07/02/2011

The first Magritte Belgian Francophone Film Awards ceremony, which was held on Saturday evening in Brussels, has put things back in order on two scores. By lavishly awarding Jaco Van Dormael’s Mr. Nobody [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jaco Van Dormael
interview: Jaco Van Dormael
film profile], film professionals (voters from the André Delvaux Academy) swept away any linguistic quarrels by honouring an English-language film. In another surprise move, the Academy also handed Best Supporting Actor to impressive Flemish thesp Jan Decleir.

Moreover, Mr. Nobody’s triumph makes up for the rather lukewarm reception the film got from audiences and critics on its release, in Belgium and especially internationally. Van Dormael thus took home a bumper crop of awards, including Best Film, Director, Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing and Score. Only the acting awards escaped his film’s grasp, and with good reason, for its lead and supporting actors are not Belgian.

There were no real surprises in the acting categories at Saturday evening’s ceremony, for Anne Coesens (Illegal [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Olivier Masset-Depasse
film profile]) and Jonathan Zaccaï (Private Lessons [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jacques-Henri Bronckart
interview: Joachim Lafosse
film profile]) were rightly crowned, as were Pauline Etienne (Private Lessons) and Joffrey Verbruggen (The Boat Race [+see also:
trailer
interview: Bernard Bellefroid, directo…
film profile]) as Best Newcomers. Decleir nabbed his Magritte for The Barons [+see also:
film review
trailer
Interview with director and actress of…
interview: Nabil Ben Yadir
film profile] (the first prize for the Belgian Francophone hit in a long while), while Best Supporting Actress went to Christelle Cornil (Illegal).

In the technical categories, there were two Magritte awards (Best Sound and Best Production Design) for Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar’s wacky film A Town Called Panic [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Stéphane Aubier and Vincen…
interview: Stéphane Aubier & Vincent P…
film profile], while Best Costume Design went to Stijn Coninx’s Sister Smile [+see also:
trailer
film profile]. No awards ceremony would be complete without the Dardenne brothers who, in a final nod from the Academy, took home Best Co-production for Ken Loach’s Looking for Eric [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Cannes 2009
Ken Loach
interview: Steve Evets - actor
film profile].

Finally, the audience honoured Belgian cinema’s biggest star, handing its award to the ubiquitous Benoît Poelvoorde.

List of award-winners
BEST FILM
Mr. Nobody (Toto and co - Olivier Rausin)

BEST DIRECTOR
Jaco Van Dormael for Mr. Nobody

BEST CO-PRODUCTION
Looking for Eric (Les Films du Fleuve - Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Jaco Van Dormael for Mr. Nobody

BEST ACTRESS
Anne Coesens in Illegal

BEST ACTOR
Jonathan Zaccaï in Private Lessons

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Christelle Cornil in Illegal

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Jan Decleir in The Barons

BEST FEMALE NEWCOMER
Pauline Etienne in Private Lessons

BEST MALE NEWCOMER
Joffrey Verbruggen in The Boat Race

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Christophe Beaucarne for Mr. Nobody

BEST SOUND
Benoît Biral, Valene Leroy, Julien Paschal, Fred Piet and Franco Piscoppo for A Town Called Panic

BEST EDITING
Matyas Veress for Mr. Nobody

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
Eric Blesin and Marc Nis for A Town Called Panic

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Christophe Pidre and Florence Scholtes for Sister Smile

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Pierre van Dormael for Mr. Nobody

BEST SHORT FILM
Sleepless Night by Samuel Tilman

BEST DOCUMENTARY
Paths of Memory by Jose Luis Penafuerte

AUDIENCE AWARD
Benoit Poelvoorde

(Translated from French)