Death of a Shadow

The Oscar nomination for Death of a shadow is opening doors for producer Ellen De Waele, attracting new talent and bringing offers for international co-productions. Meanwhile her company, serendipity films, is about to release its first fiction feature, 82 days in April. ‘It’s a very exciting time,’ she says. ‘We hope to start developing more projects, to grow and also be more active on the international level. It’s something I’m really looking forward to.’

De Waele studied journalism and anthropology, but found neither entirely satisfying. Journalism was too shallow and the immersion required for field anthropology was too intense. So she set out to explore the possibilities of using visual means to popularise anthropology.

From April 25 till May 2 three animated as well as three narrative shorts from Flanders are screening at the Newport Beach Film Festival in California. Marc James Roels and Emma De Swaef’s Oh Willy…, Little Ryan by Aad Verstraelen and Hisko Hulsing’sJunkyard, a co-production with Flanders, are in the running for Best Animated Short. The live action short films Dura Lex by Anke Blondé, Death of a Shadow by Tom Van Avermaet and Anthony Schatteman’s Kiss Me Softly were also added to the fest’s official line-up.

Screening in the animation category is Marc James Roels and Emma De Swaef’s much appraised stop motion short Oh Willy… Fifty-something Willy returns to the naturist community where he grew up to visit his dying mother. After her death he flees into the forest in confused sadness where he finds the motherly protection of a big gentle hairy beast.

Four Flemish features have been selected for competition at the 29th Festroia International Film Festival in Portugal (7-16 June). Brasserie Romantique, The Broken Circle Breakdown, Offline and Time of My Life are all in the running to take home some prizes. This year, the festival has also organised a focus on Belgium and pays homage to Flemish actor Jan Decleir.

Both Joel Vanhoebrouck’s Brasserie Romantique and Felix van Groeningen’s The Broken Circle Breakdown screen as part of the fest’s official competition. Peter Monsaert’s directorial debut Offline is selected for the competitive First Works section, while Nic Baltazar is competing in the Man and His Environment category with Time of My Life.

Tom Van Avermaet was hooked early on by the fantastic stories cinema could tell. Now his fantasy film Death of a shadow has been nominated this year in the live action shorts category of the Academy Awards.

The first time I went to see a film in the cinema, it was to see Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,' he recalls. 'Even then I was fascinated by the effect that seeing a film in a movie theatre had on me.' This connected with his childhood urge to tell stories. 'From that moment on I became a little bit obsessed by the medium of film. I couldn't see myself telling stories in any other way.

The Centre National du Cinéma (CNC), the French governmental institution supporting, promoting and preserving film productions, has awarded Tom Van Avemaet’s short film Death of a Shadow with a ‘Prix de Qualité’. Attached to the quality label comes a cash prize worth 5,000 euros, to be divided among the producers and the director of the film. Another cash prize of 2,000 euros goes to composer Raf Keunen who wrote the original score. Earlier this year Death of a Shadow was nominated for an Oscar for Best Short Live Action Film.

By presenting the quality label, the CNC wishes to award artistic and technical performances in short films. Each year, an assembled committee of eight members watches every qualified film and then advises the president of the CNC, who has the final decision.