Feature Film Competition

The competition programme showcases films from the Baltic Sea region and the Nordic countries that are characterised by their use of innovative cinematic language and distinct artistic expression. There are no genre or style restrictions to the films in this programme; they can be documentaries, narratives, animated films, or any hybrid genre.

The geographical scope of this competition covers a surprising variety of different schools, traditions, and visions. The selected works embody RIGA IFF’s reflections on the cinema of tomorrow, today.

RIGA IFF is looking for distinct voices and auteurs from the Baltic Sea region and the Nordic countries that use an innovative cinematic language. The RIGA IFF Feature Film Competition reflects transitions and contemporary trends in cinema; by establishing a specific geographic frame, these trends become even more intriguing as the cinematic works made on different sides of the same sea represent distinctly different schools, traditions, languages, and visions. The 10 films that are ultimately selected for the competition form a present-day contemplation on the cinema of tomorrow.

Entries

The competition programme is comprised of up to 10 feature films with a minimum running time of 60 minutes for which the majority of production financing has been sourced in the Baltic Sea region (Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Sweden) and/or in the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, including the autonomous territories Greenland, the Faroe Islands, and the Åland Islands). There are no genre restrictions – documentaries, narratives, animated films, or any hybrid genre will be considered.

All submitted films must have been completed after 1 July 2024, and they can not have been screened in Latvia before the RIGA IFF 2025 dates. There is one exception to this rule – although it is preferable that Latvian films premiere at RIGA IFF 2025, this is not a requirement.

Prize

The 10 selected titles will be judged by an international jury consisting of industry experts, filmmakers, and representatives from the international film festival community.

The winning director will receive the Golden Rooster, designed in collaboration with artist Ervins Broks. The winner receives a monetary prize of EUR 5,000 from full-service production house Nafta Films. The Award Ceremony takes place on the second Saturday of the festival.

Deadline

The call for submissions opens on 12 March 2025 and closes on 30 June 2025. All submissions are free of charge until 1 April 2025. From 2 April to 18 May, the submission fee is EUR 10 per entry, but from 19 May – EUR 15. The results will be announced by 10 September 2025.

Submission closed

Regulations (PDF)

Competitions

Thibaut Bracq

Having studied literature, philosophy and cultural management, Thibaut Bracq is a French curator, workshop leader and industry programme organiser at festivals including Marrakech, Cannes, Locarno and others. Since 2022 he has worked with La Fabrique Cinéma, a programme of the Institut Français dedicated to presenting the first and second feature films of emerging directors at the Marché du Film in Cannes. In parallel, Bracq is the curator of CinéBaltique festival, launched this year and focusing on films from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. He also works as a script and project development consultant across a range of masterclasses, commissions and film projects, among them Cinéforom in Switzerland, Oxbelly residency in Greece, and the Agora industry event in Thessaloniki.

Alise Ģelze

Alise Ģelze is one of the best-known and most experienced producers in Latvia and the Baltics, as well as the founder of White Picture studio. She has produced several dozen short and feature films, collaborating with leading directors of the younger and mid-generation from Latvia, Estonia, and Finland. Among her most notable projects are Oleg (2019) by Juris Kursietis, screened at Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes, and Dogs Don’t Wear Pants (2019) by J.-P. Valkeapää. Ģelze also produced Mellow Mud (2016) by Renārs Vimba, awarded the Crystal Bear in the Berlinale Generation 14Plus competition, and Mother, I Love You (2013) by Jānis Nords, which received the JGeneration KPlus International Jury prize for the Best Film at Berlinale. Her most recent film – The Two Prosecutors (2025) by Sergei Loznitsa – was selected for the main competition at Cannes.

Anna Hints

Anna Hints is an award-winning Estonian director and screenwriter whose career in recent years has drawn international attention far beyond the Baltics and Europe. Raised in Southern Estonia and inspired by contemporary art and experimental folk music – as these influences converged, she created the feature documentary Smoke Sauna Sisterhood (2023), sold to more than 30 territories, triumphantly sweeping the Directing Award at Sundance Film Festival World Cinema Documentary Competition, European Film Award for Best Documentary, and Special Mention at RIGA IFF; more than 40 accolades. Her latest project continues in the vein of sauna and its healing traditions – the short film Sauna Day (2024), made in cooperation with Tushar Parkash, was selected for Critics’ Week at Cannes, Toronto and Clermont-Ferrand. Hints is a member of the European Film Academy.

Gudny Hummelvoll

Hailing from Norway, Hummelvoll is a film and television producer with over thirty years of experience and serves as Vice President of the European Producers Club. She has worked on a variety of feature and documentary projects and co-productions, and has run her own production company Hummelfilm since 2011. Among Hummelvoll’s best-known productions are the acclaimed Norwegian films Buddy (2001), Limbo (2011), and Phoenix (2018). She co-produced The German Doctor (2013), which was included in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes, and Girls Will Be Girls (2024), which won the Audience Award at Sundance. She also produced the Netflix series Billionaire Island (2024), and is currently working on Alexander Payne’s latest feature film, Somewhere Out There.