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FESTIVALS Belgium

Hasta la Vista!, North Sea, Texas scoop awards at Montreal

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When the Montreal World Film Festival closed yesterday, the announcement of the results confirmed the old saying “these things come in threes”. An unusual sort of microclimate seems to have descended on the city, as for the third time in four years, the Grand Prize was awarded to a Flemish film.

After Nic Balthazar’s Ben X [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nic Balthazar
interview: Peter Bouckaert
film profile
]
in 2008 and Hans Van Nuffel’s Oxygen [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
in 2010, Geoffrey Enthoven’s Hasta la Vista! [+see also:
trailer
interview: Geoffrey Enthoven
film profile
]
swept up the Grand Prize of the Americas. So what was a remote supposition last May when the film’s selection was announced thus became reality yesterday evening.

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All three films follow the development of young people suffering from serious illnesses or disabilities, and their way of facing up (or not) to the world: Ben suffers from Asperger’s syndrome, and takes refuge in a virtual world; the protagonists of Oxygen battle against cystic fibrosis. Deliberately adopting a lighter tone, Hasta la Vista! tackles the issue of disabled people’s right to love and sexuality.

Inspired by the story of young Englishman Asta Philpot, who was once the subject of a documentary, the film follows its three main characters (pictured) as they head to Spain to lose their virginity. Hasta la Vista! won over the jury, as well as viewers, who gave it the Audience Award. It also received a special mention from the Ecumenical Jury.

Hasta la Vista! is Enthoven’s fifth feature. It was produced by Marianno Vanhoof for Fobic Films. It received backing from the VAF and will be released on September 14 in Belgium.

Another Flemish production made its mark: Bavo Defurne’s debut film North Sea, Texas picked up the Silver Zenith Award in the First Films World Competition, as well as the International Federation of Film Critics’ FIPRESCI Prize, again for debut works.

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(Translated from French)

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