The Circle

Bram Conjaerts has won the Award for Best Mid-Length Documentary for The Circle at the Hot Docs film festival in Toronto (25 April-5 May). The award is accompanied by a cash prize of 3,000 Canadian Dollars. Besides Amsterdam’s IDFA, Hot Docs is one of the most pristine documentary festivals in the world.

The Circle received its world premiere at this year’s Hot Docs in the International Spectrum section of the fest, which presented a total of 25 documentary films. For his subject the director went to Geneva and surroundings where researchers of CERN, the European organization qualified for nuclear research, have been investigating the origin of mater for years now. Scientists therefore built the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) some 100 meters below ground, the most powerful scientific instrument with a length of 27 kilometres. In The Circle Conjaerts tracks the ring of the LHC above ground in an existential quest for inhabitants with their own opinion on the scientific experiment.

Bram Conjaerts’ The Circle and Goudougoudou by Pieter Van Eecke and Fabrizio Scapin have been selected for the Doxa Documentary Film Festival in Vancouver (3-12 May). The Circle has also recently received an invitation for Hot Docs, where it will screen end of April.

The Circle revolves around the Large Hadron Collider, a gigantic scientific instrument near Geneva, where it spans the border between Switzerland and France, about 100m underground. A 27km long particle accelerator, it is used by physicists to study the origin of everything. The results and interpretation of the collisions of particles should revolutionise the understanding of the universe and how it began. In his documentary, Conjaerts leaves the scientific aspect of the experiment and follows the 27km circle above the ground in an existential search for local people with an opinion on what’s happening below.

Sien Versteyhe’s JUNIOR and Bram Conjaert’s VAF Wildcard film The Circle have been selected for the 20th edition of Hot Docs, the Canadian International Documentary Festival (25 April-5 May). Both medium-length films are screening in the fest’s International Spectrum category, making them eligible for the Award for Best Mid-Length Documentary, as well as the Audience Award. The Only Son, a minor co-production with Flanders, is selected for the World Showcase section. Along with IDFA, Hot Docs is one of the world’s foremost documentary film festivals.

JUNIOR is premiering internationally at Hot Docs after a work-in-progress of the film had screened at the Belgian Docville fest, receiving a Special Mention from the International Jury. Bram Conjaerts’ The Circle was also added to the fest’s Official Selection and is to receive its world premiere in Toronto.