The International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) has unveiled the Art Directions 2026 programme, a key strand of the festival that marks three decades since, under the name Exploding Cinema, it launched a pioneering dialogue between digital technology and cinematic language. Thirty years on, the programme reaffirms its transformative ambition with a proposal that positions cinema beyond the traditional screening room, unfolding through immersive media, performances, installations and exhibitions across multiple venues in the city.

For the second consecutive year, Katoenhuis will serve as the main venue and strategic partner for Art Directions, hosting installations and immersive works and, for the first time, introducing Lightroom, the programme’s industry extension. This new platform will bring together projects in development and works in progress alongside a symposium, establishing a meeting point for cinema, art and emerging technologies. In addition to Katoenhuis, the programme will extend to other cultural spaces in Rotterdam, including the Fenix Museum of Migration, Brutus and V2_ Lab for the Unstable Media.

Eva Langerak, Curator and Coordinator of Art Directions and Lightroom, noted that this year’s constellation of artists and filmmakers explores multiple dimensions of cinema: as catharsis, as a vessel for memory, as a map of the subconscious and as a call to awareness. In this context, she emphasised that Art Directions continues to shape the cultural landscape by fostering bold experiments that reach far beyond the screen, while Lightroom renews this spirit of inquiry by creating a space where new forms of storytelling can converge and evolve.

Katoenhuis will host four installations that reflect IFFR’s commitment to visual and sensory exploration. These include the world premieres of 3 Scenes from a Marriage by Leopold Emmen, Krakatoa by Carlos Casas—also presented in film form within the Harbour section—and Preludio by Silvia Gatti, alongside the Dutch premiere of Café Kuba: Who Dared to Awaken the Dead Memory by David Shongo. These are complemented by a range of immersive works selected for the programme, with titles from Germany, Australia, Japan, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, many of which were previously showcased at platforms such as CineMart or Darkroom, or premiered at major international festivals, and are now being presented in Rotterdam as national or international premieres.

The sound//vision programme, developed in collaboration with WORM, also returns with a series of live audiovisual performances that merge music, film, celluloid and light. The performances will take place over three nights, from 30 January to 1 February, with two events per evening, featuring artists from Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America.

In parallel, IFFR has established both new and renewed institutional partnerships. Notably, the festival has joined forces with Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen to co-programme the Kijkmodule at Rotterdam Central Station, and continues its collaboration with V2_ Lab for the Unstable Media on the development of a site-specific experience by local artist Elsemarijn Bruys, situated between sculpture and architectural intervention. Brutus will once again host a performance within the festival with the world premiere of Alterity, the first immersive installation-performance by musician and media archaeologist Jacco Gardner.

Looking ahead, in 2026 IFFR enters into a new collaboration with the Han Nefkens Foundation as a partner in the South East Asian Video Art Production Grant, an initiative that supports Southeast Asian video artists in expanding their international practice. In 2027, the festival will present a newly produced work emerging from this programme, further reinforcing its commitment to artistic exchange and the promotion of contemporary video art.

IFFR has expressed its gratitude to institutions, foundations and local, national and international partners for their continued support. The realisation of Art Directions 2026 is made possible, among others, through the backing of Ammodo Art, Rotterdam Festivals and the Mondriaan Fund, whose support is essential to the development of installations, performances and the sound//vision programme, consolidating Rotterdam as one of the leading international laboratories for contemporary audiovisual experimentation.