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Subscribe to the RSS feedHerbots’s The Treatment sold to the US
Hans Herbots’s psychological thriller The Treatment has been sold to the US, where Artsploitation Films will be releasing the film. Earlier this month, Herbots’s film was well received at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, where it had its North American premiere.
The Treatment screened as part of the World Cinema Now section in Palm Springs, creating such a buzz that an extra venue had to be added for the second scheduled screening of the film. Following its successful festival launch, Artsploitation Films acquired North American rights. A distributor specialising in genre films, Artsploitation plans on releasing the film this year.
Waste Land takes the Cineuropa Prize in Les Arcs
Pieter Van Hees’s psychological thriller Waste Land has won the Cineuropa Prize at the European Film Festival in Les Arcs (13-20 December). It’s the first international award for Waste Land, the closing chapter in the director’s trilogy.
Since its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last autumn, Waste Land has been seen at a number of festivals including Busan, Austin, Stockholm and now Les Arcs; but this is the film’s first prize. The Cineuropa Prize is an initiative of Cineuropa, the online portal showcasing European cinema worldwide.
Altitude acquires Cub for UK release
Altitude Film Distribution has picked up Jonas Govaerts’s feature-film debut Cub for release in the UK. The film, set in a summer camp for scouts, is scheduled for a theatrical run in summer 2015. Meanwhile, in its home country, Cub has taken over 75,000 admissions to date, with a box office total of €500,000.
In the film, Sam, an imaginative 12-year-old boy, goes off to camp with his Cub Scout pack. He quickly discovers that something is not quite right in the woods when he stumbles across a masked feral child. As Sam gets more and more isolated from the other scouts, he becomes convinced a terrible fate awaits them: the feral child is the assistant of the Poacher, an evil psychopath who has laced the forest with ingenious traps and is intent on slaughtering any trespasser… one at a time.
New Flemish features to be launched in Les Arcs
Pieter Van Hees’s Waste Land has been selected for Official Competition at the European Film Festival in Les Arcs, France (13-20 December). Bas Devos’s feature debut Violet and Benoit De Clerck’s short film The Hunger are also part of the official line-up. Flemish projects to be discovered in the professional programme are Kenneth Mercken’s Coureur and Galloping Mind by Wim Vandekeybus. Finally, three new feature films from Flanders - Black, Belgian Rhapsody and again Waste Land - will be pitched to an audience of distributors and cinema owners from France.
Waste Land, Black and Belgian Rhapsody will be presented during the Les Arcs Summit, a yearly programme that reunites independent distributors and industry professionals focusing on the exhibition of European films in France and made up of a number of films scheduled for a 2015 release.
Felix van Groeningen’s Belgica starts shooting
Earlier this week, Flemish director Felix van Groeningen began filming Belgica, a story about two brothers who get swept away by their own success. Last year, van Groeningen’s bluegrass drama The Broken Circle Breakdown was nominated for a Foreign Language Oscar.
Belgica tells the story of Jo and Frank, two brothers who have their differences over the years but, when their paths cross once more, decide to start a bar called Belgica. The place becomes a hotspot in Belgium’s nightlife scene in no time, but both brothers threaten to get swept away by their success.
Lucifer wins Grand Prix in Tallinn
Gust Van den Berghe’s feature Lucifer has won the Grand Prix at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in Estonia (14-30 November). This marks the first international recognition for the film, which premiered at the Rome Film Festival in October. The festival’s main prize comes with a grant of € 10,000 donated by the City of Tallinn.
In the weeks following its premiere in Rome last October, Lucifer headed for various other festivals including the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma in Montreal, the International Film Festival in Valladolid and the Film Fest Ghent back home.
Fien Troch’s newest project wins at TorinoFilmLab
Fien Troch’s upcoming film project Home has been awarded the Arte International Prize at the TorinoFilmLab Meeting Event, part of the Turin Film Festival. The prize, given by Arte France Cinéma, goes to the most promising project among the 12 participants in the Script&Pitch workshop.
Following Someone Else’s Happiness, Unspoken and Kid, Fien Troch is currently working on Home, a new feature film about generational conflict, revealing the thin line between trust, friendship and loyalty. Troch scripted Home with Nico Leunen.
Torino Film Festival invites three Flemish debuts
Violet by Bas Devos and Teodora Ana Mihai’s Waiting for August have both been selected for competition at this year’s Torino Film Festival (21-29 November). Emilie Verhamme’s feature film debut Eau Zoo will have its international premiere at the Festival, while In Your Name, co-produced with Flanders, and Michaël R. Roskam’s The Drop are also part of the line-up.
After stops in Berlin, Karlovy Vary, Montreal and Los Angeles, Violet now heads for Turin, where it is to screen in the Torino 32 competition programme. Screening in the TFFDOC documentary competition, meanwhile, is Teodora Ana Mihai’s Waiting for August. Emilie Verhamme’s Eau Zoo receives its international premiere at the Torino Film Festival.
Praise for Violet’s cinematographer at AFI Fest
Bas Devos’s Violet has received a special jury mention for its cinematography at the AFI Fest in Los Angeles (6-13 November). Devos’s feature debut was shot by Nicolas Karakatsanis, also known for his work on The Drop, The Loft and Bullhead.
In its report, the jury praised Karakatsanis for his collection of powerful images, presented through a variety of camera sources. His “long, graceful takes that underscore the powerful silences of the film’s haunting storytelling” prompted the jury to present the DOP with a special citation.
Waste Land and Violet head for Les Arcs
Waste Land by Pieter Van Hees and Bas Devos’s feature debut Violet have been selected for the sixth edition of the European Film Festival of Les Arcs (December 13-20). Alice Rohrwacher’s The Wonders, in which local actor Sam Louwyck plays the male lead, adds further flavour from Flanders to the programme.
Waste Land is one of 12 feature films playing in official competition at Les Arcs this year and has a chance of winning the festival’s main prize, the Crystal Arrow.
