The International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) welcomes some 2,500 professional guests this year. Filmmakers expected to attend include Michel Gondry, Wang Xiaoshuai, Lucas Belvaux, Miike Takashi, Mohammad Rasoulof, Tsukamoto Shinya, Aki Kaurismäki, Andrea Arnold, Steve McQueen, Julió Bressane, Kobayashi Masahiro, Eric Khoo, Bouli Lanners, Ruben Östlund and Garin Nugroho as well as some 250 other filmmakers.

Actors expected to attend include Sophie Quinton and Nicole Garcia, for their roles in Lucas Belvaux’s 38 TEMOINS / 38 WITNESSES which opens IFFR 2012 as a world premiere; Silvia Calderoni and Elisa Sednaoui (also top fashion model for recent Armani and Cavalli campaigns), for their roles in Davide Manuli’s LA LEGGENDA DI KASPAR HAUSER / THE LEGEND OF KASPAR HAUSER; Aggeliki Papoulia, for her role in ALPS by Yorgos Lanthimos; Niels Gomperts and Jeroen Willems, for their roles in Christophe van Rompaey’s LENA.

CineMart, IFFR’s co-production market that takes place January 29 – February 1, will be attended by some 800 delegates (sales agents, distributors and funding bodies) from seventy countries as well as by the filmmakers and producers from the thirty-six CineMart Projects 2012.

Counting 341,000 audience visits for its 2011 edition, the International Film Festival Rotterdam is one of the largest film festivals worldwide.

The IFFR’s festival program consists of three main sections: Bright Future - idiosyncratic and adventurous new work by novice makers, including the Tiger Awards Competitions -, Spectrum and Spectrum Shorts - new and recent work by experienced film makers and artists who provide, in the opinion of the IFFR, an essential contribution to international film culture -, and Signals, a series of thematic programs and retrospectives offering insight in topical as well as timeless ideas within cinema.

Thursday January 19 the full IFFR 2012 lineup will be published as a supplement to Dutch national newspaper de Volkskrant and online on www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com.