22/02/2012 - A great line-up for the Commission’s last 2011 session: Nabil Ben Yadir, Sam Gabarski, Marion Hansël, Benoît Mariage

The Fédération Wallonie Bruxelles has just announced the results for the last session of the Commission for Selection for 2011 films: 19 feature film projects and 10 fiction television productions have received funding for scriptwriting or production, 12 short films and four experimental films received funding for production, 15 documentaries received funding for development or production, 6 web documentary and web fiction projects received funding for development or production for a grand total of €4,645,000. Among the films chosen, many are very interesting.

The commission has supported the production of Annapurna. In 2009 Nabil Ben Yadir (photo), rocked up without notice with his first phenomenon of a feature film, Les Barons [+see also:
film review
trailer
Interview with director and actress of…
interview: Nabil Ben Yadir
film profile]. As well as having managed to mobilise the Brussels Moroccan community, the film, thanks to a cleverly orchestrated communications campaign that went viral, attracted an audience of over 150,000, still a record for a Belgian French-language film in Belgium. His second film, a thriller about family starring a Flemish super-cop, should start shooting in 2013, produced by Entre chien et loup.

In another much-awaited return, Benoît Mariage will this summer take Benoît Poelvoorde to the Ivory Coast to film Akwaba, a sour-sweet comedy about the manager of an African football team who brings back a young promising football player to Belgium. Akwaba will be produced by MG Productions.

Also on the selection commission’s programme are the third films of Micha Wald (Anvers, produced by Versus Production) and of the Malandrin brotehrs (Je suis mort mais j’ai des amis, an American road movie that follows a troop of rockers played by Bouli Lanners, Lyes Salem, and Wim Willaert, produced by La Parti), as well as the next films by Sam Gabarski (My Friend Vijay, a comedy in English with Moritz Bleibtreu and Patricia Arquette, produced by Entre Chien et Loup), and by Marion Hänsel (La Tendresse, now shooting).

(Translated from French)