International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) partnered with Katoenhuis on the 2025 edition of its Art Directions programme - a space dedicated to immersive media where the festival steps out of the screening room and pushes the limits of what cinema can be, with immersive works from multidisciplinary creators.
Credit: Ticho Koerten
me at IFFR 2025 invited audiences to step into transformative experiences that merge tradition, technology, and storytelling in groundbreaking ways. Together, these works redefined immersive art as a medium for cultural reflection and personal transformation.
This collaboration represented the start of a long-term partnership, establishing the venue as the new home for Art Directions and further expanding the festival's vision of storytelling beyond the screening room.
Vanja Kaludjercic, Festival Director at IFFR, said: “Art Directions is a distinctive programme within IFFR which allows audiences to explore the possibilities of cinema and the moving image outside the bounds of a film theatre – creating an accessible interaction between artist, artwork, and audience. Katoenhuis shares our excitement about the future of storytelling and the potential of new media as a tool for creators – and partnering with them both brings IFFR physically into a new neighbourhood and widens the possibilities for this programme both in the upcoming edition and years to come.”
The Art Directions programme featured works by Viktor Timofeev, Basir Mahmood, Jessica Sarah Rinland, Francisco Baquerizo Racines, Maartje Wegdam & Nienke Huitenga Broeren, Sophia Bulgakova, Patrick Muroni, Luke Conroy & Anne Fehres and Studio VRij.
Credit: Boudewijn Bollmann