Asparragos

Tom Heene’s Welcome Home, which only recently received an invitation to Venice, and Patrice Toye’s Little Black Spiders are the Flemish eye-catchers at the 36th World Film Festival in Montreal (23 August-3 September). Heene’s debut feature will be screening in the First Films World Competition, while Toye’s film will be celebrating its world premiere in the prestigious Focus on World Cinema section. In total, no less than 10 Flemish (co)productions were confirmed for the Canadian fest’s line-up.

With selections for both Montreal and the International Critics’ Week in Venice, filmmaker Tom Heene has pulled off an impressive feat. In Montreal’s First Films World CompetitionWelcome Home is in the running for one of three Zenith Awards. Producer of Welcome Home is Tomas Leyers for Minds Meet. The Brussels-based production company even has a second film screening in Montreal: minority co-production The World Belongs to Us by director Stephan Streker was confirmed for the Focus on World Cinema programme.

This week, the Open Doek Festival (20 – 29 April) kicked off in Turnhout, while Leuven is getting ready for the 8th edition of the International Documentary Festival DOCVILLE (27 April – 5 May). Both programs house a large selection of Flemish titles, ranging from Daniel Lambo’s Dry Branches of Iran to Berlinale attendees Anton Corbijn Inside Out andAsparragos.

For the eighth consecutive year, DOCVILLE highlights the best documentaries and awards prizes in various sections. This year, Flanders is well represented in its national competition with more than ten short and feature-length film titles.

Klaartje Quirijns’s documentary Anton Corbijn Inside Out has been selected for the 62nd edition of the Berlinale International Film Festival (9 – 19 Febr). The Documentary will screen in the ‘Berlin Special’ section of the fest which also hosts films by Werner Herzog and Kevin Macdonald. Flemish co-producer of the documentary is Brussels-based production outfit Savage Film which recently scored an Oscar Nomination for Michaël R. Roskam's feature debut Bullhead.

Another Flemish co-production in Berlin is Nicole Van Kilsdonk's Taking Chances, which has been selected for Generation Kplus. Meanwhile Laura Zuallaert's short film Asparragos was picked for the Culinary Cinema section of the fest. The Berlinale screening of Anton Corbijn Inside Out on 17 February will also be the film’s World Premiere. Quirijns states that ‘she always tries to make films about people. Anton is a photographer, but I’ve approached him just as I would one of my characters, be it a weapons dealer, someone who wants to get dictators before a court or someone vying for peace. They are all people fighting a battle, with others, with a political system or as with Anton, with himself.’