07/07/2016 - The regional fund will be getting behind the new films by Michaël Roskam (Le Fidèle), Nabil Ben Yadir (Dode Hoek) and Erik Van Looy (De Premier)

Screen.brussels, the regional fund that invests in audiovisual co-productions, was launched at the beginning of 2016 by the Brussels region. Just like the “twin” Wallimage (for Wallonia) and Screen Flanders (for Flanders) funds, screen.brussels (which provides economic aid) aims to support Brussels’ audiovisual industry by helping projects that generate structuring effects in terms of jobs for Brussels-based talents, and those which boost the order books of the service-providing companies established for the long haul in the Brussels-Capital Region. For its first session, the screen.brussels Fund has committed to investing a total of €1,685,000, split among 14 different projects.

The vast majority of the features being backed are Belgian. Needless to say, we immediately notice the presence of Le Fidèle by Michaël Roskam (Bullhead [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bart Van Langendonck
interview: Michaël R. Roskam
film profile], The Drop), produced by Savage Film, as well as Dode Hoek [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nabil Ben Yadir
film profile] by Nabil Ben Yadir (Les Barons [+see also:
film review
trailer
Interview with director and actress of…
interview: Nabil Ben Yadir
film profile], La Marche [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nabil Ben Yadir
film profile]), co-produced by three Brussels-based outfits, Antilope Joyeuse, Wrong Men and Eyeworks, and De Premier [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Erik Van Looy (Loft [+see also:
trailer
film profile], The Alzheimer Case [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), produced by FBO.

The fund will also be supporting two feature debuts: Au-dessus des lois by François Troukens and Jean-François Hensgens (produced by Versus), starring Olivier Gourmet, Lubna Azabal and Anne Coesens, in addition to Une part d’ombre, the feature debut by Samuel Tilman (Le Dernier Gaulois), produced by Eklektik Productions, starring Fabrizio Rongione, Myriem Akheddiou and Arieh Worthalter. Incidentally, we will see the latter playing the lead role in Transfert, a series co-produced by Arte and Be-Films, which is also being backed by the fund.

Other supported titles are La Fine Equipe, the new movie by Ismaël Saïdi (Moroccan Gigolos [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), produced by Scope Pictures, as well as two minority co-productions, Promise at Dawn [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Eric Barbier, staged by Nexus Factory, starring Charlotte Gainsbourg and Pierre Niney, and The Street Party, an animated feature being staged by Caviar Antwerpen in co-production with Zentropa (Denmark). Lastly, the fund will grant its support to two other series, two documentaries and a web series.

(Translated from French)