26/03/2014 - 2013 was a record-breaking year for production, in terms of both projects supported and projects released, despite disappointing attendance levels

According to the CCA - Film and Audiovisual Centre, in 2013, 44 feature films, a record figure, were recognised as being Belgian: these included eight 100% Belgian features, usually funded to a limited extent, and 11 majority co-productions. Two elements of their funding should be highlighted: the share of the Tax Shelter has been decreasing for several years, while the producers’ share has been rising. What might seem to be beneficial on paper is, of course, misleading, as the producers’ share often constitutes investments that depend on the film's box-office success, or services in kind. Underlining the urgency for Belgian cinema of the reform currently taking place within the Tax Shelter, it can be noted that only 18% of the amounts raised in 2013 under the Tax Shelter were dedicated to majority Belgian films (in cultural terms), as against 29% only two years previously, in 2011.

The support provided by the Film Committee was mainly given to 20 fiction features at the writing stage and 27 in production, including the highly anticipated upcoming titles by the Dardenne brothers (Two Days, One Night – read the article), Joachim Lafosse (Les Chevaliers Blancs [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Joachim Lafosse
film profile] – article), Bouli Lanners (Les premiers et les derniers – article), and Fiona Gordon and Dominique Abel (Lost in Paris [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon
film profile] – article).

It’s no secret that 2013 turned out to be a “hollow” year, in the words of the director of the CCA, far from 2012’s very impressive attendance figures, thanks mainly to the success of Ernest & Celestine [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Benjamin Renner, Vincent Pa…
film profile]. Even though French-language Belgian films have continued to garner festival awards (130 of them) and have performed well in terms of selections (Henri [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Yolande Moreau
film profile] at Cannes, The Strange Colour of Your Body’s Tears [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and My Friend Vijay [+see also:
trailer
interview: Sam Garbarski
film profile] at Locarno), theatre admissions have, frankly, not been amazing. A total of 22 French-language Belgian films came out in Belgian cinemas and 11 in French theatres, giving a total audience of 602,703.

Interestingly, 2013 saw the formation of a partnership between the Wallonia-Brussels Federation and the RTBF, which took the form of a fund worth €2.78 million, intended to fully support the production of four annual series of ten episodes each. It is hoped that dynamic exchanges will be created between the big and the small screen thanks to this partnership.

(Translated from French)