18/09/2015 - With debut films set to open and close the gathering, the Namur Film Festival has opted to celebrate its 30th anniversary by looking to the future

The 30^th edition of the Namur International French-Language Film Festival (FIFF) has taken up the challenge of glorifying young creativity by making some bold programming choices. Both the festival’s opening and closing films will be debut works: Prejudice [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Antoine Cuypers
film profile] by Antoine Cuypers (Belgium) will kick things off, and I’m All Yours [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Baya Kasmi (France) will bring the event to a close. But the festival is also about loyalty, as Cuypers, who formed part of one of its young juries, won an award there for his first short film, A New Old Story, and came to hone the screenplay of his feature debut during the follow-up to the Atelier Grand Nord workshop. Meanwhile, Baya Kasmi took part in that same workshop for The Names of Love [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], a film she co-wrote.

Besides its traditional competitions, this 30^th edition of the gathering promises to be an exceptional one for Belgian debut features. Indeed, audiences will be able to discover no fewer than five first features: Parasol [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Valéry Rosier, Je me tue à le dire [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Xavier Seron
film profile] by Xavier Seron (read the article), Beyond Here [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Hugo Bousquet, Keeper [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
interview: Guillaume Senez ­
interview: Kacey Mottet Klein
film profile] by Guillaume Senez and the aforementioned Prejudice.

In the official competition, we find two Romanian films, Aferim! [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Radu Jude
film profile] by Radu Jude (who snagged the Silver Bear for this film at Berlin, and who won the Bayard d’Or at the FIFF in 2012 for Everybody in Our Family [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Radu Jude
film profile]) and The Magic Mountain [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Anca Damian, an animated documentary, and three French movies, Tempête [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Samuel Collardey (whose The Apprentice took home the Special Jury Prize and the Best Debut Feature Award at the FIFF in 2008), Childhood [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Philippe Claudel and L’Hermine [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Christian Vincent, for which Fabrice Lucchini recently received the Best Actor Award at Venice. There will also be two Swiss films present: Vanity [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lionel Baier
film profile] by Lionel Baier, a regular at the festival, and Horizontes [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], a documentary by Eileen Hofer. Welcome Home [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], the second feature by Philippe de Pierpont, will be flying the flag for Belgium, along with the documentary Our City by Maria Tarantino.

Don’t miss the festival, which takes place from 2-9 October in Namur.

(Translated from French)