NWS
On the occasion of its 50th anniversary, Film Fest Gent invited twenty-five filmmakers and another twenty-five composers to produce, in pairs, a short film of no more than four minutes.
Among others, renowned composers such as Howard Shore, Florencia Di Concilia, Shigeru Umebayashi and Patrick Doyle signed up, as did established directors Terence Davies, Radu Jude, Paul Schrader, Jia Zhangke, Naomi Kawase and up-and-coming talents such as Jacqueline Lentzou, Meltse Van Coillie, Juanita Onzaga, Diana Cam Van Nguyen and Sine & Imge Özbilge.
The results will be screened at the festival, which this year takes place from the 10th to the 21st of October. Which filmmaker was paired with which composer will be announced at a later date.
Last weekend, several filmmakers were honored with awards at the 26th edition of the Brussels Short Film Festival. For the first time, Kortfilm.be also handed out a recognition, which went to the KASK graduation film La Chute by Sebastian Schaevers. With this, Kortfilm.be acquires the worldwide, non-exclusive rights of the film for online distribution.
In the national competition, the Grand Prix was won by Jérémy Depuydt and Giuseppe Accardo for their film Pina. The jury prize was given to Alice et les soleils by Théo Degen and Charlotte Muller. Discover the festival's full palmares here.
Britt Raes' short film Luce and the Rock won the Best European Short Film for Children Award at the EFCA during Berlinale 2023.
Light by Sarah Lederman won the Ensor for Best Short Film, a portrait of the 13 years old Julie who lost both her parents at a young age. A Ket & Doc production.
Five Belgian short films are nominated in the category Best Short Film. Those are: Red Giant by Anne Verbeure, Luce and the Rock by Britt Raes, The Fruit Tree by Isabelle Tollenaere, Light by Sarah Lederman and Nocturnus by Harm Dens and Meltse Van Coillie. The ceremony will take place on February 4th. Read more here.
Two Belgian short films have been selected for the Short & Mid-length-section of International Film Festival Rotterdam: E6-D7 by Eno Swinnen and Speech for a Disappearing Statue by Collectif Faire-part. The 52nd edition of IFFR kicks off on the 25th of January and ends on February 5th, 2023.
Short Film Festival Leuven 2022 is a wrap! During the awards ceremony, the jury awarded Noisetrain by Pol De Plecker with the prize for Best Flemish Short Film, as well as with the Jury Award for Best Cinematography, for the work of director of photography Wannes Vanspauwen.
The Audience Award in the Flemish Fiction Competition went to Portrait of a Disappearing Woman by Nelson Polfliet and the Jury Prize for Best Debut went to Merci pour votre patience! by Simon van der Zande. The Jury Award for Best Acting Performance was won by Jennifer Heylen for her role in Klette by Michael Abay.
The prize for Best Debut within the Flemish Documentary Competition went to La Marelle by Laura De Baudringhien. She won the la Guarimba Award: a ten-day film residency in Calabria, Southern Italy. The Jury chose The Fruit Tree by Isabelle Tollenaere as Best Short Documentary in the Flemish Competition. In the Flemish Animation Competition, the audience chose the heartwarming Luce and the rock by Britt Raes as the big favourite.
In the European competition, the jury awarded Zoon by German Jonatan Schwenk. The jury also nominated Zoon for the European Film Awards 2023. For Academy Award qualification in the live action fiction category, the jury selected FAIRPLAY by Zoel Aeschbacher. Within the European Competition, the audience fell in love with João Gonzalez's warm and touching animated film Ice Merchants. Nest by Hlynur Pálmason was the peer favourite.
Earlier, the Humo audience already chose La chute by Sebastian Schaevers as the winner of the Humo Award. The Press Award in the Flemish fiction competition went to Noisetrain by Pol De Plecker, who turned out to be the big winner of the festival.
The recipients of the VAF Wildcards have been announced at Short Film Festival Leuven. These annual prizes for the best graduation projects at Flemish film schools were awarded for the 18th time by the Flemish Audiovisual Fund (VAF). The winners of the Wildcards 2022 are Michael Abay (Klette), Evi Cats (Les murs qui crient), Julie Verstraten (Inertia) and Brahim Tall (Tukuleur) in the categories Fiction, Documentary, Animation and Filmlab, respectively. With a total value of €200 000, the VAF Wildcards are the biggest film awards in the country and a springboard to a career as a professional filmmaker.
The winning films will be screened twice more at Short Film Festival Leuven in the coming week. Wildcards on Tour will follow in 2023, where the winning films will be screened all over Flanders as one short film programme. De Cinema in Antwerp, Cinema ZED Hasselt and Leuven, Netwerk Aalst and Sphinx Cinema will screen the Wildcards on Tour. In addition, the VAF Wildcards will also be shown at Filmfestival Oostende and Brussels Short Film Festival.
On Friday December 2nd, Short Film Festival Leuven will kick off its 28th edition. Next to the competition sections, special programmes will focus on Denmark, artificial intelligence (AI) and special guests Veerle Baetens and Marc James Roels. On Friday December 9th, Kortfilm.be will present its 'best of the festival' selection — tickets already on sale here. Discover the full festival programme here.
At the end of Film Fest Gent's short film weekend, the jury and audience handed out their awards. Finn's Heel by Cato Kusters (RITCS) was awarded the jury prize for Best Belgian Student Short. The audience chose Merci pour votre patience! by Simon van der Zande (KASK) as their favourite. Buurman Abdi by Douwe Dijkstra and Abdiwahab Ali won the main prize in the international short film competition, after previously also winning two major awards at the Locarno Film Festival in August. Read more about it here.
Kortfilm.be launches its very own curated collection of short films, with room for fiction and non-fiction, animation and video art, experimentation and crossovers. The films in this collection are available individually via video on demand, with English and Dutch subtitles. You can also subscribe: for €25 you get access to the full catalog for a whole year. Read more about it here.
The 21st edition of Pink Screens, Brussels' Queer Film Festival, is taking place from the 10th until 19th of November. Several short film programmes will be shown. Discover more about the full line-up.
The 10th edition of Breedbeeld Kortfilmfestival will take place from the 3rd until the 6th of November at De Cinema in Antwerp. The full programme has now been announced. On Saturday the 5th, Kortfilm.be will present a guest programme. Read more about the festival.