The Invader

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.

Wim Vandekeybus’ and Nicolas Provost’s debut features Monkey Sandwich and The Invader have been selected to enter in competition at the CPH PIX festival in Copenhagen. Both films will compete in the fest’s New Talent Grand Prix. Moreover, Michael R. Roskam’s Academy Award nominated hit flick Bullhead will be given a special screening along with a number of other internationally acclaimed films such as Mr. Lazhar.

The PIX festival puts a heavy emphasis on new talent, introducing some of the best debut films from all over the globe. The fest’s annual competition, New Talent Grand Prix, is dedicated to the most promising first time-directors. Young talent Nicolas Provost’s The Invader and feature film first-timer Wim Vandekeybus’ Monkey Sandwichwill both be competing for the Award.

Nicolas Provost’s feature debut The Invader and Gust Van den Berghe’s Blue Bird have been nominated for The Ingmar Bergman International Debut Award at Sweden’s Göteborg International Film Festival (27 January-6 February). The festival also selected Lotte Stoops’ Grande Hotel and Tom Fassaert’s An Angel in Doel in the Dokumentärt and Visionärer sections respectively.

A total of eight films from around the world were nominated for the prestigious award. With two Flemish filmmakers nominated out of eight, Belgian cinema from Flanders clearly demonstrated its vibrancy and talent. The Ingmar Berman International Debut Award is awarded to “a debutant who in his film treats an existential theme with a dynamic or experimental approach to the cinematic means of expression.”

The Palm Springs International Film Festival (5-16 January), traditionally the place-to-be for any feature with Oscar ambitions, has for the second year in a row selected five Flemish directors for its line-up. This year’s selected films are Bavo Defurne’s North Sea Texas, Geoffrey Enthoven’s Come As You Are, Nicolas Provost’s The Invader, Michaël R Roskam’s Bullhead and Christophe Van Rompaey’s Lena. John Shanks’s Last Winter, a co-production with Flanders, will also screen at Palm Springs.

Last year saw the selection of a record-breaking five Flemish features for Palm Springs. The selected films were part of a mini-focus – ‘the Flanders Five’ – that put the spotlight on the wave of Flemish talent and the diversity of films from Flanders. For its 2012 edition, Palm Springs has once again selected five Flemish directors.

Both Nicolas Provost's feature debut The Invader and Moon Blaisse's graduation short Sometime Later got awarded at this year's 17th Cinéma Tous Ecrans festival (4-11 November) in Geneva. Nicolas Provost won Reflet d'Or for Best Director, while Moon Blaisse received the Reflet d'Or for Best International Short.

The Invader is the story of an illegal African immigrant whose journey begins in Brussels as he searches, like many other immigrants, for a better life. Through his confrontation with a harsh society, he slowly but irreversibly starts to embody our worst fears and becomes the monster we have created. The film features talent such as Italian actress Stefania Rocca (The Talented Mr Ripley) and Issaka Sawadogo (Hotel Swooni).