24/03/2011

The Flemish Scriptwriters’ Guild awarded its annual prize for Best Script this year to Oxygen [+see also:
trailer
film profile], co-written by director Hans Van Nuffel and producer-screenwriter Jean-Claude Van Rijckhegem. Oxygen traces the experiences of young adults with cystic fibrosis and shows how they fight the disease, how they confront or embrace life, depending on their outlook.

Released in Belgian theatres last September, the film enjoyed immense success at international festivals, winning the Grand Prize of the Americas at the Montreal World Film Festival, the Audience Award at Amiens International Film Festival, and prizes at Rome, Zurich and Bordeaux.

This is a debut feature for Van Nuffel, who attracted attention with his short films Het Einde van de Rit and Fal. Van Rijckeghem is, on the other hand, a well-known name in Flemish cinema, who was behind recent hits like Moscow, Belgium [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Christophe Van Rompaey and The Over the Hill Band [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Geoffrey Enthoven, which he co-wrote and produced through his company A Private View. The latter also recently co-produced Ivan Goldschmidt’s Oscar-nominated short Na Wewe and is currently completing post-production on Van Rompaey’s new film Lena.

The aim of the Guild, which was set up in 2004 and now has over 120 members, is to highlight the work and talent of Belgian scriptwriters.

This particular focus on scripts is all the more important in these times of budgetary austerity for it is often an under-funded area. The Guild’s prize is unique in that it isn’t the finished product, the film, that is judged, but the original script.

(Translated from French)