacs, director. Can Bo, China
Production: Ridianth
Lux, director. Thomas Elie, Denmark
Production: Frau Film
Neon Phantom, director. Leonardo Martinelli, Brazil
Producer: Duas Mariola Films
Noodles, Our Love Was Instant and Eternal, Director. Whammy Alcazaren, Philippines
Production: Daluyong Studios, Two Fold
Pale Faces, director. Chantel Clark, Netherlands, South Africa
Producer: Baldur Film, Cadence
Portuguese Man O’ War manager. Ridham Janve, India
Produced by: Bombay Berlin Film Productions, The Film Cafe
Shumari, director. Toshihiko Tanaka, Japan
Produced by: ColorBird, No Saint. & bloom
Conflict, supervision. Andrea Ellsworth and Casey Ellis Walker, United Kingdom, United States
Produced by: Felix Culpa, Watermark Media, Gilga
Son of a poet, director. Nicolas Groh, Belgium, France, Germany
Produced by: Tarantula, Petit A Petit Productions, Yellow Blackbird, Clin Deal
When the goat came, the director. Arthur Gay, New Zealand, England, Greece
Produced by: In to Mind Productions, Exa Films, Ossian International
Worse together, director. Luis de Filippis, Canada, Switzerland
Production: JA Productions Inc., Cloud Fog Haze Pictures
Cinemart x HBF selection
Birdwoman, director. Lipika Singh Dalai, India, France
Production: Salt for Sugar Film
Kumba, director. Mamadou Dia, Senegal, France
Produced by: Maayo, Les Films du Bilboque
Daughters of the Sea, director. Martica Ramirez Escobar, Philippines, Spain
Produced by: This Side Up, Arkeofilms, Alba Sotorra Cinema Productions
Golden Ball, director. Lila Jara, Brazil, Uruguay
Produced by: Manjelican Film, Cimarron Cine, Arisas
Neon Phantom, director. Leonardo Martinelli, Brazil
Producer: Duas Mariola Films
Vika, director. Tamar Chabugridze, Georgia, Netherlands
Production: Nushi Film GEO, GoGoFilm
darkroom
Monster Love, directed. Neto Villalobos Brenes, Costa Rica, Peru, Panama, Chile
Produced by: La Sucia Centroamericana, Cine Infinito, Expansiva Cine, Clara Films
Stand up, stand up, director. Mari Saunders, Netherlands, Greece
Produced by: The Film Kitchen, Nedafilm
Lastima, director. Mario Piredda, Italy, Switzerland
Production: Articolture, DOK MOBILE
LFD Hope, Director. Joshua Loftin, UK, Hungary
Produced by: Seafox Film, Lorenz Film, Gallivant Film, Good Kids Productions
Marina, director. Rais Santos Araujo and Petrus Tibucio, Brazil
Produced by: Aguda Cinema, Carnival Films
The sea, the stars, the woman, the director. Jeunghae Yim, France, South Korea
Production: 5à7 Films, Seesaw Pictures
Sugar, director. Amira Duynhauer, Netherlands, Belgium
Production: Studio Ruba, Mirage Film
Hummingbird Paints a Scented Song, Director. Elia Gasul Barrada, Matteo Norzi, Peru, USA, Spain, Chile
Production: Shipibo Conibo Center, Desfase Films, Funicular Films, Pista B
Outside, Director. Victor Moreno, Spain, Belgium
Produced by: KV Films, Womack Studios, Transit Transat
Eukronia: A Parallel History of Queer Rebellion, dir. Phil Ieropoulos, Greece, Netherlands
Production: FYTA Films, GROM Productions
