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Madly in Love to open Ghent

Hilde Van Mieghem’s romantic comedy Madly in Love is to have its world premiere as opening attraction of the 37th Ghent Film Festival (12-23 October). Van Mieghem is the seventh Belgian director – but the first female local filmmaker – to open the fest.

Koen Mortier’s 22nd of May to debut in Toronto

Koen Mortier’s 22nd of May has been selected for the Contemporary World Cinema programme of the Toronto International Film Festival (9-19 September) where the film is to have its world premiere. Earlier this month, Ben Stassen’s 3D animation film Sammy’s Adventures: The Secret Passage and Nanouk Leopold’s co-production Brownian Movement, were confirmed for the Sprockets Family Zone and the Visions programme respectively.

Sammy’s Adventures: The Toronto Passage

Ben Stassen’s Sammy’s Adventures: The Secret Passage has been selected for this year’s Sprockets Family Zone of the Toronto International Film Festival (9-19 September). The film is to have its North American premiere at the 35th edition of the Canadian fest.

First Flanders Film Awards nominations announced

With its seven nominations, Felix van Groeningen’s Cannes 2009 Directors’ Fortnight entry The Misfortunates (De helaasheid der dingen) leads the nominations list for this year’s inaugural edition of the Flanders Film Awards. Caroline Strubbe’s Lost Persons Area and Dorothée van den Berge’s My Queen Karo follow with six and five noms respectively. The winners will be announced on 10 September in Ostend.

Flanders four at Montreal World Film Festival

Kadir Balci’s Turquaze and Hans Herbots’ Bo have been selected for the 34th Montreal World Film Festival. Hans Van Nuffel, whose feature debut, Oxygen, secured a berth in the fest’s World Competition last month, will also have his latest short Nighthawks screen at Montreal. This brings the total number of Flemish titles up to four.

Nicolas Provost's Long Live the New Flesh wins in Melbourne

Nicolas Provost’s Long Live the New Flesh has taken the Award for Best Experimental Short at the International Film Festival of Melbourne (22 July-8 August). This means that the film is automatically longlisted for next year's Oscar for Best Short. Provost's newest short, Stardust, will be unveiled at this year's revamped Orizzonti section at Venice. (See separate story)

Bo awards bonanza at Giffoni

Hans Herbots’ Bo received three awards at the 40th Giffoni Experience (18-31 July). An important festival for young people's films, Giffoni sets itself apart by its large jury of 300 young people between the age of 16 and 18. Bo walked away with the CIAL Alumunium Award, the Crystal Gryphon Award and the Prize of the Province of Salerno.

Stardust to sparkle in Venice

Stardust, Nicolas Provost's new short, has been selected for this year's revamped Orizzonti competition at the 67th Venice International Film Festival (1-11 September). The prestigious invitation follows Provost's selection for Berlin earlier this year (with his short Long Live the New Flesh) and once again demonstrates the enormous visual talent of this Flanders-born filmmaker.

Three Belgian films in Locarno

Vanja d’Alcantara’s Beyond the Steppes, Alex Stockman’s Pulsar and Jonas Baeckeland’s short Twelve Going on to Sixty have been selected for the International Film Festival of Locarno (4-14 August). While Beyond the Steppes is selected for International Competition, Pulsar will be competing in the Filmmakers of the Present section. Twelve Going on to Sixty will screen in the Short Film Competition.

Memee on festival tour

Evelyn Verschoore’s animated short Memee is set to hit the road for a series of international film fests. The film has already been confirmed for – in chronological order – the International Animation Festivals of Brazil (16 July-1 September), Hiroshima (7-11 August) and Fantoche (7-12 September).

Montr�al to get first taste of Oxygen

Hans Van Nuffel’s Oxygen is to have its world premiere at the prestigious World Film Festival of Montreal on 28 August. The film is selected in competition and will be contending for the Grand Prix des Amériques.

Double bill in Bardonecchia for Visualantics

Two projects developed at Visualantics are to be presented at this year’s ‘Doc in Europe Forum’ (7-10 July) in Bardonecchia, Italy. At the event, producers get a chance to pitch their project to a number of key European commissioning editors.