Winners

Director: Itonje Søimer Guttormsen

Year: 2026

Two estranged sisters reunite in Gran Canaria after their parents’ deaths, only to inherit an unfinished resort and esoteric retreat. Official Selection International Film Festival Rotterdam 2026 - World premiere

Director: Ali Kinteh, Damien Nembhard

Year: 2026

Kevin and Cassandra are a married couple who have lost their only daughter Hannah in a freak car accident. They both raised her differently. Kevin had been a traditional parent, Cassandra a permissive one. While Hannah had decided to exhibit her body and mind online, she cut adrift from her father and gravitates towards her mother. Her death drove a wedge between them. Their lounge becomes a battlefield where incendiary words and spiteful things are said. Their marriage is one where opposites no longer attract. Kevin is filled with loathing for his in-laws, his daughter’s boyfriend, himself. Cassandra wears her daughter’s favorite colours with pride and exhibits her painting on the walls. Kevin finds he is powerless in his home and Cassandra mocks the fact that it was her father who bought it. And when he finally leaves it, he leaves Cassandra forever.

Director: Juja Dobrachkous

Year: 2026

In a decadent Venetian hotel, general manager Eva is drawn to the mysterious Contessa. Once a sanctuary from the outside world, the hotel has become a haunting cage, and both women long to escape. Enigmatic Eva is a manager – or rather, a universal fixer – at a hotel in Venice. For her, it’s not just a job. The decadent Venetian palazzo, with its labyrinths and strangers, has become both a refuge from her demons and a haunting cage she longs to escape. When Eva meets the mysteriously unhinged Contessa, who also seems trapped within the hotel, she’s seduced by the possibility of a radical change. Official Selection International Film Festival Rotterdam 2026 - World premiere