Rotterdams Open Doek Film Festival - dates & details

HAPPENING 18–19 JUNE 2026 | Rotterdams Open Doek Film Festival returns to LantarenVenster on Thursday 18 and Friday 19 June, celebrating 15 years of short films and emerging talent. The two-day programme brings together screenings, filmmaker Q&As, practical workshops, masterclasses and the season final, where the audience helps select the winners.

You do not need to work in film to join the festival. Alongside programmes aimed at actors, filmmakers and camera crews, there are themed collections of short films covering identity, parenthood, relationships, family patterns and queer life.

Fifteen years of short film

Rotterdams Open Doek began as a platform where filmmakers could show short work, meet an audience and discuss their films directly after the screening. Its regular editions at LantarenVenster feature work by Rotterdam makers and other emerging voices, ranging from fiction and documentary to animation and experimental film.

Winners from the monthly editions progress to the annual season final. The anniversary festival expands that familiar format across two days, with talks, technical demonstrations, student showcases and evening events with music and DJs.

Thursday explores making films

Thursday’s programme starts at 15:00 with So You Think You Can Steadicam. Professional operator Tom Selbeck turns the foyer into a practical camera playground until 18:00, allowing visitors to try a real steadicam and discover how balance, timing and movement create a steady tracking shot.

Visitors can also join short behind-the-scenes tours at 16:00, 17:00 and 18:00 to see what happens in the projection rooms before a film reaches the screen. At 17:00, students from Grafisch Lyceum Rotterdam present a 90-minute showcase featuring fiction, documentaries, animation and experimental work.

The evening screenings include Fresh Cuts: Papa in Progress at 19:00. Two films follow men preparing for or adjusting to fatherhood, including a portrait of Rotterdam rapper Ilias as he balances his music, his new responsibilities and his relationship with his own father. The filmmakers will be present for a Q&A.

At 19:30, cinematographer Aziz leads Skin tones & light, a masterclass on filming actors of colour. Live camera and lighting tests will demonstrate how different set-ups affect skin tones, supported by examples from Paria and White Berry. Filmmakers Vincent Boy Kars, Fadua El Akchaoui and Sharif Abdel Mawla also discuss building a film career during So.. What’s Next?, which starts at the same time.

The SKLNE-Rauwkost FilmLab screening, featuring four films created by Grafisch Lyceum Rotterdam students during a 12-week programme, was listed as sold out at the time of publication.

The video installation Traces can be seen on the foyer stage during both festival days. The work examines perceptions, experiences and imagined stories surrounding an archaeological site in rural Nicaragua.

Friday leads to the final

Friday begins at 15:00 with Acting Deconstructed, a three-hour public masterclass led by director Arno Dierickx. Working with actors Lidewij Mahler and Yaron Mesika, he demonstrates how film actors can prepare a detailed character when rehearsal time is limited.

Three Fresh Cuts programmes follow. Belonging (or not) and Unscripted both begin at 16:45, exploring identity, social expectations, family habits and attempts to break familiar patterns. At 18:30, Between you and me presents four films about closeness, cultural differences, awkward encounters and the difficulty of connecting with another person.

ROD X Queer Cinema begins at 19:00 and is explicitly listed as English-spoken. The programme brings together short films about queer identity, love, chosen family, relationships and gender transition, followed by Q&As with the filmmakers.

The season final begins at 19:45 and presents the winning films from the monthly editions held between October 2025 and May 2026. The finalists include Sudah, Karim, African Gold, Mulata, Wie luistert er naar de Hûnekop, Silk, Suikerwater and Known Stranger.

At the end of the final, the audience votes for its favourite, while the jury selects the main winner. With eight films competing and a running time of three hours and 15 minutes, this is the closest the festival comes to its own Rotterdam short-film championship.

The official pages do not consistently state the spoken language or subtitle options for every individual programme. English-speaking visitors should check the details of their chosen screening before booking, particularly where Q&As or masterclasses form an important part of the experience.

Plan your festival visit

The Rotterdams Open Doek Film Festival takes place on 18 and 19 June 2026. Tickets, current availability and individual programme details can be found at https://www.lantarenvenster.nl/programma/rotterdams-open-doek-film-festival-2026/

Programmes begin at different times, with several sessions running simultaneously. Choosing your preferred screenings and workshops in advance will save you from attempting the impossible Rotterdam film-festival manoeuvre of being in three cinemas at once.

How to get there

LantarenVenster is located on the Wilhelminapier, around five minutes on foot from Wilhelminaplein metro and tram stop. Metro lines D and E and tram lines 3 and 5 connect the venue with Rotterdam Central and other parts of the city. The Erasmus Bridge is currently closed to cars for maintenance, but remains open to cyclists and pedestrians; drivers approaching from north Rotterdam can use the Willemsbrug.