Triple win for California Dreamin’

by Anne Feuillère

09/07/2007 - With a string of wins already under its belt, including this year’s Cannes Un Certain Regard award (see news), Romanian helmer Cristian Nemescu’s feature debut California Dreamin’ [trailer] pocketed three of the seven awards at the fifth edition of the Brussels European Film Festival, which ended on Saturday.

As well as the Canvas Television Award and the Audience Award, the official jury – composed of actors Kris Cuppens (What Makes You Happy [trailer, film focus], Private Property [trailer]), Marie Kremer (I've Always Wanted to Be a Saint, Dikkenek), Olga Kurylenko (L’annulaire, Hitman), Camille Nata ( Not For, or Against (Quite the Contrary), Pur week-end [trailer]) and director Vanja D’Alcantara (Granitsa) – presented the title with the Best Debut Feature Award. The film will be released in Belgium by Cinéart.

The official jury handed out its Best Acting award to the young cast of Hungarian director Csaba Bollok’s Iska’s Journey: Maria Varga, Rozsika Varga and Marian Ursache.

British director Gabriel Range (see interview and news ) carried home two awards (RTBF and BeTV) for his mockumentary Death of a President [trailer], while the Prime television award went to Danish director Peter Schønau Fog for The Art of Crying [trailer].

Meanwhile, the L’âge d’Or, Ciné-Découvertes competition, organised by the Cinémathèque Royale, continues until July 14.

The festival closed with the screening of the feature debut 13 m² [trailer], the tense thriller by young, self-taught filmmaker Barthélémy Grossman.

Starring, written and produced by the director, this more or less successful adaptation of a US genre film in a French context hits Belgian screens on July 25 (dist. BFD).

(Translated from French)