TEHRAN-Iranian filmmaker Oktay Baraheni’s second feature film “The Old Bachelor” has been selected by the 53rd International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), which will take place in various locations in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, from January 25 to February 4, 2024.

Written and directed by Baraheni, the movie will have its world premiere at the Dutch event, ISNA reported on Tuesday.

Hamed Behdad, Leila Hatami, Hassan Pourshirazi, Mohamad-Reza Davoudnejad, Reza Rooygari, and Babak Hamidian are in the cast among others.

Featured in the Big Screen Competition section of the festival, the film will compete with nine other movies from Portugal, Finland, Italy, India, Kazakhstan, and Cambodia among others.

A film director, writer, and producer, Baraheni, 49, is a graduate of the fine arts from York University in Toronto, Canada. His successful career includes several short films and a documentary about the well-known Iranian poet and writer Reza Baraheni (his father).

His debut feature film “Bridge of Sleep” (2016) was screened at several international film festivals in Australia and Switzerland among others.

“For over half a century, IFFR has stood as a haven for diverse voices – a convergence where artists share perspectives. Our program celebrates the resilience and creativity of global filmmakers, a testament to cinema’s power to transcend borders. From Indian to Japanese epics, a Kazakh thriller, Finnish Freudian reinterpretations, Dominican sci-fi, and Iranian cinema, this selection invites you to dive in and immerse yourself,” the festival director Vanja Kaludjercic said about the lineup of the upcoming edition.

Since its foundation in 1972, the IFFR has maintained a focus on independent and experimental filmmaking by showcasing emerging talents and established auteurs. The annual film festival also places a focus on presenting cutting-edge media art and arthouse film, with most of the participants in the short film program identified as artists or experimental filmmakers.

SS/SAB