Namur puts spotlight on debut films
The expected shift in focus towards debut films was confirmed today at the press conference for the 24th Namur International Francophone Film Festival (FIFF), to be held from October 2-9. Indeed, seven of the 12 films in official competition are debut features, added to which are the 13 debut features in the Emile Cantillon competition.
No fewer than 11 films will be presented in world avant-premiere. Young director Nabil Ben Yadir’s debut feature Les Barons [+see also:
film review
trailer
Interview with director and actress of…
interview: Nabil Ben Yadir
film profile] (Belgium) will open the festival on October 2.
Other Belgian films on the line-up are Alexis Van Stratum’s debut feature A Son At Sea, financed by the "Cinéastes Associés" programme for micro-budget films; Namur-born director Bernard Bellefroid’s debut feature The Boat Race; and Frédéric Dumont’s Angel At Sea [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], starring Olivier Gourmet and Anne Consigy.
But the FIFF also opens up the borders of the Francophone world. This year, the spotlight is on Romania, which is represented by Police, Adjective [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Corneliu Porumboiu
film profile] by Corneliu Porumboiu (discovered with 12:08 East of Bucharest [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Corneliu Porumboiu
interview: Daniel Burlac
film profile]); and Melissa de Raaf and Razvan Radulescu’s directorial debut First of All, Felicia [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Melissa de Raaf and Razvan …
film profile], co-produced by Belgium.
Radu Jude also brings his debut feature, The Happiest Girl in the World [+see also:
trailer
film profile], to the Emile Cantillon competition.
As usual, French films will also put in an appearance. In competition are Xabi Mola’s Eight Times Up, and Mia Hansen-Love’s highly moving Father of My Children [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mia Hansen-Løve
film profile].
Over 140 films will be unveiled. Among them, FIFF audiences will be treated to an exclusive preview screening of Albert Dupontel’s forthcoming film, Le Vilain (“The Villain”). Three years after Locked Out [+see also:
trailer
film profile], the director gets behind the camera for the fourth time to tell the bitterly humorous story of a bank robber on the run, who is battling with his old mother (Catherine Frot, made up to look older for the role).
(Translated from French)
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