Time of My Life

Director Nic Balthazar is a tireless environmental campaigner, in particular through his Big Ask video projects that give a new twist to protesting against climate change. When the time came to make his latest feature film, Time of My Life, he knew he couldn't just ignore the issue. 'I've nagged everyone for so long with this message that I thought: even filmmakers like us should just check and see how much damage we are doing to the environment.'

Measuring the impact that making the film – from pre-production to the last day of editing – would have on the climate was just the beginning. Balthazar also decided to reduce that impact as much as possible, and then to 'pay back' the unavoidable damage by generating an equivalent amount of green energy.

Things are prospering forTime of My Life, Nic Balthazar’s latest feature. The movie made a good start at the box-office and easily managed to climb to the top of the ticket sales. This week, the box-office results went up with an additional 7%, which is quite exceptional after four weeks of screening. The crew attributed the sudden spike to word-of-mouth advertising on social media such as Facebook and Twitter.

That way, the cape of 100 000 viewers was easely rounded (as we speak, the total count has reached 230 308 spectators). When reaching this milestone, Flemish film productions are awarded the Gold Award by the Ostend Film Festival.  Nic Balthazar and the main members of the cast received the Award at a special ceremony in Ghent.

Two major Flemish productions, Germaine and Time of My Life, have been boosted by a slew of positive news and numbers. Both films are based on true stories and have succeeded in catching the attention of media and public alike. Nic Balthazar’sTime of My Life was receveid enthusiastically at Berlin's EFM, while Frank Van Mechelen's Germainehas proven itself as a true box-office hit.

Films Distribution, international sales agent of Balthazar’s second feature Time of My Life, confirmed that the film drew a great deal of attention at Berlin’s European Film Market. Towards the end of March, Time of My Life will be released in The Netherlands, Luxemburg and the French-speaking region of Belgium. Time of My Life has already managed to claim two major festival awards: the Audience Award for Best Film at both the RamDam Festival and The End Festival in Amsterdam. The film was also honoured with a special mention from the jury at the prestigious Rome Film Festival.

Actor Koen De Graeve is no stranger to on-screen transformations, but his latest role is something else. It wasn't like hiding behind a large moustache, as he did inThe Misfortunates, or changing his posture. 'I was me, totally me, but I was ill. I was dying. Emotionally, that was heavy.'

The film, Time of My Life, is a biopic of Mario Verstraete, a Flemish man with multiple sclerosis who campaigned for the introduction of a voluntary euthanasia law in Belgium. In 2002, at the age of 39, he was the first person to take advantage of the new law.

Ben X, Nic Balthazar’s award-winning feature debut, continues to score following its premiere at the World Film Festival of Montréal in 2007. This week, the film received the prestigious Efebo d’Oro at the 33th Film Festival of Agrigento in Sicily (17-21 October). Balthazar is currently working on his second feature, Time Of My Life, which is currently set for a January 2012 release in its home territory.

The Efebo d’Oro, which is awarded to successful book adaptations, has in the past been won by such distinguised international filmmakers as François Truffaut, Claude Lelouch, Giuseppe Tornatore and Manoel de Oliveira. Ben X is based on director Nic Balthazar’s own theatre play and book Niets is alles wat hij zei (Nothing Is All He Said) which, in addition to being adapted for the screen, has also been translated into Italian and published in Italy.