04/02/2013 - Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress and Best Editing, all highly-deserved awards for Our Children by Joachim Lafosse

The 3^rd edition of the Magritte Film Awards was held in Brussels on Saturday night. After two first editions which did not solicit unanimous positive reactions (on either form or substance), this 3rd edition, brilliantly presented by comedian Fabrizio Rongione, certainly succeeded in seducing skeptics.

The prize-list quite logically endorsed the consecration of Joachim Lafosse’s fifth film. The Best Film prize was awarded to a biting and moving movie, aptly and modestly capturing an extraordinarily monstrous act to unveil its very ordinary mechanisms. The Best Director award confirms the status of Lafosse, whose name is inscribed at the bottom of the list of great Belgian directors, a few lines away from the Dardenne brothers, whose role as referents he warmly praised during the press conference. The Best Actress prize could not have gone to anyone but Emilie Dequenne, already distinguished in Cannes (Un Certain Regard). As for the Best Editing award, it marks the very successful collaboration between Sophie Vercruysse and Lafosse.

The Best Actor award went to Olivier Gourmet for his impeccable role in The Minister (Best Coproduction and Best Sound). Three other movies led the list of nominations alongside Our Children. Lucas Belvaux, moved and surprised, was awarded the Best Screenplay prize for 38 Witnesses, a fitting reward for his adaptation of Didier Decoin’s novel. François Pirot’s first film Mobile Home won the Best Female Newcomer and Best Original Soundtrack awards. Dead Man Talking by Patrick Ridremont, surprise leader in the battle for nominations, had to settle for Best Production Design.

The award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role went to Yolande Moreau, who presided the ceremony, for Camille Rewinds, and the prize for Best Male Newcomer to David Murgia (discovered in Bullhead [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bart Van Langendonck
interview: Michaël R. Roskam
film profile]), who puts in a sensational peformance in La Tête la Première [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Amélie Van Elmbt. Finally, Bouli Lanners, champion of the previous edition (Best Film and Best Director for The Giants [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
interview: Bouli Lanners
film profile]), won the award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in Rust & Bone. For the second consecutive year, it is therefore the Liège-based company, Versus Productions (Our Children), which dominates the Magritte Awards. Bets are already open for next year...

Prize list

Best Film: 
Our Children [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Joachim Lafosse
film profile] by Joachim Lafosse (Versus productions)

Best Director: 
Joachim Lafosse for Our Children

Best Actress: 
Emilie Dequenne for Our Children

Best Actor: 
Olivier Gourmet for The Minister [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pierre Schoeller
film profile]

Best Screenplay: 
Lucas Belvaux for 38 Witnesses [+see also:
trailer
film profile]

Best Foreign Film in coproduction: 
The Minister by Pierre Schoeller (Les Films du Fleuve)

Best Flemish Film in coproduction: 
Time of My Life [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Nic Balthazar (Entre chien et loup)

Best Actress in a Supporting Role: 
Yolande Moreau in Camille Rewinds [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]

Best Actor in a Supporting Role: 
Bouli Lanners in Rust & Bone [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jacques Audiard
interview: Jacques Audiard
film profile]

Best Female Newcomer: 
Anne-Pascale Clairembourg in Mobile Home [+see also:
trailer
film profile]

Best Male Newcomer: 
David Murgia in La Tête la Première

Best Image: 
Hichame Alaouie for Last Winter [+see also:
trailer
interview: John Shank
film profile]

Best Production Design: 
Alina Santos for Dead Man Talking [+see also:
trailer
film profile]

Best Costumes: 
Florence Laforge for Le Grand Soir [+see also:
trailer
film profile]

Best Sound: 
Julie Brenta and Olivier Hespel for The Minister

Best Editing: 
Sophie Vercruysse for Our Children

Best Original Soundtrack: 
Coyote, Renaud Mayeur, François Petit and Michaël de Zanet for Mobile Home

Best Short Film: 
Le Cri du Homard de Nicolas Guiot (produced by Ultime Razzia and Hélicotronc)

Best Documentary: 
Le Thé ou l’Electricité by Jérôme Le Maire (produced by Iota Productions)

(Translated from French)