The Hivos Tiger Award is the most prestigious award of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR). In the Hivos Tiger Competition, an international jury chooses a winner from eight nominated films. A Special Jury Award is also given. The competition was founded in 1995 with the aim of discovering, raising the profile of and rewarding up-and-coming international film talent.
Hivos has been the main sponsor of the IFFR since 2013 and has given its name to the IFFR’s flagship competition and film award: the Hivos Tiger Awards.
Hivos Tiger Award 2018
The Widowed Witch, by Cai Chengjie, won the Hivos Tiger Award.
Jury report: “This year’s Hivos Tiger Award winner is a film of epic dimensions with a narrative that is greater than one person or moment. It takes a feminist viewpoint with a strong central character, who refuses to be a victim. The struggle of her journey is framed in an emotional way that depicts her complexity, while never becoming sentimental, and the film even contains a laconic sense of humour. Its bold vision, created by a lyrical layering of cinematographic elements, makes this film stand out.”
Special Jury Award 2018
The screenplay of The Reports on Sarah and Saleem, written by Rami Alayan (dir. Muayad Alayan), won the Special Jury Award.
Jury report: “This well-crafted screenplay shows us four humans, each with their own flaws and desires, who have to face the consequences of their actions in a complicated, divided world. The screenplay intertwines the personal and the political and manages to balance a complex plot with convincing characters. This proves to be the basis for a strong film by a talented director and an excellent cast.”
Prize and international recognition
The Hivos Tiger Award is accompanied by a €40,000 cash prize, to be shared between the director and producer of the winning film. A Special Jury Award worth €10,000 will also be presented for an exceptional artistic achievement within the competition.
Equally important is the international recognition for the nominees and their works that a Hivos Tiger Competition nomination brings with it. The Hivos Tiger Awards are an indispensable backdrop for many filmmakers: it can be the final step to convince financiers to allow a next project.
Hivos supports a free and open cinema climate
We do this not only as main sponsor of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) and partner of the Hubert Bals Fund, but also by working with filmmakers in countries like Syria, Cuba and Zimbabwe. In places where freedom is hard won, people who produce movies and documentaries that tell a genuine story need a platform. Hivos supports these filmmakers and gives them a voice.
All the festivals and cultural spaces we support in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Netherlands help strengthen the cultural landscape, foster the exchange of ideas and facilitate exchanges between artists. They provide an ideal platform for cultural expression, public debate and cultural exchange both nationally and internationally, while offering artists the opportunity to reach wide audiences and distribute their work through larger networks.
