The winner of the Robbie Muller Award was Yorick Le Saux, a French film director whose recent films include “Father Mother Sister Brother” and “Kremlin Wizards.” Le Saux will receive this award at the 55th Rotterdam International Film Festival, which will be held from January 29th to February 29th. 8.
The award recognizes “outstanding filmmaker artistry” and is presented in collaboration with the Netherlands Society of Cinematographers and Andrea Müller Schirmer.
“Father Mother Sister Brother” and “The Wizard of the Kremlin” will be featured in the festival’s Limelight series.
Le Saux is best known for his collaborations with Olivier Assayas (Carlos, Clouds of Sils Maria, Personal Shopper) and François Ozon (The Swimming Pool, 5×2). His body of work also includes Luca Guadagnino’s “I Am Love,” Jim Jarmusch’s “Only Lovers Left Alive,” Claire Dennis’ “High Life,” Greta Gerwig’s “Little Women,” and Steve McQueen’s “Blitz.”
This year’s Robbie Muller Prize jury said: “Yorrick Le Saux’s visual language is defined by close observation and a deep attachment to reality, supporting and enhancing the story without ever overshadowing it. With a clear sense of rhythm, atmosphere and emotion, he adapts effortlessly to a wide range of genres, stories and aesthetics.”
Rotterdam also announced the lineup of judges across the three competition categories.
The jury for the Tiger Competition, which “celebrates the innovative and adventurous spirit of up-and-coming filmmakers,” includes Iranian director and actress Soheila Golestani, who was recognized for her performance in Mohammad Rasoulof’s Academy Award-nominated film The Sacred Fig Seed (2024). Marcelo Gómez is a Brazilian film director, screenwriter and visual artist, known for Cinema, Aspirin and Vultures (Cannes, 2005), Portrait of an Orient (IFFR, 2024) and Dolores (2025, co-directed with María Clara Escobar). And Greek-French actress and director Ariane Labed, known for starring in Attenberg (2010), Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Alps (2011) and The Lobster (2015), recently made her directorial debut with September Says (Cannes, 2024). Christy Matheson, BFI Festival Director, former Creative Director of the Edinburgh Film Festival and Film Director of the Australian National Museum of Film Culture ACMI. Jurika Pavičić, Croatian novelist, screenwriter, short story writer, journalist and film critic.
The jury for the Tiger Short Competition consists of Sammy Baloji, a film director and photographer from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who won the Special Jury Award at the IFFR 2025 Tiger Competition for “Real Authentic”. Anka Gujabidze is a visual artist from Tbilisi whose first film “Temo Re” won the Tiger Short Story Award and the KNF Award at IFFR 2025. Jukka-Pekka Laakso, festival director of the Tampere Film Festival and executive director of the Pirkanmaa Film Center in Tampere.
The Big Screen Competition’s jury will feature a lineup that “bridges popular, classic, and art cinema” and will bring together Yemeni-Scottish director and screenwriter Sarah Ishak; Dutch actress Roes Luka. Imagine Film Festival Director Chris Austerom. Mira Schlingemann, Senior Programmer and Acquisitions Officer at EYE, the National Museum of Cinema and Visual Arts in the Netherlands. and Dutch film director and actor Jan-Willem van Ewijk.
