05/05/2006

Cinema from the "plat pays" will enjoy pride of place at Cannes this year! The 59th Cannes Film Festival marks the return of two-time Golden Palm winners, Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne who will preside over the Caméra d'Or jury, and Deborah François, who made her screen debut in The Child [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Luc & Jean-Pierre Dardenne
film profile] in 2005, stars this year in Denis Dercourt’ Tourneuse de pages [+see also:
film review
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interview: Denis Dercourt
interview: Michel Saint-Jean
film profile], screening in the Un Certain Regard sidebar.

In Official Competition, the Belgians strike once again, with actress Cécile de France in I Did It My Way [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and Benoît Poelvoorde in Charlie Said [+see also:
trailer
film profile], not to mention Lucas Belvaux’s The Weakest is Always Right [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (see interview). Belvaux’s latest film is to be released in early September by Cinéart.

Meanwhile, Natacha Régnier, who plays the lead female role in The Weakest…, also stars in Emmanuel Bourdieu’s Amitiés maléfiques [+see also:
trailer
film profile], selected for the Critics’ Week. The other title selected in official competition is Belgian minority co-production Days of Glory by Rachid Bouchareb (Versus Production ).

Critics’ Week also welcomes Martine Doyen’s debut feature Komma [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], which stars Arno and the film’s co-screenwriter, Valérie Lemaître. Sold internationally by Bavaria Film International, it should be released at the end of August (Cinéart). A double celebration is therefore in order for the co-producer of this first film, La Parti, whose Ca m'est égal si demain n'arrive pas by Guillaume Malandrin (see interview) was selected by ACID (Agence du Cinéma Indépendant pour sa Diffusion) and will be presented at the festival under its protective wings.

Yet another Belgian at Cannes is producer Tomas Leyers (Mind Meet), who was chosen for the European Film Promotion initiative, Producers on the Move.

Congorama [+see also:
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trailer
film profile] by Philippe Falardeau, a Canadian co-production with Belgian outfit Tarantula, starring Olivier Gourmet, has been selected for the Directors’ Fortnight. Another minority Belgian co-production also at Cannes is animated title Azur et Asmar [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Michel Ocelot (Artémis Productions).

Renowned DoP Benoît Debie will also be present (see interview) through his work in Day Night Day Night [+see also:
trailer
film profile], a debut US majority co-production made together with Germany’s ZDF and France’s ARTE.

Two Belgian films have been selected to take part in the Festival Workshops: a fiction film by Bernard Bellefroid (whose credits include the beautiful documentaryRwanda, les collines parlent) and another by Ursula Meier (Need Productions).

And if they do not go to Cannes, Cannes will come to them with a repeat of the Directors’ Fortnight to be shown at the Kinepolis ImagiBraine at the beginning of June, as part of the Flanders International Film Festival.

(Translated from French)