Film Selection Committee backs latest by Cattet, Forzani, Belvaux, Dumont

by Aurore Engelen

21/02/2011 - The Belgian French Community Ministry has announced the results of the Film Selection Committee’s third 2010 session. A total of €2,828,232 in funding has been divided between the different chosen projects, including shorts, features, documentaries, TV dramas and experimental films.

The first college, which gives its verdict on debut films, chose David Lambert’s Hors les Murs (“Outside the Walls”), produced by FraKas Productions. It tells the unusual story of a couple of musicians in love, Paulo and Ilir, who are separated by the walls of a prison. The college also decided to back two minority projects: Yuval Adler’s Bethlehem (Israel), coproduced by Entre Chien et Loup; and Ilmar Raag’s One More Croissant (Estonia), co-produced by La Parti.

The second college picked two second films. Animal, the second instalment in a trilogy about father-son relationships by Frédéric Dumont (Angel at Sea [trailer]) tells the story of a father trying to come to terms with the death of his child. It is produced by Tarantula.

Meanwhile, still basking in the critical success of Amer [trailer], Bruno Forzani and Hélène Cattet are working on their latest giallo homage The Strange Colour of Your Body’s Tears, this time set in Brussels and again produced by Anonymes Films. The two aforementioned films will receive €300,000 in production funding.

The same amount will go to Lucas Belvaux’s new film One Night, adapted from a Didier Decoin novel and starring Yvan Attal, Nathalie Baye and Sophie Quinton. Once again, Belvaux draws inspiration from a bloody crime story, which hit the headlines in the 1960s.

The second college also chose to support Pierre Schoeller’s The Exercise of State, a minority project co-produced by Les Films du Fleuve. Shooting took place in late 2010, with a cast starring Olivier Gourmet, Michel Blanc and Zabou Breitman.

Finally, as part of its collaboration with the VAF, the committee selected Flemish feature Team Mario, the second film by Nic Balthazar (after the acclaimed Ben X [trailer, film focus]), co-produced by Eyeworks and Entre Chien et Loup.

(Translated from French)