Projects by directors including Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk, Cheryl Dunyeare and Ashim Ahuwalia are among the 2025 line-up for CineMart, the co-p
Projects by directors including Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk, Cheryl Dunyeare and Ashim Ahuwalia are among the 2025 line-up for CineMart, the co-production market of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR).
CineMart, part of the festival’s IFFR Pro offering, has revealed 20 feature film projects and four immersive projects for its upcoming 42nd edition, which runs from February 2-5.
Meanwhile, IFFR Pro’s work-in-progress strand Darkroom has doubled in size for 2025, with 10 feature projects and two immersive projects being presented.
The CineMart line-up includes Ukrainian director Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk with Something Strange Happened to Me, whose debut Pamfir premiered in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.
UK-based filmmaker Daniel Mann, whose Under a Blue Sun screened in the Tiger Competition in 2024, brings The Uganda Project to CineMart.
Kenyan filmmaker Angela Wanjiku Wamai’s neo-Western Enkop is one of the four Hubert Bals Fund-supported projects in the CineMart lineup.
The selection includes projects exploring the origins of authoritarian regimes, such as Jazmín López’s Faust, dystopian technological futures in Cape Of Pleasures by IFFR regular Marcelo Gomes, whose Portrait Of A Certain Orient played in Big Screen Competition 2024.
Meanwhile, Cheryl Dunye’s project Black Is Blue is about AI anxiety and comes after directing TV series including The Umbrella Academy and Bridgerton. Dunye’s project is one of a number of queer stories and voices across the selection. Zaida Carmona, whose La Amiga De Mi Amiga played at IFFR in 2023, also returns with Adiós, Amor, alongside Eugen Jebeleanu’s third feature The Price of Gold, produced by Ada Solomon of microFILM.
The selection also includes two genre takes on cannibalism with Meat from Rioghnach Ni Ghrioghair – whose Don’t Go Where I Can’t Find You played at SXSW in 2022 – alongside Strange Root from Singaporean duo Lam Li Shuen and Mark Chua. Indian filmmaker Ashim Ahuwalia brings Unidentified Actress, a follow up to his Cannes Un Certain Regard and IFFR 2013 selected Miss Lovely.
For the first time, Darkroom will feature a dedicated focus, which for 2025 will be on Georgian filmmakers. The selection features three Georgian projects, including: Uta Beria’s Hubert Bals Fund-supported Tear Gas; Dry Leaf by Alexandre Koberidze; and Rati Oneli’s Wild Dogs Don’t Bite.
It marks the first selection of recently appointed head of IFFR Pro Marten Rabarts, who said: ”In their timely, inventive and defiant approaches to our times, the voices in this CineMart lineup demand to be listened to.”
Cinemart 2025 – Film Selections:
100 Thousand Turkish Liras, dir. Nazlı Elif Durlu (Tur-Ger), prod. istos film, Achtung Panda!
Adiós, amor, dir. Zaida Carmona (Sp), prod. Debut Films
Black Is Blue, dir. Cheryl Dunye, (US-Ger-Gr), prod. Black Is Blue LLC, Jingletown Films, Jürgen Brüning Filmproduktion, Sima Films, Pinch Me Films, Chrysallis Productions
Cape of Pleasures, dirs.. Marcelo Gomes, Cao Guimarães (Br-Ur), prod. Cinco em Ponto, Misti Filmes, Criatura Cine
Corte Culebra, dir. Ana Elena Tejera, (Fr-Pan), prod. Mestizo Cinema, Fulgurance
Enkop (The Soil), dir. Angela Wanjiku Wamai, (Ken-Neth), prod. LBx Africa, PRPL
Eziko, dirs. Babalwa Baartman, Jenna Cato Bass (S.A), prod. Sanusi Films, Miss K Productions
Faust, dir. Jazmín López (Ger-Arg), prod. Schuldenberg Films
Four Seasons in Java, dir. Kamila Andini (Indo-Sing), prod. Forka Films, Giraffe Pictures
How Melissa Blew a Fuse, dir. Una Gunjak, (Bos & Herz-Cr-Ser), prod. SSCA / pro.ba, Nukleus Film, Bas Celik Film House
Inbetween Worlds, dir. Diana Cam Van Nguyen (Cz-Slovakia), prod. 13ka, nutprodukcia
Marseille, dir. Yim Brakel (Neth), prod. Labyrint Film
Meat, dir. Rioghnach Ni Ghrioghair (Ire), prod. Fantastic Films
Sentinel, dir. Carl Joseph E. Papa (Phil), prod. Project 8 Projects
Something Strange Happened to Me, dir. Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk (Ukr), prod. Mellivora Production
The March of the Sunflowers, dir. Erik Ricco (Braz), prod. Cup Filmes, Coala Filmes, Tubz Studio
The Price of Gold, dir. Eugen Jebeleanu (Rom), prod. microFILM Romania
The Uganda Project, dir. Daniel Mann (Fr-UK), prod. Acqua Alta, La Bete, Laila UK
Strange Root, dirs. Lam Li Shuen, Mark Chua (Sing-Indo), prod. 13 Little Pictures, Emoumie Pictures, Palari Films
Unidentified Actress, dir. Ashim Ahuwalia, (India-Ger), prod. Future East Film, Rapid Eye Movements
Cinemart 2025 – Immersive Selections
The Dreams of Time, dir. Jeissy Trompiz (Ven-Braz), prod. Alamar Films, Migranta Films
Hyperdam, dir. Floris van Laethem (Neth), prod. Dutch Digital Collectibles
One Charming Night, dir. Robin Coops (Neth), prod. Studio Biarritz, Coops & Co
Strata, dir. Lilian Hess (Lux), prod. a_BAHN
Darkroom 2025 Selections
The Art Patron, dir. Julia Thelin, (Swe-Den), prod. Grand Slam Film, Hyena Film
Bayaan, dir. Bikas Ranjan Mishra (India), prod. Platoon One Films, Summit Studios
Bloques Erráticos, dir. Thomas Woodroffe (Chile-Fr-Arg), prod. Fiebre, La Belle Affaire Productions, Un Puma
Dry Leaf, dir. Alexandre Koberidze (Ger-Georgia), prod. New Matter Films
The Great Orator, dir. Daniel Ernst, (Neth) (immersive), prod. K.O Productions
La hiedra, dir. Ana Cristina Barragán (Ecua-Mex-Fr-Sp), prod. Boton Films, BHD Films, Ciné-Sud Promotion, Guspira Films
Kaktarua, dir. Yudhajit Basu, Prithvijoy Ganguly (India-Taiwan), prod. The Victoria Foundation, U Turn Pictures, Betula Films
Last Night I Conquered the City of Thebes, dir. Gabriel Azorín, (Sp-Port), prod. DVEIN Films, Filmika Galaika, Bando à Parte
The March, dir. Leo Erken, Frieda Gustavs, (Neth-Ukr) (immersive), prod. nl12
Sorella di Clausura, dir. Ivana Mladenovic, (Rom-Ser-It-Sp), prod. Solomon, Dunav 84, Nightswim, Boogaloo Films
Tear Gas, dir. Uta Beria, (Georgia-Fr-Ger), prod. 1991 Productions, Tripode Productions, 70 Steps
Wild Dogs Don’t Bite, dir. Rati Oneli, (Georgia-Lux), prod. Office of Film Architecture, Independent Film Project, Les Films Fauves
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