Series, animation, documentaries and movies for the seventh edition of screen.brussels
The screen.brussels fund has selected 11 co-production projects that showcase Brussels and its filmmaking industry. The one million euros of investment also consolidates the work of Brussels Animation Valley, with an overall expected return on spending of €8, 430, 000, i.e. 843%.
4 feature films, including one animation
Adorables
Produced by Beluga Tree (Brussels), this comedy marks Solange Cicurel’s return behind the camera after Faut pas lui dire. Emma and her ex-husband Victor are the adorable parents of an adorable 14-year-old Lila. Raised in kindness and in accordance with principles of non-violent communication and alternative Scandinavian child-rearing methods, the little angel inevitably transforms… into a teenager. Her parents are forced to review their education methods and shift from communication to retaliation: an eye for an eye... All 30 days’ shooting took place in Brussels, where the story is set, and most of the production team (around thirty technicians) hail from the Belgian capital. Other Brussels-based contributors include Eye-Lite (Schaerbeek) for cameras and lighting, KGS (Schaerbeek) for machinery, Caviar (Brussels) for image editing and VFX and Boxon (Ixelles) for sound. Playing opposite Elsa Zylberstein (A bras ouverts, Il y a longtemps que je t’aime, Mina Tannenbaum, we find Brussels-born Tania Garbarski (Faut pas lui dire, Vive les vacances, La face cachée, Le tango des Rashevski) and also Stéphanie Crayencour (Faut pas lui dire, Les visiteurs, la révolution, Les hommes de l’ombre).
Elke Derde Donderdag
Produced by W2 (Ghent). When housewife & mother-of-two, Cathy, learns that she is dying of breast cancer, she starts putting her affairs in order: she wants her sister to become her husband’s new partner and the kids’ new mother. This poetic and comedic tale of a woman facing adversity with the help of a crucial support group – held every third Thursday of every month – was shot entirely in Brussels, where the movie is set. A total of eight local technicians were involved in this project, including the Brussels companies Dame Blanche (Etterbeek) for SFX and image post-production, Studio L’Équipe (Evere) for sound post-production, Eye-Lite (Schaerbeek) for lighting, Vantage (Forest) for cameras and KGS (Schaerbeek) for machinery. Ghent director Willem Wallyn (De 16)will be directing a top-notch cast that includes Maaike Neuville (Zagros,Code 37, Van Vlees & Bloed, Avec ma mère à la mer), Jan Hammenecker (Tango Libre, Témoins, Beau Séjour) and Gilles de Schryver (Code 37, Hasta la vista), playing opposite the likes of Barbara Sarafian, Joke Devynck, Tom Vermeir and Bouli Lanners.
Lola vers la mer
Produced by Wrong Men (Saint-Gilles), the film’s eponymous heroine lives in a hostel and is struggling to get her veterinary diploma. When she loses the mother she secretly visited, her father Philippe makes her miss the funeral. Two years previously, she’d been kicked out of the family home in the days when she was still known as Lionel. A bilingual road movie (French and Dutch), it’s the second full-length feature film by Brussels director Laurent Michely, after Even Lovers Get The Blues. He will be directing a team that includes thirty technicians from the capital city of Europe: KGS (Schaerbeek) are handling the machinery side, whilst Dame Blanche (Etterbeek) and Studio L’Équipe (Evere) will respectively take care of sound and image editing. The cast includes Benoît Magimel (Marseille, La Pianiste, La French) and Mya Bollaers, a non-professional transgender actror.
SamSam
Produced by La Compagnie Cinématographique (Saint-Gilles), cosmic hero SamSam has already found global success on television and in cartoon strips and now finally reaches the big screen. Frenchman Tanguy de Kermel, who created the animated series, is also taking charge of this big-screen adaptation. The animation work for the adventures of SamSam and his friend Mega, who are intent on saving SamPlanet, will take place at MacGuff studios in Brussels (Ixelles) and provide work for thirty animators for a year (260 days), a major shot in the arm for the development of the Brussels Animation Valley.
3 TV series, including one animation
Lucas etc., season 2
Produced by Narrativ Nation (Brussels). Lucas’ newly recomposed family moves to a big house in a new neighbourhood, which means new friends, new neighbours... and new conflicts. Lucas is back for a second season of 27 7-minute episodes, produced entirely in Brussels. The shoot is taking place in Brusseels (for 36 days) and the first season’s Brussels-based directors Jérôme Dernovoi and Lionel Delhaye are back with a team of 65 local technicians. The series project is also filling the order books of Eye-Lite (Schaerbeek) for cameras and lighting, KGS (Schaerbeek) for machinery, Audiosense (Evere) for sound, the Cobalt laboratory (Brussels) & Demute (Koekelberg) for sound post-production and also Take Five (Saint-Gilles). The artistic team is also 100% Brusselite with, in addition to director Benjamin Torrini and scriptwriter Xavier Vairé, the cast from the first season, namely Hugo Gonzalez, Elliot Goldberg, Angelo Dello Spedale, Chloé Von Arx, Alexandre Von Sivers, Salomé Dewaels and Juliette Gillis.
Unité 42, season 2
Produced by Left Field Ventures (Ixelles). Following the huge success of the first season (an average of 340,000 viewers in Belgium, and 3.1 million prime-time viewers on France 2), Unité 42 is back at work solving the numerous cases linked to cyber-crime in Brussels. Behind each case and behind each screen, a drama plays out. Once again, the series uses the region as a central backdrop, with 60 of the 80 episodes shot here. Three directors, Brussels-born pair Hendrick Moonen and Pieter Van Hees, and Antwerp-born Matthieu Mortelmans, direct twenty or so Brussels technicians. Brussels-born Julie Bertrand and Xavier Vairé co-write the screenplay with Charlotte Joulia and Sammy Fransquet (Wallonia). Returning actors from the first season include Patrick Ridremont, Constance Gay and Tom Audenaert, working with a host of Brussels-based actors such as Nola Tilman, Roda Fawaz, Hélène Theunissen and Danitza Athanassiadis. The set will continue reflecting the city’s multicultural facets and to work in three languages (due to a multilingual cast & team of directors). The project benefits from the support of the Fonds Série RTBF/Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles.
Panda dans la brume, season 2
Produced by Vivi Films (Koekelberg), this new batch of episodes continues the stories of the sharp-tongued pandas originally created as cartoon strips by Tignous. After the assassination of the author during the Paris Charlie Hebdo terror attacks in January 2015, François Rollin has adapted the characters for an animated series broaching issues linked to politics and society. Ten or so technicians and artists from the Brussels region were at work on it for 60 days in Brussels, spread across two studios: Squarefish (Molenbeek) and Studio Souza (Koekelberg). The result: 30 2-minute episodes directed by Frenchmen Thierry Garance and Juan Rordiguez and written by François Rollin, Vincent Dedienne, Sophia Aram and Christophe Alévêque, all thus contributing to the consolidation of the Brussels Animation Valley.
3 documentaries
Bruxelles-Brussel Ville-Monde
Produced by Image Création (Ixelles), this full-length feature documentary focuses on the public space within the Capital. Bruxelles-Brussel Ville-Mondeis a bilingual immersion in the streets, many squares and dead-ends that tell a story as they underline the many challenges and transformations experienced by Brussels. During twenty days shooting, Luc Jabon, the Belgian director and scriptwriter behind Les Survivantsand the scripts of the Maître de musique, La Promesseand several documentaries on music, cinema and the arts, will be directing ten technicians from the capital. Placing the capital city in an active role for 75 minutes, the film will be first screened to mark the 30th anniversary of the Brussels-Capital Region during the 2019 Fête de l’Iris. The editing, mixing and laboratory work will all be done in Brussels, at Equinoxe (Ixelles) Dada Studio and ADN studio (Schaerbeek).
Kanal
Produced by Les Invités productions (Schaerbeek). The countdown has begun to the former Citroën garage becoming the Kanal, a future centre for contemporary arts situated on the banks of the Brussels Canal, and this documentary unveils how the people involved in this gigantic project live, whether artists, commissioners, curators, patrons, set designers, architects, politicians, former Citroën employees or local residents. The entire team (15 people) is from Brussels: Gaëtan Saint-Rémy will direct the film, machinery and lighting will be provided by Axis One (Evere) and KGS (Schaerbeek), sound equipment by Audiosense (Evere) and image and sound post-production by ADN Studio (Schaerbeek). It places the spotlight firmly on a Brussels location and event with international stature.
Dragon Women
Produced by Savage Films (Molenbeek). Who are these Dragon Women, these hyper-stigmatised women who ascend to the upper echelons of the world of high finance? In this intimate portrayal set in the investment banks of Paris, London and New York, we re-examine the glass ceiling that still keeps today’s women from being promoted, and shed light on the hidden side of power and success. Young Brussels director and screenwriter, Frédérique de Montblanc, is leading this ambitious full-length documentary, while ten or so Brussels technicians will support her on the international production shoot and image post-production process in the capital. The Fridge (Molenbeek), Studio L’Équipe (Evere) for subtitling and The Black Sheep and Chocolat Noisette (Brussels) will also be working on this film, on image and sound equipment respectively.
A special-format unit for television
La foire agricole
Produced by Panique! (Saint-Gilles). In a special 26-minute format for television, Cowboy, Indien and Cheval continue their adventures on the eve of the agricultural show. Cheval slipped on his skateboard and no longer remembers where he hid the tickets to the show that he bought for Indien and Cowboy... After 50 days in the making in Anderlecht, this project involves a bevy of Brussels-based talents. Stéphane Aubier and director Vincent Patar (Wallonia) also co-wrote the script with Vincent Tavier (Brussels). All together, five technicians, including the Chief Operator of the stop-motion animation, are working with the voices of Brussels-born Fred Janin, Bruce Ellison, Nicolas Buysse and Philippe Resimont, as well as Benoît Poelvoorde (Wallonia). Eye-Lite (Schaerbeek) is providing lights and cameras, Cobalt (Brussels) is handling the editing, whilst Alea Jacta (Saint-Gilles) is editing the images. The La foire agricoleproject is also being supported by Wallimage.
The Brussels Animation Valley[1]order book fills up
The projects supported by Screen.Brussels at this session will help boost the reputation of Brussels’ animation studios and their various areas of specialisation in terms of 2D, 3D and stop-motion. Squarefish studios (Molenbeek), Studio Souza (Koekelberg) and MacGuff Bruxelles (Ixelles) have full diaries for the coming months, courtesy of 370 combined days, involving some 45 technicians.
Almost exclusively Brussels-based and Belgian productions
Out of the 11 projects, 10 enjoy the support of producers who live in the Brussels-Capital Region, while 9 out of 10 are majority-Belgian. More than half (9 out of 16) the directors are from Brussels, including both the female directors (Solange Cicurel for Adorables, and Frédérique de Montblanc for Dragon Women).
... Reflecting Brussels
All the live action projects from this session take place in Brussels (Elke Derde Donderdag, Lola vers la mer, Adorables, Lucas etc., Unité 42,as well as the Kanaland Bruxelles-Brussel Ville-Mondedocumentaries). Once again, our region is being used for the backdrops. The uniqueness of Brussels, its multiculturalism and its international stature will thus be showcased at length in projects oscillating between various languages, cultures and iconic Brussels locations.
A boost for the Brussels economy
By helping to fund these 11 projects, screen.brussels is triggering a significant leverage effect in terms of employment and the capital’s economy. For each euro invested, €8.43 will be spent on the salaries of technicians or in invoices issued by companies with headquarters in the Brussels-Capital Region.
[1]For the past several years, several animation studios moved on the banks of the canal, which now earns its name of Brussels Animation Valley.
