Belgium received five by five in Cannes

by Aurore Engelen

25/04/2012 - Last week already, Cannes announced that Joachim Lafosse (already at the festival’s Directors’ Fortnight in 2008 with Private Lessons [trailer, film focus]) would this year run in the Un Certain Regard competition with Loving Without Reason [trailer, film focus] (photo - Versus Production). With a five-star cast (Emilie Dequenne, with Tahar Rahim and Niels Arestrup) and a universal bitter theme, the film could be a sensation.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, the Directors’ Fortnight has just announced the selection of Ernest & Célestine [trailer, film focus] (La Parti), a children’s animation film whose screenplay was written by Daniel Pennac and that was directed by Vincent Patar, Stéphane Aubier (whose Panique au village [trailer, film focus] was shown three years ago in a special screening at the festival), and Benjamin Renner. It’s also been a great surprise for Beyond the Walls [trailer, film focus], a first feature by David Lambert and Frakas Productions (Jean-Yves Roubin) to have been selected for the Critics’ Week.

With these three selections, Versus, Frakas, and La Parti have been rewarded for their editorial policies in following filmmakers long term. Finally, the film directors association ACID will screen La Tête la première, Amélie van Elmbt’s first feature produced by Media International, and the very moving Summer of Giacomo [trailer] by Alessandro Comodin (Les Films Nus), already awarded in Locarno and Belfort, in special screenings.

The Belgian co-productions going to the festival this year are very diverse. God’s Horses by Nabil Ayouch, co-produced by YC Alligator, and Le Grand Soir [trailer] by Benoît Delépine and Gustave Kervern, co-produced by Panache Productions, will run in the Un Certain Regard section of the competition. As for the Dardenne brothers (Les Films du Fleuve), they have done very well this year with no less than three co-productions in the official competition:Rust & Bone [trailer, film focus] by Jacques Audiard, The Angel’s Share [trailer, film focus] by Ken Loach and Beyond the Hills [trailer, film focus] by Cristian Mungiu.

From Flanders, some were expecting Felix Van Groeningen’s new film to make the cut, but it did not this time. It is however worth noting that Loving Without Reason and Rust & Bone were respectively co-produced by Prime Time and Lunanime, and that two Flemish short films will run in the official and Cinéfondation competitions.

(Translated from French)