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Subscribe to the RSS feedFlanders quartet of shorts receives VAF support
The Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF) confirmed funding for a new batch of short-length fiction films. Four titles received production support, among them new shorts by a.o. Sahim Omar Kalifa, director of the critically acclaimed Land of the Heroes, and filmmaker Julie De Clercq.
Kalifa's new project Baghdad Al-Riyadi, for which he received € 60,000 production support, is once again situated against the backdrop of Iraq.
Award bonanza for Oh Willy
Emma de Swaef and Marc James Roels’s Oh Willy… recently won two awards in as many days. The animated short won the Jury Award at the Brussels Short Film Festival (27 April-6 May) and Best Animated Short Film at the International Festival of Animated Films (Anifilm, 3-8 May) in Trebon, Czech Republic.
After the selections at Clermont-Ferrand and Annecy earlier this year, Oh Willy... is definitely on a roll. The short already has two more festivals lined up in Italy and Germany and even more impressive, the film is currently on tour in Japan. Oh Willy… was invited by director Atsushi Wada, who won a Golden Bear at the Berlinale with The Great Rabbit, to join the Japanese tour. The screenings are organised by CALF, a newly established indie label promoting animated shorts by independent filmmakers.
A Flemish touch to Belgian festival bills
This week, the Open Doek Festival (20 – 29 April) kicked off in Turnhout, while Leuven is getting ready for the 8th edition of the International Documentary Festival DOCVILLE (27 April – 5 May). Both programs house a large selection of Flemish titles, ranging from Daniel Lambo’s Dry Branches of Iran to Berlinale attendees Anton Corbijn Inside Out andAsparragos.
For the eighth consecutive year, DOCVILLE highlights the best documentaries and awards prizes in various sections. This year, Flanders is well represented in its national competition with more than ten short and feature-length film titles.
Two Flemish shorts in Cannes line-up
Emilie Verhamme’s short film Cockaigne is to screen in the Competition of the 65th Festival de Cannes (16-27 May), while Leni Huyghe’s Matteus has been selected for the fest’s Cinéfondation competition. Both films are graduation projects of the Sint-Lukas Brussels University College of Art and Design.
In Cockaigne (13’), Emilie Verhamme depicts the tale of a Ukrainian father and his two sons Andriy and Oleksander. Hiding in coffins, they travel from Kiev to Brussels in search of a better life.
Brothers and The Letter in line for Student Academy Awards
Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah’s short film Brothers and Kenneth Mercken’s The Letter will represent Flanders at this year’s 39th Student Academy Awards. On 9 June the winners of the Student Awards, aka the Oscars for best student films, will be announced during an awards ceremony at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
In total, 51 entries from 29 different countries are competing in the Best Foreign Student Film category. 518 entries from students representing 105 US colleges and universities are challenging each other in the categories Alternative, Animation, Documentary and Narrative.
Land of the Heroes director pitches in Dubai
Director Sahim Omar Kalifa was recently selected for the Gulf Script Market for short films in Dubai (10 – 16 April) with his new short Baghdad Sport Club (Baghdad Al-Riyadi). The selected projects – out of over 100 submissions – were invited to Dubai for a number of mentoring and pitching sessions with local professionals.
The script market for short film is a new initiative of the Gulf Film Festival. In Dubai, the 14 selected filmmakers went through a rigorous mentoring session led by amongst others Egyptian director and scriptwriter Mohamed Khan. Following the three-day exercise, the scriptwriters returned to take the spotlight, presenting their newly polished scripts to an audience of industry professionals for potential opportunities to convert the scripts into films.
Beach trip for Flemish quartet
Four Flemish productions entered the official competition at the Newport Beach Film Festival in Orange County, California (26 April-3 May). The Spring of Cesar, Land of the Heroes and Swimsuit 46 screen in the shorts section, while A Cat in Paris will be showcased as part of a limited collection of animation features.
Before its Newport Beach outing, The Spring of Cesar screened at the International Short Film Festival Leuven, where it received an honourable mention. Sahim Omar Kalifa’s Land of the Heroes, Wannes Destoop’s Swimsuit 46 and the 2012 Oscar-nominated A Cat in Paris are no strangers to the international festival circuit either.
Mouse for Sale crosses the Atlantic
Wouter Bongaerts’ Mouse for Sale has been selected for the Toronto International Film Festival Kids (TIFF Kids, 10-22 April). The screening is part of the festival’s Loot Bag programme featuring ‘international animated adventures’. The public section offers a collection of imaginative stories showcasing a diverse range of animation styles.
In Mouse For Sale, directed and produced by Wouter Bongaerts, Snickers, a lonely mouse in a petshop, desperately wants someone to buy him. But he’s got one big problem: his huge ears. The kids entering the store keep laughing at him. Bongaerts graduated cum laude with Mouse For Sale at the Media, Arts & Design Academy in Genk, Belgium.
Oh Willy grabs Grand Prize at HAFF
Emma de Swaef and Marc James Roels’s Oh Willy… has won the Grand Prix HAFF Shorts at the Holland Animation Film Festival (28 March-1 April). The Belgian-French-Dutch co-production was in the limelight earlier this year at the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival and this summer the film will screen at the International Animation Film Festival of Annecy (4-9 June). Besides Oh Willy, Arjan Wilschut's Farmer Jack also grabbed the fest's Audience Award.
The jury of the Dutch festival praised Oh Willy… for its cinematographic quality and ‘strong direction with a complete atmosphere and a strong sense of design’. In the short-stop motion animation film, fifty-something Willy returns to the naturist community where he spent his youth to visit his dying mother. When she dies shortly after he arrives, Willy is confronted with the choices he made in his life.
Swimsuit 46 lands soundtrack award
The jury of the Aubagne International Film Festival (19-24 March) in France has awarded the Prix Fiction in its short film programme to the soundtrack of Swimsuit 46. The Aubagne International Film Festival, a festival unique in its focus on film scores and the connection between image and music, was organized for the 30th time this year.
The score for Swimsuit 46 was written by Amatorski, a Flemish alternative music band. On their website, the group's sound is described as “echoed by Portishead, Massive Attack, Sparkehorse, Ornette Coleman or the gloomy children's song from Eraserhead”.