From the "On The Scene" Archives:

by Eugene Hernandez

Plans for the 28th Rotterdam Film Festival are taking shape as organizers prepare for the 1999 installment that runs January 27 - February 7. The festival's main program will include numerous premieres of European films, including "Run Lola Run" by Tom Tykwer, Nanni Moretti's "Aprile," John Maybury's "Love is the Devil" and "Fin Aout, Debut Septembre" by Olivier Assayas. From Asia, the program will include "The Hole" (Taiwan) by Tsai Ming-liang and "After Life" by Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda. Chinese films set to screen are "Xiao Wu" by Jia Zhangke and Wang Guangli's "Maiden Work." Also showing are the controversial, Jang Sun-Woo's "Timeless, Bottomless, Bad Movie" from Korea, Balkan filmmaker Goran Paskaljevic's award-winning "Powder Keg," and Gaspar Noe's "Seul Contre Tous" and Philippe Grandrieux's "Sombre," both from France. Additionally, Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf's "The Silence" will show, as will his daughter Samira Makhmalbaf's "Sib" ("The Apple") which screened at the 1998 Cannes and Toronto International Film Festivals. Also premiering are "Leaf on a Pillow" by Garin Nughroho (Indonesia, 1998). The film was produced by the actress Christine Hakim, who served on Rotterdam's Tiger jury last year and acts in the film.

Another sixteen new feature films that have received support from the Hubert Bals Fund will screen in the main program, among them are: "La Sueur Des Palmiers" by Egyptian filmmaker Radwan El Kashef, "The May Lady" by Rakshan Bani-Etemad from Iran and "Adieu Forain" by Morocco's Daoud Aoulad-Syad.

Three filmmakers will be spotlighted in the "Filmmakers in Focus" section: Already selected are Italians Daniele Cipri and Franco Maresco, makers of the new film, "Toto, Che Visse due Volte" ("Toto, Who Lived Twice"). Other special showcases include "After the Fall of The Wall" with "a survey of ten years of cinematography in Eastern Europe and the ex-Soviet republics after the Wall came down" and "Thai Crime Films, " offering a look at "B-film genres and popular cinema from different countries."

Rotterdam's "Exploding Cinema" section "heralds the most important trends on the cutting edge between film, television, art and new media." Recognizing 1998 digital feature accomplishments as "precursors of significant changes in the aesthetics, narrative structure and editing of classical filmmaking," the section will offer screenings of Hal Hartley's "Book of Life," Paul Wagner's "Windhorse," and Stefan and Avalos and Lance Weiler's "The Last Broadcast" which be shown at the festival via satellite. Additionally, the festival will host panels, lectures and presentations that explore the impact of the digital new wave. Finally, the section will also offer an installation entitled "Dissemination" by Sawad Brooks, and a performance by a Japanese band -- Wiggle -- that have never met but play together on the Internet.

Running alongside the festival is Cinemart, the festival's annual co-production market, which will run from January 31 - February 4, 1999. The international advisory board for Cinemart includes Dora Bouchoucha (Nomadis Images/Carthage Film Festival-Tunisia), Jeremy Nathan (Primedia Pictures Pty-South Africa), Jorge Sanchez (Macondo Cine Video/Producciones Amaranta-Mexico), Wouter Barendrecht (Fortissimo Film Sales-Hong Kong), Keith Griffiths (Illuminations Films-UK), Claudie Cheval (ACE/Ateliers du Cinema Europeen-France), Ryclef Rienstra (Dutch Film Fund-The Netherlands), Georges Goldenstern (La Sept Cinema/Arte-France), Tsukeda Naoko (Pony Canyon Inc.-Japan), Juan Gordon (Esicma-Spain), Valerio de Paolis (BIM Distribuzione-Italy), Christa Saredi (Christa Saredi World Sales-Switzerland), Karl Baumgartner (Pandora Film-Germany) and Scott Macaulay (Forensic Films-US).

[For more information, visit the festival website at: www.iffrotterdam.nl.]