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BELGIUM Le Jeune Ahmed, TOP 10

by Jean-Pierre
Facts & Dardenne and BELGIUM 2018
BOX OFFICE
Luc Dardenne
figures 1 The Incredibles 2
553,230
Jurassic World: Fallen
2
POPULATION Kingdom
● Belgium: 11,413,203 537,441
● Brussels: 1,200,322 Avengers: Infi nity War
● Flanders: 6,582,788 3 481,684
● Wallonia: 3,630,093 Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes
● Total admissions 2018: 4 of Grindelwald
18,790,615 457,320
● 2018 Box office:
€160,000,000 5 Fifty Shades Freed
440,971
● National market share: 11%
● Admissions for Belgian films: 6 Jumanji: Welcome to the
2,066,900 Jungle
● Number of screens: 525 422,247
Hotel Transylvania 3
7
407,044
Bohemian Rhapsody
8
368,050
Gangsta
9
366,113
Niet Schieten
10
© DR 357,283
TWO HEARTS importance in Wallonia-Brussels. Five years ago, the French-

speaking public channel RTBF teamed with the Centre du
Cinéma to create a fund dedicated to locally produced TV
BEAT AS ONE series. The main objective was to provide local content to the
audiences, but also to develop a real industry, purveying jobs
and experiences to writers, directors, technicians, and giving
exposure to Belgian actors and actresses. The first two series
issued from the fund, The Break and Public Enemy, have
reached a large audience in Belgium, and have been
successfully sold abroad. Their second seasons, aired a few
BELGIUM EXPLORES NEW CO-PRODUCTION TERRITORIES, months ago, pleased their fans as well as the profession. More
WHILE DEVELOPING A LOCAL INDUSTRY PARTLY BOOSTED than 15 shows are currently in development.
BY TELEVISION AND INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION. FLEMISH CINEMA:
A TWO HEADED HYDRA
By Aurore Engelen, cineuropa.org At first glance, Flemish cinema may appear as a two-headed
hydra. On the one side, the international audiences are
getting familiar with successes such as Alabama Monroe or
LTHOUGH Belgium may be a country (and Guatemalan genocide. Girl. On the other side, Flemish cinema-goers favour
even feel like one when the Belgian football team Wallonia-Brussels has to ‘share’ a market with their French productions intended for a very local market, such as
plays), in terms of the cinema industry, it divides neighbours: it means most of the locally produced movies are TV-series adaptations or children movies. Obviously, this
in two countries, right along the linguistic in direct concurrence with French movies, but it also means dichotomy isn’t that Manichean, and festival favourites do
A frontier. Audiences and authors: the Belgian that Belgian films (may) find a natural audience in France. In often meet their audience back home, such as Girl which
cinematographic industry is well and alive, strongly supported the meantime, Wallonia-Brussels producers have become attracted 275,000 spectators in Belgium.
by content-oriented cultural institutions such as the Vlaams champions of co-production. While France has been a natural TV Flemish productions, which have been strongly running
Audiovisueel Fonds and the Centre du Cinéma et de partner in the past, they now expand their collaborations both on public and private channels for more than two
l’Audiovisuel, as well as industry-oriented regional funds elsewhere in Europe but also worldwide with Canada, the decades, have contributed to create a real star system.
(Wallimage, screen.brussels and Screen Flanders), and the Maghreb, or even South America, with a strong attention put Flemish actors, while enjoying a tremendous popularity,
unavoidable Tax Shelter. on genre movies. See for example Vivarium by the Irish jump indifferently from the small to the big screen. And the
director Lorcan Finnegan, selected this year in the Critics’ same is true for writers or directors. This results in a long-
CINEMA MADE IN WALLONIA Week, co-produced in Belgium by Frakas Production. term relationship between the Flemish audiences and its
BRUSSELS: HARVESTING AWARDS Two French-speaking movies attracted a large audience in talents. The third installment of FC de Kampioenen, an
WHILE TURNING TOWARDS Belgium in 2018: Mon Ket, from actor-turned-director adaptation of a Flemish sitcom that lasted for 21 years, has
THE SMALL SCREEN François Damiens; and So Help Me God (Ni juge ni soumise), attracted more than 600,000 spectators.
Even though they will take part for the eighth(!) time in the a documentary by Yves Hinant and Jean Libon. Both movies Last but not least, Flemish talents travel well. Think about
Official Selection this year with Le Jeune Ahmed, it’s not all have a strong common point: they’ve been inspired by TV Matthias Schoenaerts… This year’s box-office champions,
about the Dardenne brothers. Lots of directors have emerged shows. Mon Ket revives the memory of François l’Embrouille, Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (365,000 entries for Gangsta)
in the last few years, and the Cannes Film Festival continues a very popular character created by Damiens who made are working in Belgium as well as in the US (they’ve just
to shed a light on them. 2018 saw the success of Guillaume French and Belgium audiences laugh out loud in the finished shooting Bad Boys III), just as Felix Van Groeningen
Senez’s second feature, Our Struggles, sold all around the noughties, while So Help Me God is the transposition on the who released his first American movie this year (Beautiful
world. The Critics’ Week will focus this year on César Diaz’s big screen of the cult documentary TV show Strip-Tease. Boy with Steve Carrell and Timothée Chalamet). And we
first feature, Nuestras Madres, about the little known One has to say that TV shows have gained more and more stopped counting Flemish directors directing international

10 NEWS