Natasha

Fien Troch’s Kid, Peter Monsaert’s Offline and Roman Klochkov’s Natasha were the big winners at the 14th Aubagne International Film Festival (8-23 March). While Kid received both the Grand Jury Prize and the Award for Best Music, Offline scooped the Award for Best Script. Roman Klochkov’s Natasha was awarded the Prize for Best Animated Short Film. It was also announced that French distributor Mica Films is to release Monsaert’s Offline in French theatres this summer.

In addition to the Grand Jury Prize Fien Troch’s third feature film, Kid, also received the Award for Best Music, acknowledging Senjan Jansen’s original musical score. Kid follows the story of a seven-year-old boy who lives with his mother and brother on a farm. The fatherless family struggles to make ends meet. When disaster strikes and the two brothers have to move in with their aunt and uncle, Kid misses his mother more than ever and longs to be with her. The film received a special mention at the latest edition of the Ghent Film Festival.

Benoit De Clerck’s The Importance of Sweet and Salt, Tom Van Avermaet’s Oscar nominated Death of a Shadow, Wouter Bouvijn’sCrossroads and Roman Klochkov’s Natasha were the winners in the Flemish competition at the 18th Leuven International Short Film festival (1 – 8 December). The Humo Award, a guest competition, went to Kiss Me Softly by Anthony Schatteman (pictured on the left).

The Importance of Sweet and Salt, a tragicomedy about a man's inner struggle to escape from an extremely dysfunctional relationship with his wife, grabbed the Jury Award. The Award, which comes with a cash prize of € 2,000, also ensures the short a spot on the 2014 Academy Awards longlist. Meanwhile Wouter Bouvijn’s short Crossroads received the Award for Best Debut.

At the close of the Ostend Film Festival (7 – 15 September 2012) the Flemish film industry gathered in Ostend for the third annual Flemish Film Awards, now called the ‘Ensors’. Nic Balthazar’s Time of My Life, Nicolas Provost’s The Invader and Frank Van Mechelen’s Germaine were the winners of the evening with three or more Awards. This edition also saw the introduction of a number of new awards such as Best Documentary (Epilogue).

Time of my life (pictured on the left) won the awards for Best feature, Best actor in a leading role (Geert Van Rampelberg) and Best Editing (Philippe Ravoet). Based on a true story, Time of My Life is the story of MS-patient  Mario Verstraete who was not only instrumental in legalising euthanasia in Belgium… but was also the first to make use of that new law. Peter Bouckaert produced the film for Eyeworks Film & TV Drama.

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.

Two Flemish films charmed the juries at the Brussels ANIMA festival for animated films: both Roman Klochkov’s bear love story Natasha and Boris Sverlow’s  Russian revolution odysey Shattered Past were laureled with awards. The festival’s main award went to South Korean animator Beomsik Shimbe Shim's The Wonder Hospital.

The Academy Award nomination for A Cat in Paris, a French/Flemish co-production, and the international popularity and sales successes for the Chickentown series showed once again that the Belgian and Flemish animated film industries are booming. The ANIMA festival received no less than 99 Belgian animated films, 20 of which entered in official competition.