The International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) announced the winners of its 2026 edition last night during the awards ceremony held at De Doelen, with Variations on a Theme, by Jason Jacobs and Devon Delmar, emerging as the major winner of the Tiger Competition, the festival’s flagship section.
The film, a co-production between South Africa, the Netherlands, and Qatar, received the Tiger Award, which carries a €40,000 prize. The jury praised its “profound poetic language,” describing it as a moving portrait of a community shaped by colonial legacies and family ties. The film also received support from the Hubert Bals Fund, which contributed €60,000 toward its post-production.
In the same competition, two Special Jury Awards, each worth €10,000, were presented. One went to La belle année, by Angelica Ruffier, an intimate female portrait dealing with grief, desire, and memory; the other was awarded to Supporting Role, by Ana Urushadze, recognized for its delicate use of performance to explore identity, the past, and chance encounters in the city.
In the Big Screen Competition, which aims to bridge popular, classical, and auteur cinema while supporting theatrical distribution in the Netherlands, the main prize was awarded to Master, by Bangladeshi director Rezwan Shahriar Sumit. The jury highlighted the moral complexity of the narrative and its reflection on power and capitalism. The award includes €15,000 for the filmmaker and an additional €15,000 incentive for the Dutch distributor that acquires the film’s rights.
The FIPRESCI Prize, awarded by the International Federation of Film Critics, also went to Supporting Role, further reinforcing its recognition among the international press. Meanwhile, the NETPAC Award, dedicated to discovering new talent from Asia and the Pacific, was presented to i grew an inch when my father died, the debut feature by Filipino director P. R. Monencillo Patindol, with a special mention given to The Seoul Guardians, by Kim Jong-Woo, Kim Shin-Wan, and Cho Chul-Young.
Finally, the Youth Jury Award, decided by a panel of young critics, went to Ah Girl, by Singaporean filmmaker Ang Geck Geck Priscilla. According to the jury, the film highlights the universality of childhood and the human experience. With this year’s lineup of winners, IFFR reaffirms its role as a key platform for discovering new voices in international cinema.
