Swimsuit 46

After starting its international career by winning the Cannes International Jury Award in 2011, Wannes Destoop’s short Swimsuit 46 has now been selected for its 30th film festival.

After making waves in Cannes, the film has made appearances at numerous renowned festivals including Athens International Film Festival, Melbourne International Film Festival, Sao Paulo International Short Film Festival and the BFI London Film Festival.

A record number of Flemish productions and co-productions have been invited to the 35th edition of the Montreal World Film Festival. In addition to the premieres of Geoffrey Enthoven’s Come As You Are and Bavo Defurne’s North Sea Texas, which had been announced earlier, Montreal confirmed the selection of feature documentary Epilogue, as well as five short films and two minority co-productions with Flanders.

With its total of ten Flemish (co)productions, Montreal has plumped for bold, new and emerging talent from Flanders. No less than five shorts are to debut: the Cannes awarded Swimsuit 46 by Wannes Destoop, Cannes selected Bento Monogatari by Pieter Dirkx, Kevin Meul’s debut The Extraordinary Life of Rocky, Lenny Van Wesemael’s Dancing with Travolta and Mathias Verleyen’s short documentary Sous la Peau (Underneath the Skin).

Wannes Destoop's short Swimsuit 46 has won the International Jury Award at the Cannes Film Festival, it was announced by International Shorts Jury President and filmmaker Michel Gondry. The short, which is Destoop’'s graduation project at the KASK Fine Arts Academy in Ghent, also found an international sales agent in Cannes.

Starring Janis Vercaempst, Wim Opbrouck, Kenneth Vanbaeden and Lies Pauwels, Swimsuit 46 (Badpakje 46) tells the story of 12-year-old Chantal, a chubby girl who is having a hard time finding her way through life. She doesn't have a lot of friends, and at home she can only turn to her stepfather for support as she doesn't get along with her mother or stepbrother. Only in the local pool, where she is training intensively for an upcoming swimming competition, does she truly feel at home. But when she needs a new pair of goggles, things don't go as smoothly as planned and she takes everything to get hold of them.

May promises to be a busy month for Flemish docs and shorts. Both the Docville International Documentary Festival in Leuven (29 April-7 May) and the Brussels Short Film Festival (28 April-8 May) are scheduling a strong selection of Flemish titles. With attention for Flemish productions on the rise internationally, indigenous fests are following course.

The seventh edition of documentary fest Docville is showcasing an ambitious programme, with yet to be released films, previews and one-off screenings. Among the 70 selected docs are a number of Flemish highlights such as Grande Hotel by Lotte Stoops and Waidmannsheil by Klaas Boelen, which were both selected for Hot Docs this year, as well as Peter Krüger’s creative documentary, Antwerp Central, which recently won the Grand Prix at the International Festival of Films on Art (FIFA).

Wannes Destoop’s short film Swimsuit 46 has been selected for Official Competition at this year’s Cannes International Film Festival (11-22 May). The short is Destoop’s graduation project at the KASK Fine Arts Academy in Ghent.

Destoop is competing for the prestigious Palme d’Or for Best Short Film. The jury for both the Short Film and the Cinéfondation programme is headed by Michel Gondry (The Green Hornet, The Science of Sleep, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) who follows in the footsteps of such names as Atom Egoyan, Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Martin Scorsese and John Boorman.