Mussels in Love

Felix van Groeningen’s The Broken Circle Breakdown and Janet van den Brand’s short Rosa, Anna’s Lil’ Sis have been selected for the Berlin international Film Festival (7-17 February). Both films will premiere internationally in the fest’s Panorama Specials strand and Generation Kplus shorts competition respectively. Two co-productions were also confirmed: Flemish director Vincent Bal’s Nono, the Zigzag Kid, which will open the Generation programme, and Willemiek Kluijfhout’s Mussels in Love. Recent features such as Peter Monsaert's Offline and Gert Embrechts' Allez, Eddy! make their market debuts at the Berlinale's European Film Market (EFM). Other EFM entries are The Fifth Season by Peter Brosens and Jessica Woodworth, as well as co-productionsTenderness by Marion Hänsel, Kinshasa Kids by Marc-Henri Wajnberg, Pinocchio by Enzo d'Alo and Tango Libre by Frédéric Fonteyne.

The Broken Circle Breakdown is represented internationally by The Match Factory. The film is already a box office hit in its home territory with over 320,000 admissions (and still going strong).The Broken Circle Breakdown is produced by Dirk Impens for Menuet (Turquaze, The Misfortunates) and stars Veerle Baetens and Johan Heldenbergh. In honour of the Panorama Specials selection, Flanders Image is also publishing a special 'Talent Matters' section entirely dedicated to van Groeningen's work.

Documentary producers from the Dutch-speaking part of Benelux – The Netherlands and Flanders – will be teaming up this Wednesday to pitch the region as an attractive co-production partner. The event marks the first joint outing for the two producers’ associations, DPN (Documentary Producers Netherlands) and Flanders Doc. Among other things, the presentation, which is part of the IDFA Forum, will look at funding opportunities available in both The Netherlands and Flanders.

This year’s IDFA features a number of co-productions with minority Flemish input: The Gatekeepers by Dror Moreh (co-prod: Anna Van der Wee for Wild Heart Productions) in Feature-length Documentaries competition; Mussels In Love by Willemiek Kluijfhout (pictured left) (co-prod: Bram Crols and Mark Daems for Associate Directors); Anton Corbijn Inside Out by Klaartje Quirijns (co-prod: Savage Film); Guerilla Grannies – How To Live In This World by Ike Bertels (co-prod: Ellen De Waele for Serendipity Films); and The Only Son by Simonka de Jong (co-prod: Eric Goossens for Off World).

Five documentaries as well as two projects from Flanders have been selected for this year’s 25th IDFA. The five docs are Rain by Gerard-Jan Claes and Olivia Rochette, The Sound of Belgium by Jozef Devillé, Expecting by Fabio Wuytack, Snake Dance by Manu Riche and Patrick Marnham, and The Wave by Sarah Vanagt and Katrien Vermeire. Projects from two Flemish documentary makers –The Shadow World by Johan Grimonprez and White Elephants by Kristof Bilsen – are also selected for the IDFA Forum.

Rain by Gerard-Jan Claes and Olivia Rochette features in the First Appearance competition and follows a ballet production from initial auditions right up to opening night. Producer is Bart Van Langendonck for Savage Film. In Expecting (pictured left), which is selected for the IDFA Panorama, director Fabio Wuytack portrays an Afghan-Kosovan refugee couple as they struggle through their daily lives. The Sound of Belgium by Jozef Devillé and produced by Visualantics is part of the Music Documentary competition and explores the rich, untold story of Belgian dance music.

Five documentaries from Flanders as well as five co-productions are selected for this year's 25th edition of IDFA (14-25 November). The five are: Rain by Gerard-Jan Claes and Olivia Rochette, The Sound of Belgium by Jozef Devillé, Expecting by Fabio Wuytack, Snake Dance by Manu Riche, and The Wave by Sarah Vanagt and Katrien Vermeire. Projects from two Flemish documentary makers, The Shadow World by Johan Grimonprez and White Elephants (working title) by Kristof Bilsen, can also be found in the IDFA.

Rain by Gerard-Jan Claes and Olivia Rochette features in the First Appearance competition for first documentaries. On 25 May 2011, the world-renowned Ballet de l’Opéra national de Paris presented Rain, in its first ever performance by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker. Olivia Rochette and Gerard-Jan Claes followed the rehearsal process from the auditions to the opening performance. Producer is Bart Van Langendonck for Savage Film.

The Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF) approved funding for 15 projects, of which 12 feature films, two feature-length documentaries and one animated short. The list includes a number of debut features supported by experienced production companies such as a.o. Minds Meet, Savage Films and Caviar.

Four projects received script support in this round: Lampedusa, Senne Dehandschutter’s feature debut, is the gripping story of a journalist travelling from Libya to Europe with a group of African refugees. Dehandschutter already received good press for his graduation short, Fertilize. Tack is the new feature project by Erik Lamens (S&M Judge) about the life of Sylvain Tack and his 70s pirate radio station Mi Amigo. Peter Krüger, who recently grabbed the Grand Prize at FIFA in Montreal with his doc Antwerp Central, received support forContinental Drift. Finally, Alex Stockman (Pulsar) can start working on his new feature, Electric Blue.