26/03/2008

Alongside the inescapable US post-adolescent comedies that remind us it’s the holidays, European production holds its own with Dragon Hunters by Guillaume Ivernel and Arthur Qwak, a 3-D animated film co-produced by France, Luxembourg and Germany, and released by Belga Film on 41 screens.

Those who prefer fairies to dragons will be able to see Winx Club: The Secret of the Lost Kingdom, produced by Rainbow CGI, founded by the film’s director Iginio Straffi. The filmmaker created the Winx characters and they conquered television screens in over 130 countries before making it onto the big screen.

In 2005, the Vlaams Audiovisual Fund launched Faits Divers (“New Items”), four genre films made on less than €1m. The project was a box-office hit: Hell in Tangier [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (by Frank van Mechelen) garnered over 180,000 admissions.

On the back of this success, the project was renewed for a second series of five films. The first title, the romantic comedy Moscow, Belgium, released in theatres on January 30, has already attracted over 100,000 viewers.

This Wednesday, Kinepolis are releasing on 11 screens Peter Van Hees’ Linkeroever (Caviar Films). Let’s hope that this thriller (co-written by Dimitri Karakatsanis, director of the recently acclaimed Small Gods [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) enjoys the same level of success as its predecessors.

Lauded at the Locarno, Namur and Sundance festivals (where it won the award for Best Screenplay in the international category), Samuel Benchetrit’s I Always Wanted to Be a Gangster (Fidélité Films, France) is being released on three screens only by Les Films de l’Elysée.

With an impressive cast (Jean Rochefort, Edouard Baer, Anna Mouglalis, Alain Bashung), including a few Belgian stars such as Bouli Lanners, Serge Larivière and Arno, the film will appeal to fans of the burlesque and cult.

(Translated from French)