News

The Flanders government has announced the creation of Screen Flanders, a €5 million fund aimed at attracting international co-productions to the Flemish region. As an incentive to local spending, producers will be able to apply for up to €400,000. The new initiative is compatible with already existing support mechanisms such as the Belgian tax shelter.

With Screen Flanders, the Flanders government aims to provide additional financial support to productions with large expenditures in the Flemish region. This should encourage a rise in the number of co-productions shot and developed in Flanders and benefit the local film industry both in economic impact and cultural prestige.

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Flemish TV show De slimste mens ter wereld (The smartest person in the world) will relaunch in the Netherlands. A dutch version of the successful format already aired in 2006 and 2009 but broadcaster NCRV has decided to put the show up for a third season.

The successful original version was created by Flemish indie producer Woestijnvis, who also dreamed up the format of De mol (The Mole) which travelled the world. The annual quiz show that claims to search for the smartest person in the world features the biggest names on the Flemish scene - from media to entertainment to politics.

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Belgian independent production outfit Sputnik Media has announced the launch of a Dutch branch. In the Netherlands Sputnik Media will continue to promote its formats internationally and will start to develop formats specifically for the Dutch market.

Audiences in Flanders got to know Sputnik from unique formats such as Shifting Sands, a journey for a lifetime, where three couples  risk everything during a trip through Africa. The chance of a lifetime soon turns out to be a journey of shocking discoveries. But also documentary style reality shows such as The Beer Tour and Exotic Love. Sputnik is currently developing a local version of Exotic Love, under the title Love With a Capital ‘L’,for Dutch broadcaster SBS6.

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The BANFF World Media Awards have nominated an impressive total of five Flemish TV series for their prestigious competition. What if?, In Laughing Memory, How To?, Lucky 6 and Away to Compostela will each take on five other nominees from all over the world in their respective categories. The winners of the 2012 ‘Rockies’ will be presented during the BANFF World Media Festival (10-13 June).

Hugely popular sketch show What if? from production outfit Shelter, and deMensen’s In Laughing Memory have both been selected for the festival’s Comedy Programmes category. With two of the six nominations going to Flemish productions, it’s safe to say that the world is quickly discovering Flemish TV comedy. For What if?, it’s definitely not the first international recognition: the successful format was nominated for a Golden Rose earlier this year. What if? was produced for commercial broadcaster VMMA, while In Laughing Memory went to public broadcaster VRT.

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Flemish television series Missing Persons Unit and Red Sonja have been nominated for this year’s competition at the 52nd Monte Carlo Television Festival (10-14 June, Monaco). VRT documentary A Greater Act of Love is also chosen as a nominee, making all three productions likely candidates for one or more prestigious Golden Nymph statuettes.

Eyeworks’ successful drama series Missing Persons Unit, with a fourth season already in production, faces 29 contenders in the category Drama TV Series. Eight-part TV series Red Sonja is joining the Monaco line-up too and will be competing in the Comedy TV Series section.

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Broadcaster Arte has teamed up with the six northern European television channels that joined forces on producing the transmedia mystery The Spiral, Flemish public broadcasting network VRT being one of them. The Franco-German arts channel will diffuse the tv series in four supplementary territories.

The production of The Spiral, a five-part drama series, unites six northern European networks while the storyline follows an equally international group of artists who get entangled in a crime investigation after one of them mysteriously disappears during an art heist.

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Couleurs Carolo, a case of transmedia story marketing, was announced the Intermedia Globe Silver Award Winner at the WorldMediaFestival in Hamburg. Produced by Flemish production outfit SanctaMedia, the multipartner project was also broadcast as a docureality TV series by RTBF last summer.

Belgium’s most notorious post-industrial city Charleroi was stigmatized as ugliest city in the world by an Internet poll some years ago. As a story marketing endeavour for AkzoNobel’s paint brand Levis, SanctaMedia created six colourful storylines across the city.

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During a business lunch attended by representatives of the Flemish television sector at Miptv (1-4 April), Flemish Minister of Media Ingrid Lieten announced the launch of a new thinktank. The Minister’s visit to Miptv and the new initiative underline her ongoing commitment to encourage the creation of strong and original fiction, documentary and animation series in Flanders.

The thinktank concept, inspired by a comparable initiative in Helsinki, should present the sector with new ideas and at the same time create a platform that encourages creativity. The rough outline of the project consists of a small group of around eight to twelve experts from different countries, backgrounds, disciplines and professional activities who isolate themselves completely for approximately five days. The aim is to put heads together around a specific domain or topic and to come to a clear analysis and formulate a number of recommendations.

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Jan Eelen’s successful tv series The Tour has been selected for competition at the Series Mania Festival (16 - 22 April) in Paris, France. The festival for promising TV series, organized by the prestigious Forum des Images, also invited no less than three Eyeworks productions for its line-up. Double Life, The Divine Monster and Old Belgium will feature in the fest’s ‘professional showcase.’

The Forum des Images, one of the cinema hot spots in Paris and France, launched the Series Mania Festival in 2010. The series in official competition at the festival, amongst them Jan Eelen’s The Tour, are now in the running for the fest’s much desired Audience Award.

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Studio 100 Media has announced the sale of 52 x 10' animated series Florrie's Dragons to German children's channel Ki.KA. The deal gives Ki.KA exclusive German TV rights for the series for five and a half years.

Based on the immensely popular children's books by show creator and director An Vrombaut (64 Zoo Lane), and targeted at three-to-six-year-olds, Florrie's Dragons had previously sold to Disney for the UK. Producers are Wish Films UK, Clockwork Zoo and Studio 100 Animation.

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