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AWARDS Belgium

The Boat Race wins over Angers audiences

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The 22nd Premiers Plans Film Festival in Angers has just closed, revealing the prize-winners chosen by its jury, presided by Belgium’s Lucas Belvaux.

Although the jury gave top honours to Italian and Bulgarian films (see news), the audience opted for the debut feature by a compatriot of Belvaux. Winning the Audience Award for Best European Feature, Bernard Bellefroid’s The Boat Race [+see also:
trailer
interview: Bernard Bellefroid, directo…
film profile
]
thus confirms its popularity among viewers.

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The film previously won the Audience Award, and the Junior Jury Prize, at the latest Namur International Francophone Film Festival. The film having been partly shot in Namur, this success could have been seen as favouritism, but the positive response from Angers audiences backs up the enthusiasm shown by viewers at Namur.

The Boat Race centres on 15-year-old Alex, who uses rowing as an outlet from the beatings he suffers at the hands of his single-parent father. The love of young Muriel, and the positive masculine example set by his coach, will enable Alex to escape from the unending cycle of violence.

New discovery, young actor Joffrey Verbuggen (previously seen in Unspoken [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, and soon to grace screens in Black Box), heads a strong cast including Sergi Lopez as the coach, and Belgian theatre actor Thierry Hancisse (member of the Comédie Française) as the father.

A three-way co-production between Belgium (Artémis Productions), Luxembourg (Samsa Film) and France (Une Liaison Cinématographique), the film received backing from the Belgian French Community Film Centre, Film Fund Luxembourg, Eurimages and the CNC.

The film, which also won the CNC’s Best Debut Screenplay Trophy, is co-produced by Belgium’s RTBF, with support from Wallimage and the Tax Shelter.

The Boat Race will be released in France by Pyramide on February 17, and in Belgium by Cinéart on February 24.

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(Translated from French)

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