This September, Jeroen Bogaert’s Early Birds will screen at no less than four festivals. The short will visit San Francisco, Cambridge, Atlanta and finally San Sebastián, where Early Birds has been selected for the International Film students Meeting. To top it all off, the film has also been confirmed for the 56th BFI London Film Festival.
Early Birds had its world premiere earlier this year at the Palm Springs International Shortfest. Some months after its screening in California, the short is still picking up invitations worldwide. At the London Film Festival (10-21 October) Early Birds is one of six movies programmed in the Back To School: Student Film from London section.
After growing up in Ghent, Bogaert graduated from the RITS Academy in Brussels in 2007 and from the London Film School in 2011, where Early Birds was his graduation film. In Early Birds, a 12-year-old girl, Mila, shares a very curious bond with her coach and next door neighbour, which comes to a head one early morning as he prepares to leave, bound for a new home in Italy. Main roles are shared by Szaga Lauwers, Tom Van Bauwel and Frank Vercruyssen. Bogaert is currently working on a feature film project.