13/12/2024 - The Flemish regional audiovisual investment fund supports 14 new projects for its second 2024 session

Director Lukas Dhont, whose new project Coward has received support

Screen Flanders, the Flemish regional audiovisual investment fund, has selected 14 projects, both films and series, for its latest support session, amongst which stand out in particular Coward, the new feature by young Belgian filmmaker Lukas Dhont, already twice awarded at Cannes for his first two films.

This new film, the details of which still remain a mystery, is once again co-signed by Angelo Tijssens, faithful co-writer of the young director. Casting is underway to find young actors between 18 and 27, so one can imagine that the filmmaker, after having explored adolescence in Girl [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lukas Dhont
film profile] and Close [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Eden Dambrine
interview: Lukas Dhont
interview: Lukas Dhont
film profile], will this time turn to the beginnings of adulthood. The film is produced by Lukas Dhont and his brother Michiel Dhont for the company they created three years ago, The Reunion. Nothing is known yet about production partners, but the film will be distributed in Belgium by Lumière.

The Reunion also received support for Julian, debut feature by promising filmmaker Cato Kusters, adapted from the true story of Fleur Pierets, who turned it into a successful book. Also co-written by Angelo Tijssens, Julian is co-produced in Belgium by Les Films du Fleuve (and thus by the Dardenne brothers), and in the Netherlands by Topkapi.

Screenwriter Angelo Tijssens will indeed have his work cut out for him since he’s also in the credits for Dust, the new film by Anke Blondé (noticed with her debut feature The Best of Dorien B. [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Anke Blondé
film profile], presented at IFFR in the Big Screen competition), whose main roles are held by Jan Hammenecker (seen recently in The Taste of Things [+see also:
film review
film profile]) and Arieh Worthalter (Best Actor César this year for The Goldman Case [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Cédric Kahn
film profile]). Dust is produced by A Private View and co-produced by Shipsboy (Poland), Heretic (Greece), Bêtes Sauvages (UK) and Tarantula Belgique. Kinepolis will handle distribution in the Benelux.

Last but not least, Tijssens has also co-written Jonah Was Here by Nathalie Teirlinck (Past Imperfect [+see also:
trailer
interview: Nathalie Teirlinck
film profile]), produced by De Wereldvrede, which is also receiving support.

While her second feature Traffic [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] just won the Grand Prize in International Competition in Warsaw, Ana Teodora Mihai is about to share in Heysel 85 her point of view on the Heysel tragedy, during which a crowd movement led to the death of 39 people during a European Football Champions Cup final hosted in Brussels. Menuetto is producing the film, which will be co-produced here again by Les Films du Fleuve in Belgium and Topkapi in the Netherlands, as well as by Leitwolf Filmproduktion (Germany) and Mobra Film (Romania). Kinepolis will handle Belgian distribution.

While Patsers, the sequel to 2018’s Gangsta [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fal…
interview: Matteo Simoni
film profile], the 100% Belgian, hyper-vitaminised action film by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (who split their time between Hollywood with the Bad Boys franchise and Belgium), will be released in Belgium on 19 February, the third chapter is already on the way. Patsers for Life, which will be shot between Anvers and Dubai, will once again be produced by A Team Productions and co-produced in Belgium by 10.80 Films (the company created by Nabil Ben Yadir and Benoît Roland) and in the Netherlands by Fiction Valley.

Screen Flanders is also supporting Life Is Cruel for Basilia Belushi by Stelios Kammitsis, a co-production between Cyprus (Felony Productions), Greece (Blonde) and Belgium (Menuetto), and five series, including the animated show La Quête d’Ewilan.

(Translated from French)