Rotterdam 2022: 5 Emerging Talents
The festival in Rotterdam is the year's first big event of the European circuit, and one that is also particularly interesting in this regard: it's a festival that launches a series of titles that will certainly make the rounds in the small and medium-sized circuit, on both sides of the Atlantic, and that sets itself apart from the Berlin-Cannes-Venice triad (and their little sisters, Locarno and San Sebastian) because it's a festival that mostly operates outside of the contemporary cinematic canon, cultivating a unique brand and roster instead. In other words, Rotterdam is the kind of festival that is famous especially due to its preference for newcomers and lesser-known filmmakers, thus turning it into a true talent goldmine; the big-name films which are often the topic of disputes between the triad (such as Bruno Dumont's France, to give an exact from this year's roster) are featured in Rotterdam’s secondary sidebars and sections, thus leaving the main stage for the young filmmakers and those who are often much too radical in style and politics for the "prestige" circuit (except for the Berlinale Forum and it's still-young Encounters section, a successor to the now-defunct - and excellent - Signs of Life section at Locarno). This also translates to a higher degree of curatorial risks - this is certainly not a festival for all tastes, and I don't believe that there are two single spectators with the same list of favorites at Rotterdam, but this challenge makes it all the more inviting, especially when it presents one with a diamond in the raw.
Film critic & journalist. Collaborates with local and international outlets, programs a short film festival - BIEFF, does occasional moderating gigs and is working on a PhD thesis about home movies. At Films in Frame, she writes the monthly editorial - The State of Cinema and is the magazine's main festival reporter.
