09/05/2025 - The Belgian producer talks to us about her approach to the profession and her past, present and future projects

Géraldine Sprimont, the Belgian representative selected this year as part of the EFP’s Producers on the Move programme, joined Need Production in 2011, a company she has been running since 2014 with Anne-Laure Guégan. Together, they have produced and co-produced Our Mothers [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Cesar Diaz
film profile] by Cesar Diaz (Caméra d'Or at Cannes in 2019), Clara Sola [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nathalie Álvarez Mesén
film profile] by Nathalie Álvarez Mesén (presented at the Quinzaine des Cinéastes in 2022), Soy Libre [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Laure Portier (discovered in ACID, Magritte for Best Documentary in 2023), and Imago by Déni Oumar Pitsaev, which will be presented this year in the Critics' Week in Cannes.

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Cineuropa : How would you describe Need Productions in a few words?
Géraldine Sprimont : We take on projects that resonate with us both as producers and as citizens. These are subjects that we are fighting to bring to the attention of the public, which is why we are drawn to films that speak of communities that are often forgotten or ignored by history or society. What sets us apart is the complementary nature of our two profiles with my partner Anne-Laure Guégan, with whom I took over the company around ten years ago. Anne-Laure comes from an editing background and has a very keen sense of storytelling, which is very useful for script analysis. My studies took me more in the direction of management. Our skills have been strengthened and nurtured, resulting in a duo that I feel is effective and relevant.

How do you choose your projects? You co-produce a lot, all over the world.
We work on a gut-feeling basis, that's our first criterion, along with the script and the personalities behind it. The filmmakers, of course, but also the producers, bearing in mind that these are long journeys that we embark on. We're also sensitive to the originality of the projects, the way they avoid repeating things we've already seen, but also the way they resonate with today's world.

You work in fiction, but also in documentaries and animation.
We gradually got into animation, starting with minority shorts, and then specialised more and more, notably with the development of the feature film Melville. Today, we can demonstrate a degree of expertise, knowing that this is a very specific field in which we have a wealth of talent in Belgium. It's a genre that requires a lot of money and takes a long time to develop, but it's an exciting one. Documentary is also a place I love, where I feel I learn a lot. Documentary is often a long-term project, but it involves small teams, which often requires fewer resources than fiction. This lighter format means that it can be produced alongside fiction or animation.

Does your interest in documentaries and what you learn from them have an impact on your choice of fiction?
Yes, I think so. When I read the script for Cesar Diaz's first film, it seemed obvious to me that we had to hear about the genocide that took place in Guatemala. We're about to shoot Les Porcs du Caire in Egypt, about a time when, at the instigation of the Muslim brothers, Mubarak had the entire pig herd decimated, a tragedy for the Coptic community. These are just some of the stories we think are important to tell.

Do you think there are opportunities in Belgium today to support these international co-productions?
For us, the lever is first and foremost the support of institutions, before mechanisms such as the Tax Shelter. The Commission du Cinéma in particular, but also Proximus and Be TV, are partners who are very attached to the script and very attentive to auteur cinema, and who are prepared to support us in co-productions with distant countries.

What does this selection in Producers on the Move represent?
It's a great time for us, we've produced quite a few films that have gained recognition at festivals and internationally. Producers on the Move has attracted a lot of participants from Eastern Europe and Scandinavia, countries we don't usually work with, but we're thinking about it. It's a way of discovering new territories, new projects and new funding opportunities.

What are your most recent projects?
Mexico 86 [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: César Díaz
film profile], Cesar Diaz's second film, premiered on the Piazza Grande in Locarno this summer, and has just been released in Belgium to enthusiastic reviews from the press. We are presenting the feature documentary Imago during the Critic’s Week. At Annecy, we'll be showing Allah is Not Obliged, an animated film adapted from the novel by Ahmadou Kourouma, co-produced with France, Luxembourg and Canada, which will be released at the same time.

This summer we're shooting Les Porcs du Caire, by Rani Massalha, and at the end of August, The Wolf Will Tear Your Immaculate Hands, a very ambitious film by Nathalie Álvarez Mesén, where all the post-production will be done in Belgium. We are currently producing Melville, an animation by Romain Renard. Also in animation, the docu-drama La Colline du Thym by Sarah Carlot Jaber, which looks back at the Tell-El-Zaatar camp massacre that took place nearly 50 years ago in Lebanon. And we are developing Helter Skelter by Paul Vincent de Lestrade, whose short films we produced include A Good Boy, which won over 50 festival awards, and Cage, which he has just completed. The film is about a toxic father-daughter relationship in an ultra-right-wing context. It won the Prix Cineuro and attracted quite a few people, so we're hoping to shoot next year. We received a SeriesMakers Award at Series Mania, and support from Creative Europe - MEDIA for a series by Cesar Diaz, whose next feature film we're also developing.

(Translated from French)