AFFR Edition 2025
With this milestone edition, the world’s largest film festival on cities and architecture celebrated its 25th anniversary: 25 years of carefully curated films, debates, masterclasses, and special collaborations that offer fresh perspectives on the built environment. After a festive opening on October 8 at Theater Rotterdam, AFFR took over LantarenVenster from October 9 to 12 with a captivating program featuring over 80 films, including documentaries, fiction, shorts, and classics.
But there was more, because a birthday calls for a special festive program: 25 Years! 25 Hours!, a nonstop celebration running from Saturday into Sunday. Visitors enjoyed an all-night party packed with its own exciting program, dove into a special marathon of architecture classics, caugt a Sunday morning screening with their little ones, and unwound to smooth closing tunes.
AFFR 2025 also looked ahead with two fresh initiatives: the festival’s first immersive media program, Realitiesⁿ, which launched at the Nieuwe Instituut with a special opening on October 9. Plus, we hosted the very first AFFR Awards Ceremony on Sunday evening before the closing film, where we revealed the winners of the jury-selected King Kong Award and the popular Audience Award.
"Great to see this festival offering such a fantastic selection of films every year."
Festival trailer 2025
The Town that Drove Away
Winner of the first King Kong Award
On Sunday 12 October, during the very first AFFR Awards Ceremony, the winner of the King Kong Award was announced: The Town that Drove Away by Grzegorz Kielawski and Natalia Pietsch.
The AFFR Audience Award 2025
1
Secret Mall Apartment
Jeremy Workman, U.S.A., 2024
A group of art students cannot resist squatting a new shopping centre. Is it a joke, an art installation, or a political statement against gentrification in their city?
2
Mother City
Miki Redelinghuys & Pearlie Joubert, South Africa, 2024
The legacy of apartheid is alive and well in the urbanism of Cape Town, where Reclaim The City activists are fighting a David versus Goliath battle against spatial injustice.
3
SCHINDLER SPACE ARCHITECT
Valentina B. Ganeva, U.S.A., 2024
Adolf Loos advocated his Raumplan, Le Corbusier his plan libre. The Austrian-American architect Rudolf Schindler combined both into a unique style in which everything revolved around the experience of space: Space Architecture.
4
Black Water
Natxo Leuza, Spain, 2025
As far as the horizon reaches we see water – where once there were villages, fields and people. Lokhi decides to move with her family to Dhaka, the fastest growing city in the world. A shocking view of an apocalyptic world.
5
The Lions By The River Tigris
Zaradasht Ahmed, Norway, The Netherlands, 2025
mid the ruins of post-ISIS Mosul, three men strive to rebuild not just the city, but also its soul. A fisherman clings to a carved marble lintel, a collector dreams of turning it into a museum piece, and a musician teaches once forbidden songs to a new generation.
"Good program, with a balanced mix between documentary and fiction movies, and exciting specials and speakers."
