27/04/2020 - The Belgian institution has published its review of 2019, which also demonstrates a clear decline in attendance levels for Belgian movies

Given the current global health situation, the Wallonia-Brussels Federation’s Film and Audiovisual Centre (CCA) was obliged to publish an online review of the year 2019 last Friday. While the number of projects supported increased slightly, attendance levels for French-language Belgian films in both France and Belgium clearly plummeted.

It should be said that 2018 turned out to be an excellent year in terms of box-office takings, thanks in particular to two top performers that largely plumped up the results: Mon Ket [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: François Damiens
film profile], the feature debut by François Damiens, and So Help Me God [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jean Libon and Yves Hinant
film profile], the documentary by Jean Libon and Yves Hinant, which is the big-screen version of the TV series Strip Tease. However, as mentioned above, attendance levels were down by 39% compared to 2018. If we consider the total number of admissions in Belgium and France, the standout film of 2019 was the programme of animated short films Loups tendres et loufoques (with 233,000 tickets sold). It was followed by Young Ahmed [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
film profile] by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (185,000 admissions) and another programme of animated shorts: Les ritournelles de la chouette (72,000 tickets sold).

In Belgium, Young Ahmed was the leader of the pack, with more than 33,000 admissions, followed by Mothers’ Instinct [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Olivier Masset-Depasse
film profile] by Olivier Masset-Depasse (nearly 25,000 admissions) and the aforementioned Loups tendres et loufoques with 13,500 entrées, while Keep Going [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Joachim Lafosse
film profile] by Joachim Lafosse and The Benefit of the Doubt [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Samuel Tilman
film profile] by Samuel Tilman were not far off the 10,000-admissions mark. While these figures are fairly modest, they are perfectly in keeping with the results attained by European arthouse films.

On the production side, in 2019, the CCA granted 141 guarantees of support (as against 130 in 2018), but only for a total budget of €9.49 million (versus €9.86 million in 2018). Twenty-one fiction features received writing support, four development aid, and 24 production support, including both majority and minority productions. They include the upcoming films by Fabrice du Welz (Inexorable [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Fabrice Du Welz
film profile], the shoot for which has had to be postponed after having originally been scheduled for the spring), The Restless [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Joachim Lafosse
film profile] by Joachim Lafosse, filming for which is (or was?) slated to happen in summer 2020, and Les Tortues [+see also:
film review
film profile] by David Lambert. The Film and Audiovisual Centre has already announced that it is extending the expiration date of its support in light of the current circumstances.

(Translated from French)