Close reigns supreme at the Ensors

by Aurore Engelen

06/02/2023 - Lukas Dhont’s second feature walked away with six prizes, including Best Film and Best Director, while Zillion bagged itself five

The winners at this year's Ensors

This weekend saw the unspooling of the 13th edition of the Ensor Awards, rewarding Flemish audiovisual creation in Belgium. It’s an unmissable event for sector professionals which shines a light on creativity within the worlds of cinema and TV. The year 2022 was prolific for Flemish film, both in terms of results and honours - notably including three films selected in Cannes, two of which went home with awards (Close [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Eden Dambrine
interview: Lukas Dhont
interview: Lukas Dhont
film profile] by Lukas Dhont scooped the Grand Prize, The Eight Mountains [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Felix van Groeningen & Char…
film profile] by Charlotte Vandermeersch and Felix Van Groeningen bagged the Jury Prize, and Rebel [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fal…
film profile] by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah earned itself a Midnight Screening) – but also brilliant box-office results, namely via Robin Pront’s Zillion [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Robin Pront
film profile], which ranks as one of the ten highest grossing Flemish films with its 500,000 admissions.

But getting back to the Ensors, which saw Close and Zillion divvying up the film awards between them, Lukas Dhont previously made an excellent impression at the Ensors in 2019, when he walked away with no less than 8 awards for his debut feature Girl [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lukas Dhont
film profile], likewise selected in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section. With this second film of his, which was selected and rewarded in competition and is also in the running for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in early March, Dhont is confirming his status as a major, young talent in the new global cinema world, capturing the spirit of the times with accuracy and virtuosity whilst also telling staggering and universal stories.

Unsurprisingly then, this weekend saw Close win awards for Best Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay. It also scooped the trophy for Best Sound and confirmed Lukas Dhont to be the incredible talent-spotter that he is, not thinking twice before entrusting the lead role in his film to a young man he crossed paths with on a train. Eden Dambrine, who was 14 years old at the time, ended up walking away with the Best Actor prize.

The other generously rewarded film of the evening, as previously mentioned, was Zillion by Robin Pront, which paints a full-to-bursting portrait of the meteoric rise and brutal fall of the manager of one of the biggest nightclubs in Europe in the early 2000s, the Zillion, located in Flanders. A period film with nostalgic undertones and a stripped back aesthetic, the movie was very well-received by Flemish audiences, no doubt reviving a few priceless memories from their own youth. In addition to the Box-Office Award, rewarding movies’ cinema success, it’s the film’s precise yet playful historical reconstruction of a relatively recent period which ultimately scored points with voters, who subsequently rewarded the film with trophies for Best Artistic Director, Best Costumes and Best Editing. Likewise worth a mention is actor Matteo Simoni who bagged the Best Supporting Actor prize.

The award-winners are as follows:

Best Film
Close [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Eden Dambrine
interview: Lukas Dhont
interview: Lukas Dhont
film profile] - Lukas Dhont (Belgium/France/the Netherlands)

Best Series
Roomies - Flo Van Deuren, Kato De Boeck

Best Director (feature film)
Lukas Dhont - Close

Best Director (series)
Flo Van Deuren, Kato De Boeck - Roomies

Best Actor (feature film)
Eden Dambrine - Close

Best Supporting Actor (feature film)
Matteo Simoni - Zillion [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Robin Pront
film profile] (Belgium/the Netherlands)

Best Actor (series)
Maaike Cafmeyer - Chantal

Best Supporting Actor (series)
Joke Emmers - Billie vs Benjamin

Best Screenplay (feature film)
Angelo Tijssens & Lukas Dhont - Close

Best Screenplay (series)
Flo Van Deuren and Kato De Boeck - Roomies

Best Documentary (feature film)
Onze Natuur - Pim Niesten, Serge Leurs, Dick Harrewijn, Maria Lise Van Lente

Best Documentary (series)
Metissen van België

Best Animation (series)
Interstellar Ella

Best Co-Production
The Eight Mountains [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Felix van Groeningen & Char…
film profile] - Charlotte Vandermeersch, Felix Van Groeningen (Italy/Belgium/France/UK)

Best Photography
Frank van den Eeden - Close

Best Editing
Bert Jacobs - Zillion

Best Artistic Director
Geert Paredis - Zillion

Best Make-Up
Dorien Van Poucke - Nonkels (series)