Skip to main content

Rotterdam International Film Festival · 2026

Rotterdam International Film Festival 2026

Limelight

Programme

26 films · 12 reviews

Jump to a film

100 Nights Of Hero

Review preview for 100 Nights Of Hero

Where the film succeeds is in the visual design of its world.

Jennie Kermode · 2.5 out of 5
A fairy tale about a maid who concocts a plan to help her mistress.

(Country: UK; Year: 2025; Director: Julia Jackman; Writer: Julia Jackman; Stars: Emma Corrin, Nicholas Galitzine, Maika Monroe, Amir El-Masry, Charli XCX, Richard E. Grant and Felicity Jones)

Full review

ChaO

A junior designer at the leading shipbuilding company might have the key to peaceful relations between humans and merfolk. His role in achieving detente, however, suddenly becomes a lot stranger when the mermaid princess announces her intention to marry him.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2025; Director: Yasuhiro Aoki; Stars: Oji Suzuka, Anna Yamada)

Dead Man's Wire

On February 8, 1977, Tony Kiritsis, entered the office of Richard Hall, president of the Meridian Mortgage Company, and took him hostage with a sawed-off shotgun wired with a "dead man's wire" from the trigger to Tony's own neck.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Gus Van Sant; Writer: Austin Kolodney; Stars: Bill Skarsgård, Al Pacino, Cary Elwes, Colman Domingo, Dacre Montgomery, Myha'la)

Exit 8

A man trapped in a endless sterile subway passageway sets out to find Exit 8. The rules of his quest are simple: do not overlook anything out of the ordinary. If you discover an anomaly, turn back immediately. If you don't, carry on. Then leave from Exit 8. But even a single oversight will send him back to the beginning. Will he ever reach his goal and escape this infinite corridor?

(Country: Japan; Year: 2025; Director: Genki Kawamura; Writer: Kotake Create, Genki Kawamura, Hirase Kentaro; Stars: Kazunari Ninomiya, Yamato Kôchi, Naru Asanuma, Kotone Hanase, Nana Komatsu)

Father Mother Sister Brother

Three stories all concern the relationships between adult children, their somewhat distant parent (or parents) and each other. Each of the three chapters takes place in the present, and each in a different country.

(Country: US, Ireland, France; Year: 2025; Director: Jim Jarmusch; Writer: Jim Jarmusch; Stars: Tom Waits, Adam Driver, Mayim Bialik, Charlotte Rampling, Cate Blanchett, Vicky Krieps, Sarah Greene, Indya Moore, Luka Sabbat, Françoise Lebrun)

Fuori

Rome, 1980. After the magnum opus The Art of Joy she has been working on for a decade is rejected by the Italian publishing world, writer Goliarda Sapienza ends up in prison for stealing jewelry, but the encounter with some young inmates turns out to be a life-changing experience.

(Country: Italy, France; Director: Mario Martone; Writer: Ippolita Di Majo, Mario Martone; Stars: Valeria Golino, Matilda De Angelis, Elodie, Sylvia De Fanti, Stefano Dionisi, Francesco Gheghi, Antonio Gerardi, Corrado Fortuna)

Gavagai

A radical new movie production of Medea, drastically altered from Euripides’s original play, becomes the center of a series of unresolvable contemporary tensions.

(Country: Germany, France; Year: 2025; Director: Ulrich Köhler; Stars: Jean-Christophe Folly, Maren Eggert, Nathalie Richard)

Hi-Five (High Five, Haipaibeu)

Five ordinary people, who developed their superpowers after receiving organ transplants from a previously superpowered being, fight against a psychic, who also gained the power through a transplant and covets their powers.

(Country: South Korea; Year: 2025; Director: Kang Hyung-chul; Writer: Kang Hyung-chul; Stars: Park Jin-young, Oh Jung-se, Yoo Ah-in, Lee Jae-in, Ha Mi-ran)

The History Of Sound

Review preview for The History Of Sound

Most of the filmmaker’s passion, wisdom and wits is packed in the first half, while the second half represents pure “production” of content.

Marko Stojiljkovic · 2.5 out of 5
Two young men in 1920 set out to record the lives, voices and music of their American countrymen.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Oliver Hermanus; Writer: Ben Shattuck; Stars: Paul Mescal, Peter Mark Kendall, Josh O'Connor, Chris Cooper, Molly Price, Raphael Sbarge, Hadley Robinson, Emma Canning, Briana Middleton, Alessandro Bedetti, Will Fitz, Gary Raymond, Alison Bartlett, Michael D. Xavier, Dan Bittner)

Full review

I Swear

Story of a teenager living with Tourette's in small town Scotland.

(Country: UK; Year: 2025; Director: Kirk Jones)

Late Fame

Review preview for Late Fame

Burch and Jones clearly enjoy updating rich kid Myers and his literary salon pals to the present without ever falling into clownish cliché.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 4.5 out of 5
Ed Saxberger, a forgotten New York poet, works in the post office. After an eager and flattering young admirer appears on his doorstep, Saxberger is beckoned into a coterie of twentysomething admirers who anoint him as a rediscovered genius.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Kent Jones; Writer: Samy Burch, based on the novel by Arthur Schnitzler; Stars: Willem Dafoe, Greta Lee, Edmund Donovan)

Full review

The Little Sister (La Petite Dernière)

Fatima, 17, the youngest of three daughters, treads carefully as she searches for her own path, grappling with emerging desires, her attraction to women, and her loyalty to her caring French-Algerian family.

(Country: France, Germany; Year: 2025; Director: Hafsia Herzi; Writer: Fatima Daas, Hafsia Herzi; Stars: Park Ji-min, Aloïse Sauvage, Némo Schiffman, Vincent Pasdermadjian, Sophie Garagnon, Olivia Courbis, Rita Benmannana, Victorien Bonnet, Elisa Libri, Luna Ribeiro, Anouar Kardellas, Nacer Bouhanni)

My Daughter Is A Zombie

(Country: South Korea; Year: 2025; Director: Pil Gam-seong; Writer: Kim Hyun, Pil Gam-seong; Stars: Cho Jung-seok, Lee Jung-eun, Cho Yeo-jeong, Yoon Kyung-ho, Choi Yu-ri, Geumdong-i, Kim Beong-choun, Jo Han-sun, Jung Hyung-suk, Jeon Su-ji, Lee Yun-chang, Pete Schandall)

No Other Choice (Eojjeol suga eopda)

Review preview for No Other Choice

Park keeps inviting us to laugh, then forcing us to confront what, exactly, we’re laughing at.

Edin Custo · 4 out of 5
When a man loses his job he finds himself drifting before deciding to take things into his own hands...

(Country: South Korea; Year: 2025; Director: Park Chan-wook; Writer: Park Chan-wook, Lee Kyoung-mi, Don McKellar, Jahye Lee; Stars: Lee Byung-hun, Son Yej-in, Park Hee-soon, Lee Sung-min, Yeom Hye-ran, Cha Seung-won)

Full review

Palestine 36

Review preview for Palestine 36

Jacir's film might look back to the 1930s but it's a film that is in conversation with the present-day.

Casper Borges · 3 out of 5
In 1936, as Palestinian villages revolt against British colonial rule, Yusuf navigates between Jerusalem and his rural home, amidst escalating unrest and a pivotal moment for the British Empire.

(Country: France, Palestinian Occupied Territories, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UK, Denmark, Jordan, Norway, US; Year: 2025; Director: Annemarie Jacir; Writer: Annemarie Jacir; Stars: Jeremy Irons, Robert Aramayo, Liam Cunningham, Billy Howle, Christopher Villiers, Hiam Abbass, Sam Hoare, Yasmine Al Massri, Nicholas Moss, Mo'min Swaitat)

Full review See: Interview with Annemarie Jacir about Palestine 36

Romería

Review preview for Romería

Combining slick digital look with the look of various antique formats, from DV to super-8, Simón creates her very own smooth blend.

Marko Stojiljkovic · 4 out of 5
Marina, 18, orphaned at a young age, must travel to Spain’s Atlantic coast to obtain a signature for a scholarship application from the paternal grandparents she has never met.

(Country: Spain, Germany; Year: 2025; Director: Carla Simón; Writer: Carla Simón; Stars: Tristán Ulloa, José Ángel Egido, Sara Casasnovas, Miryam Gallego, Janet Novás, Mitch Martín, Celine Tyll, Mitch Robles, Llúcia Garcia, Sergio Quintana, David Saraiva)

Full review

Scarlet (Hateshinaki Scarlet)

A character's grief and vengeance disrupt both world and afterlife, blending timeframes.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2025; Director: Mamoru Hosoda; Writer: Mamoru Hosoda; Stars: Mana Ashida, Masaki Okada, Masachika Ichimura)

The Secret Agent (O Agente Secreto)

Review preview for The Secret Agent

Marcelo is at home in the fine tradition of flicks where the fact that they are an agent is mainly a secret to them.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 4.5 out of 5
Brazil, 1977. Marcelo, a technology expert in his early 40s, is on the run. He arrives in Recife during carnival week, hoping to reunite with his son but soon realises that the city is far from being the non-violent refuge he seeks.

(Country: Brazil, France, Netherlands, Germany; Year: 2025; Director: Kleber Mendonça Filho; Writer: Kleber Mendonça Filho; Stars: Wagner Moura, Udo Kier, Gabriel Leone, Maria Fernanda Cândido, Hermila Guedes, Alice Carvalho, Thomás Aquino, Isabél Zuaa, Suzy Lopes, João Vitor Silva, Roney Villela, Rubens Santos, Luciano Chirolli, Buda Lira, Jimmy Astley)

Full review

Sound Of Falling (In Die Sonne Schauen)

Review preview for Sound Of Falling

The lives mirror each other, build on each other, contradict each other, haunt each other.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 5 out of 5
Four girls, Alma, Erika, Angelika, and Lenka, each spend their youth on the same farm in northern Germany. As the home evolves over a century, echoes of the past linger in its walls. Though separated by time, their lives begin to mirror each other.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2025; Director: Mascha Schilinski; Writer: Louise Peter, Mascha Schilinski; Stars: Luise Heyer, Filip Schnack, Lea Drinda, Susanne Wuest, Lena Urzendowsky, Luzia Oppermann, Lucas Prisor, Konstantin Lindhorst, Gode Benedix, Martin Rother, Hanna Heckt, Bärbel Schwarz, Florian Geißelmann)

Full review

Special Unit - The First Murder

Am ambitious young cop heads a newly formed unit as they investigate a body found in a burnt-out summer house.

(Country: Denmark, Poland; Year: 2025; Director: Christoffer Boe; Writer: Christoffer Boe, Lasse Kyed Rasmussen; Stars: Alex Høgh Andersen, Mathilde Arcel Fock, Nicolaj Kopernikus, Mille Lehfeldt, Lars Ranthe, Katrine Greis-Rosenthal, Kristian Halken, Flemming Enevold, Niels Hausgaard, Peter Flyvholm, Emil Hyldeborg, Clara Rugaard, Lucas Lynggaard Tønnesen, Oliver Due)

The Stranger (L'Etranger)

Review preview for The Stranger

Ozon remains faithful to the source and keeps its sense of mystery but has strengthened the female characters

Richard Mowe · 4 out of 5
Adaptation of Camus' classic.

(Country: France; Year: 2025; Director: François Ozon; Writer: François Ozon, , based on the book by Albert Camus; Stars: Benjamin Voisin, Rebecca Marder, Pierre Lottin, Swann Arlaud, Denis Lavant)

Full review See: Ozon on the challenges of tackling Camus' masterwork The Stranger , Benjamin Voisin on Camus, Ozon and learning not to act in The Stranger , Denis Lavant on the art of constructing personas in Redoubt and The Stranger

The Testament Of Ann Lee

Review preview for The Testament Of Ann Lee

Made with consummate care, the film stands out for its exquisite cinematography.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
An epic fable inspired by the life of Ann Lee, the founder of the Shakers, a radical religious movement that began in the late 1700s.

(Country: UK; Year: 2025; Director: Mona Fastvold; Writer: Mona Fastvold, Brady Corbet; Stars: Amanda Seyfried, Thomasin McKenzie, Lewis Pullman, Stacy Martin, Tim Blake Nelson, Christopher Abbott, Matthew Beard, Scott Handy, Jamie Bogyo, Viola Prettejohn, David Cale)

Full review See: Amanda Seyfried and Mona Fastvold on music, Mancunian and money in The Testament Of Ann Lee

Two Prosecutors

Review preview for Two Prosecutors

Chillingly restrained and quietly devastating

Stephen Dalton · 4 out of 5
Soviet Union, 1937. Thousands of letters from detainees falsely accused by the regime are burned in a prison cell. Against all odds, one of them reaches its destination... the desk of a newly appointed local prosecutor, who embarks on a quest for justice.

(Country: France, Germany, Romania, Latvia, Netherlands, Lithuania; Year: 2025; Director: Sergey Loznitsa; Writer: Sergey Loznitsa; Stars: Aleksandr Kuznetsov, Aleksandr Filippenko, Anatoliy Beliy, Andris Keišs)

Full review

Whitetail

The past catches up with a woman.

(Country: Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland; Year: 2025; Director: Nanouk Leopold; Writer: Nanouk Leopold; Stars: Natasha O'Keeffe, Andrew Bennett, Aaron McCusker, Rory Nolan, Simone Kirby, Aidan O'Hare)

The Wizard Of The Kremlin

Review preview for The Wizard Of The Kremlin

Dano has chosen to use the same flat vocal expression throughout, a technique well suited to satire which might have worked if only the rest of the film had been a bit more lively.

Jennie Kermode · 2.5 out of 5
Russia, early 1990s. Amid post-Soviet chaos, a brilliant young man, Vadim Baranov, charts his path. First an artist, then a reality show producer, he becomes the spin doctor to a rising KGB agent: Vladimir Putin.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Olivier Assayas; Writer: Olivier Assayas, Emmanuel Carrère, based on the novel by Giuliano Da Empoli; Stars: Paul Dano, Jude Law, Alicia Vikander)

Full review See: Interview with Olivier Assayas about The Wizard Of The Kremlin

The Wolf, The Fox And The Leopard

A feral girl who has spent her life living among wolves is taken on an odyssey through contemporary human life while the threat of climate apocalypse looms.

(Country: Netherlands, Luxembourg, Ireland, Croatia, Taiwan; Year: 2025; Director: David Verbeek; Writer: David Verbeek; Stars: Marie Jung, Nicholas Pinnock, Jessica Reynolds, Lucas Lynggaard Tønnesen, Naomi Kawase, Eoin Duffy, Alessia Raschella, Robert Beg)