21/10/2011

These last few days have been extremely fruitful for Belgian films. Selected all over the world (and even in Belgium!), they have brought home a cluster of new accolades. Last weekend, we were reminded of Kill Me Please by Olias Barco (pictured) when it won the Dark Fiction Motion Picture Diploma in the Noves Visions (New Visions) section at the Sitges International Fantasy Film Festival, which is specialised in genre cinema. As a reminder, the film also received the top prize at Rome Film Festival last autumn.

Also last weekend, Vanja d'Alcantara nabbed Best Director at the Skip City International Digital Cinema Festival in Saitama in Japan. This is an award with an exotic flavour for Beyond the Steppes, which traces the journey of a young woman across Siberia during the Second World War, in search of medicine for her young sick son. The film, presented in world premiere at Locarno, scooped the Jury Prize at the Marrakech Film Festival, and Best Actress for Agnieszka Grochowska at the latest Vlaamse Filmprijzen (Flanders Film Awards).

At the beginning of October, Michael R. Roskam’s highly acclaimed Bullhead [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bart Van Langendonck
interview: Michaël R. Roskam
film profile], Belgium’s official representative in the race for the 2012 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, swept up three prizes at the Austin Fantastic Film Festival: Best Film, Best Director and Best Actor!

Finally this Wednesday, Nicolas Provost’s debut feature, The Invader [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
film profile], triumphed at the Ghent International Film Festival, earning Best Actor for impressive thesp Issaka Sawadogo, and the Delerue Award for Best Score. Selected at Venice, Toronto and San Sebastian, the film was shown in Belgian avant-premiere. Moreover, it also received the Jo Röpke Prize for Best Young Flemish Director, awarded by Knack magazine. Distributed by O’Brother, and produced by Versus, the film will be released on November 23 in Belgium.

(Translated from French)