Rotterdam Winners: ‘Variations On A Theme’ & ‘Master’ Scoop Top Prizes

Key Highlights

• Related Stories News Rotterdam Heads On The Importance Of Supporting Filmmakers That Fall “Somewhere On The Margins” & Developing Audiences That Are “Responsive To Risk-Taking” News Reel Suspects Boards Rotterdam-Bound Hong Kong Esports Drama ‘Gamer Girls’ “Possessing a deep poetic language, we found this to be a thoughtful and moving portrait of a community living under the spectre of colonial legacies and familial bonds in this world and the next,” read their jury statement.
• Watch on Deadline Two Special Jury Awards, worth €10,000 each, went to Swedish director Angelica Ruffier’s La Belle Année, an intimate portrait of a woman dealing with grief, and Georgian filmmaker Ana Urushadze’s Supporting Role, about a faded actor coming to terms with not being offered the lead.
• The top prize in the Big Screen Competition, which bridges popular, classic, and arthouse cinema, went to Bangladeshi director Rezwan Shahriar Sumit’s Master.
• The political drama set in the lead-up to Bangladesh’s July Revolution, stars Nasir Uddin Khan as an activist whose ideals are slowly corroded.
• The jury consisted of Jan-Willem van Ewijk, Sara Ishaq, Loes Luca, Chris Oosterom and Mila Schlingemann praised both the story and lead performance.