WILLEMSTAD – The documentary film Horsepower has been selected for its world premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) 2026, marking a historic milestone for Curaçao’s film industry. It is the first time a film by Curaçaoan filmmakers will premiere at the internationally renowned festival.
Writer and director Tittel Del Mar says the selection places both the film and Curaçaoan cinema firmly within an international contemporary film context. According to Del Mar, Horsepower is an intimate documentary that deliberately avoids portraying motorsport as spectacle. Instead, the film approaches it as a deeply human space where identity, pressure, community and survival intersect.
The documentary follows Alexander Hanst, a young motorsport athlete and influencer, and explores the world around him beyond speed and adrenaline. Rather than framing motorsport as a social problem or provocation, Horsepower examines it as a cultural language shaped by connection, release, ambition and contradiction.
Del Mar emphasizes that the film embraces nuance, showing both the beauty and danger of motorsport, as well as its discipline and chaos, pride and vulnerability. For her, the project is deeply personal. Having grown up on Curaçao, she describes motorsport as something that has always been present on the island—audible, visible, and often misunderstood.
“What interests me is not only the debate surrounding it, but the people inside it,” Del Mar said. “This film is about listening.”
The world premiere at IFFR 2026 represents a significant breakthrough for Curaçaoan filmmaking, opening new international doors for local stories told from within the island’s own cultural reality.