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Subscribe to the RSS feedTwo Flemish shorts on Paris silver screen
With Useful and Beats Of Love, the 7th ECU European Independent Film Festival (30 March- 1 April) in Paris gives a bill to two Flemish shorts. French-speaking Belgium is also represented at the fest with Filip Lamensch’s short dramedy About a Spoon.
Useful, directed by Inti Calfat, follows the struggles of an under-pressure couple. What happens when a woman can no longer prove intimately useful to herself or her husband? Although it deeply pains her, she encourages her husband to seek the comfort of another woman, a prostitute. Beats of Love is a school project by Wim Geudens. The short film is about a man obsessed by sounds.
Animation talent invited to Anima
Five animated shorts from Flanders are running in the national competition of Anima (17-26 February), the annual animation celebration that takes place in Brussels. Five more films are screening in a Belgian panorama, while co-production The Monster of Nix by Rosto receives a special screening.
Anima is showcasing a wide variety of animation talent from Flanders this year. In the national competition, there's Bruno Wouters' Daddy, Don’t Forget Your Glasses, Roman Klochkov's Natasha, Boris Sverlow's VAF Wildcard-winning Shattered Past, Yves Bex's The Appointment and Tristan Morelle's The Secret Child.
Land of the Heroes takes on Tampere
Sahim Omar Kalifa’s short Land of the Heroes has been selected for the Tampere Film Festival (7-11 March). The selection is just the latest of 55 official invitations the film has received, including festivals such as the Worldwide Short Film Festival Toronto, the I’ve Seen Films Festival in Milan and the Curta Cinema Festival in Rio de Janeiro.
The short has also won numerous awards along the way, most notably the awards for Best Film and Best Cinematography at the South Korean Busan International Short Film Festival, and the Generation Kplus International Jury Award at the Berlin International Film Festival. Last December, the film grabbed its ninth award, the Muhr Arab Second Jury Prize, worth $10,000, at the Dubai International Film Festival.
Swimsuit 46 reaches milestone 30th festival selection
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.
Cinequest features five from Flanders
Guy Lee Thys’ new feature Mixed Kebab and Geoffrey Enthoven’s award-winning Come As You Are have been selected for the Cinequest Film Festival (28 February-11 March) in California. Three shorts also made it to the pioneering fest's final line-up: Kevin Meul’s The Extraordinary Life of Rocky, Boris Sverlow’s Shattered Past and Nicolas Daenens’ 27.
Mixed Kebab, which will premiere internationally in the Global Landscapes Competition of the festival, is praised by Cinequest’s Terra Wood for the way the ‘electrifying and multicultural cast brilliantly captures courage, tolerance and the beauty of love conquering hate’. Geoffrey Enthoven returns to Cinequest after his previous feature The Over the Hill Band was presented as part of the 2010 edition of the fest.
Fantasporto features four filmmakers from Flanders
The 32nd 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.
Five Flemish talents to Berlin
Jonas Baeckeland, Peter Connely, Kevin Meul, Sieber Marly and Olivier Van Den Broeck have been invited to the tenth edition of the Berlinale Talent Campus (11-16 February). Each of the five participants is a rising talent in their field.
Peter Connely attended Berlin last year with his Berlinale Shorts entry Back by Six, which was selected for the Berlinale Shorts Competition. Other directors invited are Jonas Baeckeland (Blauwhuys, Twelve Going on to Sixty) and Kevin Meul, who recently grabbed the Meeting Point Award for Best Short Film at the Valladolid International Film Festival with The Extraordinary Life of Rocky.
Oh Willy...
Texture has a special role in the animated short film Oh Willy..., which was selected to compete at the Clermont-Ferrand international short film festival in January. The puppets and sets are made of wool, felt and other fabrics, from fine llama fleece to old couch stuffing. This gives the film a soft, tactile atmosphere that complements its strange and touching story.
Fifty-something Willy, plump and ill-at-ease, returns to the naturist community where he grew up to visit his dying mother. This brings back memories, not all of them pleasant, which build into an emotional crisis when his mother finally passes away. Distraught, he wanders in the woods at night, coming face to face with his fears, but also finding an unusual source of comfort. (trailer)
Flemish producer joins Rotterdam Lab
Flemish producer Jules Debrock will be joining 77 young film producers for the 12th edition of Rotterdam Lab, a CineMart event for emerging producers. The event takes place during the International Film Festival Rotterdam from 28 January till 1 February.
Jules Debrock’s production company Pain Perdu proved their talent with their work on Moon Blaisse’s graduation film Sometime Later which won at Geneva’s Cinéma Tous Ecrans Festival last year. The film also earned the director a VAF Wildcard, an award aimed at giving recently graduated filmmaking talent a chance to embark on a first professional project.
Clermont-Ferrand selects shorts from Flanders
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.
