17/04/2025 - Despite a strained economic and political context, local cinema is doing well according to the report by the federation’s Film and Audiovisual Centre

On 16 April, the Wallonia-Brussels Film and Audiovisual Centre presented the review of its activities for the year 2024, an opportunity to take the pulse of the sector at a time when political upheavals and the budgetary context are shaking its very foundations. This review was in fact the first for the new Minister-President and Minister of Culture Elisabeth Degryse, who praised the diversity of Belgian cinema, much richer than its tenacious reputation as social cinema would suggest, and reminded all of the importance of public funding, a indispensable basis to creative freedom besides market considerations. This reminder was particularly necessary, given that the status of culture and its workers is getting interrogated, and as budgets are predicted to shrink in 2025, the non-indexation of subsidiaries is deplored, and Netflix’s choice to invest directly instead of doing so via a contribution to the Cinema Centre is causing concern in the sector.

The object of this report is nevertheless the results for the year 2024, which are extremely satisfying on several levels, starting with that of attendance, which often represents a stumbling block. The year 2024 saw a 157% rise in Belgium and 101% in France for French-language Belgian films. In Belgium, the leading trio is made up of TKT [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Solange Cicurel (76,529 admissions), Night Call [+see also:
film review
interview: Michiel Blanchart
film profile] by Michiel Blanchart (45,387 admissions) and Amal [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jawad Rhalib
film profile] by Jawas Rhalib (32,628 admissions), with numbers mostly acquired on French-speaking territory. By way  of comparison, Emilia Pérez [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] sold 61,000 tickets in the whole of Belgium. We will note that these three films operate in wildly different film genres. Besides box-office results, films from the Wallonia-Brussels Federation recorded 1,977 festival selections and 326 awards.

Also remarkable are the results of the Cinema Commission. Although the €13.24 million of aid pledges don’t quite reach the 2023 mark (€13.26 million), the Commission reached records in terms of submitted projects, with 745 creation funding applications (compared to 668 in 2023), and a selection rate that still remains relatively high at 26,85%. Also noteworthy is that gender parity in decisions has almost been reached, with a 49/51 ratio, even in the feature film department which had so far resisted feminisation a little.

In 2024, 25 films were recognised as Belgian, including 15 called “national” (thus mainly Belgian), and 10 official co-productions, to which one can add 27 financial co-productions. The median cost of national films was €2.6 million, while that of co-productions was €3.7 million.

Finally, let us mention the creation of a new Series Commission which, in addition to the national channel RTBF, is now open to other broadcasters and editors, starting with RTL, the leading private channel on the market, which is therefore striking out in this type of production on the rise. 12 grants were awarded in 2024 for a total sum of €1.635 million.

(Translated from French)