Kinshasa Kids

Four films from Flanders were presented with prizes during the awards ceremony of the Festroia International Film Festival in Portugal (7-16 June). Felix van Groeningen took home three awards for The Broken Circle Breakdown, while Joël Vanhoebrouck’s Brasserie Romantique, Peter Monsaert’s Offline and the short film Dura Lex by Anke Blondé were all awarded as well.

Van Groeningen’s intense drama The Broken Circle Breakdown not only won the Gold Dolphin for Best Film, but also took home the film critics’ FIPRESCI Prize as well as the SIGNIS Prize, awarded by the worldwide association of Catholic communication professionals.

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.

The Zagreb Film festival (14-21 October) recently selected Peter Brosens & Jessica Woodworth’s The Fifth Season and the minority co-productions Taking Chances by Nicole van Kilsdonk and Kinshasa Kids by Marc-Henri Wajnberg. At the close of the festival, the audience also voted Kinshasa Kids as Best Film of the feature-length program.

Peter Brosens & Jessica Woodworth’s third feature, The Fifth Season (pictured on the left), is screening in the ‘My Third Film’ sidebar of the Zagreb fest. The directors duo’s earlier filmKhadak also screened at the fest in 2007. The Fifth Season is a haunting tale of mysterious calamity as spring refuses to come as the cycle of nature is derailed. Alice, Thomas and Octave, three kids in a village deep in the Ardennes forest, struggle to make sense of a world that is collapsing around them. Flemish co-producer of the film is Bo Films. International sales are handled by Berlin based Films Boutique.

The Hamburg International Filmfest (27 September-6 October), the Rio de Janeiro Int’l Film Festival (27 September-11 October) and the Busan Int’l Film Festival (BIFF, 4-13 October) have all confirmed Peter Brosens and Jessica Woodworth’s The Fifth Season for their line-up. The film is currently enjoying the red carpet in Toronto for its North American premiere after grabbing two awards at the Venice Film Festival just last week.

The Fifth Season is not the only Flemish film selected for Busan. Marc-Henri Wajnberg’s Kinshasa Kids, Enzo d’Alo’s Pinocchio and Comrade Kim Goes Flying by Anja Daelemans et al also grace the fest’s line-up. All three films are doing very well internationally: Venice selected both Kinshasa Kids and Pinocchio, while Toronto picked Kinshasa Kids and Comrade Kim Goes Flying.

Peter Brosens & Jessica Woodworth’s The Fifth Season has been selected for the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, 6-16 September). This is the film's second invitation from a major international film festival after its place in the competition in Venice. Toronto also added Vincent Bal’s Nono, the Zigzag Kid, Marc-Henri Wajnberg’s Kinshasa Kids, Jacques Audiard’s Rust and Bone and Comrade Kim goes Flying by Kim Gwan Hun, Nicholas Bonner and Anja Daelemans to its line-up.

The Fifth Season will be competing in the Wavelengths section for ‘films that expand our notions of cinema’ and made by ‘daring, visionary and autonomous voices’. Toronto will also mark the film’s North American premiere. This new feature by filmmaking duo Brosens and Woodworth is the last part of a trilogy. After Khadak, which won the Lion of the Future/Luigi de Laurentiis Award in Venice in 2006 (where it was shown as part of the Venice Days), and the award-winning Altiplano which received its world premiere at the Cannes Critics' Week, The Fifth Season once again focuses on the troubled relationship between man and nature.