Rotterdam. Opener + 8.

"Details about this years' International Film Festival Rotterdam are slowly emerging, and interestingly there will be retrospectives on no less than three directors," notes Ardvark at Twitch. The three: Johnnie To, Abderrahmane Sissako and Gus Van Sant.

The festival opens on January 24 with the world premiere of director Esteban Sapir's La Antena (The Antenna, Argentina); Ab Zagt has more on that one in the Hollywood Reporter.

Last month, the fest, which runs through February 4, unveiled five selections for its Tiger Awards Competition:

• Diego Martinez Vignatti's La Marea (Belgium).

• Hirosue Hiromasa's Fourteen (Japan).

• Pia Marais's Die Unerzogenen (Germany).

• Aneta Lesnikovska's Does It Hurt? (Macedonia).

• Cl�udio Assis's Bog of the Beasts (Brazil).

And Boyd van Hoeij has reported on three more at european-films.net:

• Koen Mortier's Ex Drummer (Belgium).

• Tan Chui Mui's Love Conquers All (Netherlands/Malaysia).

• Xiaolu Guo's Jin tian de yu zen me yang? (How Is Your Fish Today?, China).

Min Lee reports for the Canadian Press on China's strong showing this year; besides the Johnnie To hoopla, Lou Ye is a jury member.

Posted by dwhudson at January 4, 2007 4:29 AM