Labyrinthus

Following the recent award wins for Labyrinthus in São Paulo and Chicago, Douglas Boswell’s family adventure has won another two, this time in India. The film was awarded the Golden Elephant - the Grand Prize of the Children’s Jury – at the International Children’s Film Festival in Hyderabad (14-20 November).  It also picked up the Second Prize of the Adult Jury.

Douglas Boswell’s debut feature premiered at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, followed by a blossoming international festival career that included stops in Cleveland and Edinburgh and awards in São Paulo, Chemnitz, Giffoni and Chicago.

Douglas Boswell’s family adventure Labyrinthus has won two awards at the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival (23 October – 1 November). The film not only won the Children’s Jury Prize, one of the main awards of the Festival, but was also handed a prize by the Adult Jury.

Director Douglas Boswell accepted the Children’s Jury Prize and was called to the stage a second time to be handed the Second Prize for Live Action Feature Film by the Adult Jury.

Douglas Boswell’s debut feature Labyrinthus won the Gryphon Award for Best Feature Film in the +10 section of the Giffoni Film Festival in Italy (17-26 July). The Amazing Wiplala, a Dutch-Flemish co-production, took the second prize in the +6 programme. Both films were backed by Screen Flanders.

Labyrinthus tells the story of 14-year-old Frikke who discovers a computer game in which the protagonists are real children. To play or not to play is the question, especially if the fate of loved ones is at stake.

Halfway, Waste Land, Labyrinthus and Violet have all been selected for the Cleveland International Film Festival (18-29 March). Also in the line-up are short film Wien for Life, together with Alleluia, Ne me quitte pas and Above Us All, three co-productions with Flanders.

Halfway, the sixth feature of Come As You Are director Geoffrey Enthoven and scripted by Pierre De Clercq, will be presented in Cleveland’s After Hours programme. In Halfway, Stephen moves into the luxury home he managed to buy at a rock-bottom price. But his peace is soon disturbed by Theo, who claims to be the rightful owner. But Theo, it turns out, died two years ago.

Waste Land and Alleluia are part of the same section. Previously presented in Toronto, Les Arcs and Austin, Pieter Van Hees’s Waste Land is about taciturn homicide detective Leo Woeste, whose very last homicide case slowly drags him deeper into the grim underbelly of Brussels. Eurydice Gysel and Koen Mortier produced the film for Epidemic (Borgman, Rivers Return).

Douglas Boswell’s feature film debut Labyrinthus has won the Youth Award for Best International Film at the São Paulo International Film Festival in Brazil (16-29 October), with Brazilian media giant Globo picking up the rights for the film.

The International Film Festival of São Paulo screened Labyrinthus as part of its Youth Festival, a five-day event showcasing films for a younger audience. Boswell’s debut took the Festival’s top prize as Best International Film.