NURU

Michael Palmaers’ Nuru and Kevin Meul’s The Extraordinary Life of Rocky both won awards at the FLICKERS: Rhode Island International Film Festival (RIIFF). Nuru took first prize for Best Animation while The Extraordinary Life of Rocky grabbed the Grand Prize for Best Comedy Short.

These are not the first US awards for either film: Nuru had already won Best Animation at the Palm Springs Shortfest while The Extraordinary Life of Rocky (pictured) received the Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative Short in Seattle. In Nuru an opportunistic director of an abandoned zoo assigns a doctor to perform medical experiments on an gorilla. The film is inspired by the paintings The Explanation and The Empire of Light by René Magritte and was produced by Eric Goossens for Walking The Dog.

Anke Blondé’s Dura Lex and Michael Palmaers’s Nuru won Best Live Action Short and Best Animation respectively at the Palm Springs International Shortfest (19-25 June). Both films received $2,000 in cash and automatically qualified for Academy Awards consideration.

Blondé’s Dura Lex, which was also named runner-up in the Bridging the Borders category, enjoyed its North American premiere in Palm Springs. The short deals with the subject of illegal immigration through the character of a young mother who receives an unexpected visit from a pair of detectives.

The Palm Springs International Shortfest has selected four Flemish short films from over 3,000 worldwide entries. Anke Blondé’s Dura Lex, VAF Wildcard winner Boris Sverlow’s Shattered Past, Jeroen Bogaert's Early Birds and Michael Palmaers’s Nuru were added to the fest’s line-up. Palm Springs promises to once again attract a Hollywood crowd with its star-studded shorts such as Pitch Black Heist with Michael Fassbender and The End with Charlotte Rampling.

Michael Palmaers’s Nuru – described by the festival as a ‘dazzling, CG-enhanced story’ – is no stranger to the festival circuit. The film has already been selected for Fantasporto, Clermont-Ferrand, ANIMA and the Leuven international Short Film Festival. Nuru is inspired by The Explanation and The Empire of Light by surrealist painter René Magritte and was produced by Eric Goossens for Walking the Dog (A Monster in Paris).

The 32^nd Oporto International Film Festival (24 Febr – 3 March) has invited works from no less than four Flemish filmmakers for its line-up. Frank van Passel’s Madonna’s Pig, Jakob Verbruggen’s Code 37, Nuru, a short by Michael Palmaers, and Christophe Van Rompaey's Lena have been selected for Fest.

Code 37 became an instant box office hit in its home territory when released last fall. The film was running alongside Madonna’s Pig and Geoffrey Enthoven’s Come As You Are in theatres and together the films even managed to register over 80,000 admissions during one weekend. The film is to receive its market première at this year's European Film Market in Berlin. Code 37 director Jakob Verbruggen is now also set to direct the BBC mini-series The Fall, written by the BAFTA nominated Alan Cubitt.

The Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival (27 January-4 February) has selected Nicolas Provost’s Moving Stories, Michael Palmaers’s Nuru and Marc Roels and Emma de Swaef’s Oh Willy for its 34th edition. The minority co-production The Monster of Nix by Dutch artist Rosto also received a spot in the fest’s programme. According to the fest, ‘a selection for Clermont-Ferrand is participating in the biggest adventure a film can experience.’ The selections at the prestigious French short fest once again put shorts from Flanders in the international limelight.

Provost is now something of an old hand at Clermont-Ferrand after picking up a Special Jury Award for his short Plot Point in 2008. Last year, the festival even presented an overview of Provost’s major works and invited two of his shorts, Stardust and Storyteller, for competition.