{"id":22041,"date":"2026-01-07T15:51:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T14:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/finncult.be\/?p=22041"},"modified":"2026-02-10T21:22:45","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T20:22:45","slug":"strong-finnish-presence-at-iffr-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/finncult.be\/fr\/strong-finnish-presence-at-iffr-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Strong Finnish presence at IFFR 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This year\u2019s International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), running from 29 January to 8 February 2026, presents a vibrant and wide-ranging selection of Finnish productions and co-productions, highlighting both emerging voices and established talent.<\/p>\n<p>The line-up includes the world premieres of\u00a0<em>Earth Song<\/em> by <strong>Erol Minta\u0219<\/strong> (Finland, Germany), <em>Feeling Defensive (Part 1)<\/em> by <strong>Pilvi Takala<\/strong> (Finland),<em> I am a River<\/em> by <strong>Heidi Piiroinen<\/strong> (Finland, France), <em>A Letter from Elli<\/em> by <strong>Elina Solaranta<\/strong> (Finland), <em>Nox<\/em> by<strong> Matti Harju<\/strong> (Finland), <em>The Kidnapping of a President<\/em> by <strong>Samuli Valkama<\/strong> (Finland, Czech Republic, Netherlands), <em>Dancers Only<\/em> by<strong> Siiri Selin<\/strong> (Finland), <em>VITA<\/em> by <strong>Mox M\u00e4kel\u00e4<\/strong> (Finland) and <em>Time Will Not Tell<\/em> by <strong>Htoo Lwin Myo<\/strong> (Myanmar, Finland).<\/p>\n<p><em>Out of Order<\/em> by <strong>Antti Tuomikoski<\/strong> (Finland) will have its international premiere at the festival and <em>The Wolf, the Fox &amp; the Leopard<\/em> by<strong> David Verbeek<\/strong> (Netherlands, Ireland, Luxembourg, Croatia, Taiwan, Belgium, Finland) will have its Dutch premiere.<\/p>\n<p><em>I am a River<\/em> has been selected for the prestigious <a href=\"https:\/\/iffr.com\/en\/awards-competitions\/tiger-short-competition\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tiger Short Competition<\/a>, whose jury this year includes <strong>Sammy Baloji<\/strong>, <strong>Anka Gujabidze<\/strong>, and <strong>Jukka-Pekka Laakso<\/strong>. Inspired by <strong>Pablo Neruda<\/strong>\u2019s <em>Book of Questions<\/em> \u2013 a collection of lyrical, unanswerable poems written as paradoxical and playful interrogations of nature, life and the cosmos \u2013 this experimental miniature by Heidi Piiroinen weaves poetic inquiry with visual abstraction, through the rarely used mordan\u00e7age technique. The veil-like formations it creates evoke the fluid, fragile, ever-changing essence of rivers, suggesting they are living entities, much like us.<\/p>\n<p>Finnish talent is also represented on screen with <strong>Krista Kosonen<\/strong> starring in <em>Accept Our Sincere Apologies<\/em> directed by <strong>Juja Dobrachkous<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>International Film Festival Rotterdam<br \/>\n29.1\u20138.2.2026<br \/>\nRotterdam, Netherlands<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/iffr.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/iffr.com\/ <\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/iffr.com\/en\/film?edition=iffr-2026&amp;country=Finland\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">View selection of Finnish films.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>IFFR presents a leading international film festival and year-round programme and actively supports new and adventurous filmmaking talent through its co-production market CineMart, its Hubert Bals Fund, Rotterdam Lab and other industry activities.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Cover image: Film still from <em>I am a River<\/em>, directed by Heidi Piiroinen. Provided by the IFFR2026 media kit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Explore Finnish films at IFFR 2026, featuring world premieres and Tiger Short Competition entry \u00ab\u00a0I Am a River\u00a0\u00bb by Heidi Piiroinen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":22044,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[126,68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-126","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Strong Finnish presence at IFFR 2026 - Finnish Cultural Institute for the Benelux<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Explore Finnish films at IFFR 2026, featuring world premieres and Tiger Short Competition entry &quot;I Am a River&quot; by Heidi Piiroinen.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/finncult.be\/strong-finnish-presence-at-iffr-2026\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"fr_FR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Strong Finnish presence at IFFR 2026 - 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