14/01/2011

Nominations for the Magritte Film Awards, the first Belgian Francophone film awards, were announced against a backdrop of controversy. In an interview, French-speaking Belgian actress Cécile de France said she intended to boycott a ceremony that did not combine both Francophone and Dutch-speaking Belgian films. While the Belgian people as a whole ponder the improbable but very real political stagnation into which their country seems to be sinking, we can’t help but notice that the audiovisual sector is largely polarised by issues of linguistic identity, on the face of it at least.

While on a production and technical level, collaborations abound, on screen, there are very few actors who “shuttle” between Francophone and Dutch-language films. De France cites Jan Decleir, her co-star in Sister Smile [+see also:
trailer
film profile], who is incidentally nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category for The Barons [+see also:
film review
trailer
Interview with director and actress of…
interview: Nabil Ben Yadir
film profile]. But for every bilingual Jan Decleir, how many talented actors are there who don’t “shuttle” between the two?

The same also goes for directors, with the notable exception of Stijn Coninx. Moreover, the box office never lies; each audience chooses its favourites according to their language. It has, however, been noted that so-called “auteur” films (whether it be the Dardenne brothers’ movies, or recently The Misfortunates [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Felix van Groeningen
film profile]) find audiences on both sides of the linguistic border.

Belgium’s audiovisual sector thus appears to be divided, but in the end, isn’t it an obvious state of affairs when two languages are involved? Especially as from the production point of view, things are moving. The Vlaams Audiovisual Fund and the Belgian French Community Film Centre set up joint funding lines several months ago, and also work together on documentary series for television.

For their part, producers didn’t wait for the introduction of these budgets to increase the number of co-productions. Indeed, some would like to see a Belgium that is united right through to its cinema. But in the end, the foregrounding of Belgian auteurs, actors and technicians, even if it happens in parallel on both sides of the linguistic barrier (as a reminder, the Ostend Festival hosted the first Vlaams Filmprijzen in September), can only benefit Belgian cinema as a whole, and the forging of links between Francophone and Dutch-speaking professionals.

(Translated from French)