An outstanding 25th session for screen.brussels
For its 25th session, screen.brussels has invested more than €1.3 million in the production of 113 projects, which will generate nearly €11 million in audiovisual spending in the Brussels-Capital Region. The local talents in this sector will help raise the profile of Brussels, home to many of the production companies behind these projects (77%), not to mention the service companies and the artists who are also part of the teams (56%) of the people involved in the production).
The selection for this 25th session focused on six fiction feature films, two animation projects, three documentaries, and two TV series. Here are the details:
Six feature-length fiction films
Clean
A feature film coproduced by Cartouche and Daylight Films (Brussels), written and directed by Koen Van Sande (Brussels). Clean is a profound tragedy about an ambitious commissioner in the narcotics division who dutifully issues orders within the context of the ‘war on drugs’. However, his heroin-addicted brother is standing in his way. The filming (30 days) and post-production (180 days) of Clean took place exclusively within Brussels, drawing on the expertise of nine crew members, including four heads of department. Lites Studio (Saint-Gilles) and Eye-Lite (Schaerbeek) will supply cameras and lighting, respectively, while Studio l’Equipe (Evere) will handle audio post-production and Umedia VFX the visual effects. The roles of the two main protagonists will be played by Tibo Vandenborre and Vincent Van Sande.
Dalloway
A feature film coproduced by La Compagnie Cinématographique (Brussels) and Mandarin & Compagnie (France), directed by Yann Gozlan (France), co-written with Nicolas Bouvet-Levrard and Thomas Kruithof (France), inspired by Tatiana de Rosnay’s novel Les Fleurs de l’ombre. In the near future, during a health crisis, novelist Clarissa Katsef spends time at a writing retreat. Aided by her AI assistant Dalloway, she finds fresh inspiration. With memories from a traumatic past resurfacing and feeling like she’s being constantly observed, Clarissa begins to feel a growing sense of unease. A large part of the filming (35/45 days) and post-production will take place in Brussels. The project will employ 23 Brussels-based crew members, including one head of department: audio production by Boxon, with image production and laboratory work by Manneken Pix (Ixelles). Cécile de France will play the main character. The cast also features Lars Mikkelsen (House of Cards), Anna Mouglalis (Baron Noir), Frédéric Pierrot (En thérapie), and Freya Mavor, as well as a series of smaller roles played by actors from Brussels, such as Douglas Grauwels.
Kika
A feature film coproduced by Wrong Men (Saint-Gilles) and Kidam (France), and directed by Alexe Poukine (Brussels), who co-wrote the screenplay with Thomas Van Zuylen (Brussels). Kika’s partner has not long died when, to her complete surprise, she finds out that she is pregnant. Completely broke and with a broken heart, she lists her priorities: 1 - get out of this mess. 2 - consider whether or not to keep her baby. Filmed (32 days) and post-produced (70 days) in Brussels, this film will involve 14 crew members from Brussels, including four heads of department and the following service providers: TSF Bruxelles (Schaerbeek) for grip, image and lighting equipment; and Audiosense (Evere) and Citizen Ciné Services (Anderlecht), respectively, for audio and production equipment. Actors will include Manon Clavel, as well as a number of supporting roles played by people from Brussels.
La danse des renards
Feature film coproduced by Hélicotronc (Brussels) and Les Films du Poisson (France), written and directed by Valéry Carnoy (Brussels). At a boarding school specialising in sports, Camille, a young boxing star recently crowned French champion, is narrowly saved from a fatal accident by his best friend Matteo. As anxiety slowly gnaws away at him, he begins to question his passion for boxing and his close friendship with Matteo. Meanwhile, foxes in the forest surrounding the boarding school are running riot and start to cause trouble on school grounds. This director’s first feature film will be partly filmed in his home city of Brussels (11/32 days). All post-production will also take place in Brussels (370 days). The crew will include 19 technicians from Brussels, including one head of department. Several service providers will also be involved: cameras, electrical and grip equipment provided by TSF Bruxelles (Schaerbeek), production equipment provided by Citizen Ciné Services (Anderlecht), sound mixing by Sonhouse (Koekelberg), colour grading by Cobalt Films (Brussels), mastering by Manneken Pix (Ixelles), filming equipment provided by Testov (Brussels), and image editing by MikfilM (Saint-Gilles). The main role will be played by young French actor Samuel Kircher (L’été dernier) alongside several actors from Brussels, including Yoann Blanc (Pandore, La Trève) and Jef Cuppens.
L’homme qui rétrécit
A feature film coproduced by Umedia (Brussels) and Pitchipoï Productions (France), directed by Jan Kounen (France), who co-wrote the screenplay with Christophe Deslandes (France). Paul leads a peaceful life with his wife Elise and daughter Mia. Following a boat trip where he encountered a strange phenomenon, he realises that his body keeps shrinking, turning his life upside down. To avoid losing the two people he cares about the most, he must learn to adapt to this new reality. This latest project by director Jan Kounen will employ more than 30 technicians from Brussels, including one head of department for set design. A small number of actors from Brussels will act alongside the main character, played by Jean Dujardin (France).
Madame
A feature film coproduced by Versus production (Liège) and Récifilms (France), directed by Thierry Klifa (France), who co-wrote the screenplay with Cédric Anger and Jacques Fieschi (France). She’s the richest woman in the world. He’s a renowned writer and photographer in Paris. They meet during a photo shoot and become inseparable. Their romantic friendship surprises, amuses, intrigues and makes people talk, but ultimately troubles the billionaire’s personal and professional entourage. Half of the film was shot in Brussels (11/22 days), and some of the post-production was also completed there (90/470). The artistic team for this feature film will consist of some 40 technicians, three of whom will serve as heads of department. Several Brussels-based service providers will also be contributing their expertise: audio post-production by Boxon (Ixelles), post-sychronisation by PS. ma sœur (Uccle) and post-production supervision by SLM Média (Uccle). The film’s core cast includes Isabelle Huppert, Laurent Lafitte, Marina Foïs, Raphaël Personnaz, André Marcon, and Benjamin Biolay, as well as a dozen actors from Brussels.
Animation: one TV special and one feature film
La grande rêvasion
An animated short film coproduced by Kwassa Films (Brussels) and Autour de Minuit (France), directed by Rémi Durin (Brussels), who also co-wrote the screenplay with Valérie Magis. Scared of going on stage during the school play, a child flees to an imaginary castle where nothing can happen to him, bad or good. Now called ‘His Little Majesty’, he’s enjoying castle life with his new, flawlessly perfect friends when a teasing bird approaches him to remind him that his subjects await him. This animated film, which will involve almost 600 days of production in Brussels, the home of its director, will employ a dozen technicians also from the Brussels area: animation by L’Enclume Animation Studio (Molenbeek), audio post-production by Piste Rouge (Forest) and laboratory work by Cobalt Films (Brussels).
Outfoxed
An animated feature film coproduced by Walking the Dog (Flanders), Monster Entertainment (Ireland) and Doghouse Films (Luxembourg), directed by Paul J. Bolger and written by Barry Devlin (Ireland). Huntsman Sir Jacob De’Ath (nicknamed One Eye) obsessively believes in the existence of a pink-tailed fox, Pink Tail, who lives somewhere in the rural hunting grounds of West Wicklow. His ancestors have clearly never managed to capture this semi-mythical animal, but he is determined to do so. This animation project will involve 360 days of production and post-production in the Brussels Animation Valley, with post-production by The Pack and Sonhouse (Koekelberg) and programming by Cats on Wheels (Koekelberg). In total, the project will employ some 30 technicians from Brussels, some of whom have been trained at Digital City.
Two Belgian fiction series
Roomies, Season 2
The second season of the 8 x 25-minute series coproduced by Pax Mundi and De Wereldvrede (Brussels), written and directed by Flo Van Deuren and Kato De Boeck. Bibi, 23, and Ama, 26, both graduates of interior design, have moved back in together. This time, they’re living on the fifth floor of an old, vacant office building. They not only share a roof but also a huge void. Without the structure of school and with empty wallets, the roommates try to familiarise themselves and each other with so-called adulthood. Bibi and Ama solve the final question of series one—what now?—in several steps, rather than all at once. As with the first season of this successful series, the second season will be entirely shot (32 days) and post-produced (115 days) in Brussels. The crew will include two female directors and a dozen technicians from Brussels, along with several service providers: image post-production by Studio Souza (Koekelberg), musical supervision by Sonhouse (Koekelberg), audio post-production by BRUKS media (Schaerbeek), and production equipment provided by Citizen Ciné Services (Anderlecht).
This is not a Murder Mystery
A series coproduced by Panenka BXL (Koekelberg), Panenka (Antwerp) and Deadpan Pictures (Ireland), directed by Hans Herbots (Belgium) and Matthias Lebeer (United Kingdom), and written by Christophe Dirickx (United Kingdom) and Paul Baeten (Belgium). This is Not a Murder Mystery is a surprising and colourful whodunit where the Brussels painter René Magritte, unknown at the time, turns out to be a brilliant detective after some of his artist friends fall victim to a mysterious murderer who uses their own famous surrealist works as murder weapons. The international series, filmed in English, is spread over 6 x 54-minute episodes and will involve 308/360 days of post-production in Brussels, as well as a dozen crew members from Brussels, including one head of department. Sonhouse (Koekelberg) in Brussels will carry out post-production.
Three documentaries
Dans leur monde
A documentary coproduced by Thank You & Good Night Productions (Brussels) and Spastik ASBL (Saint-Gilles), written and directed by Isabelle Rey (Brussels). Maison Vésale, located in the heart of Brussels and run by the Brussels-City CPAS, is home to 128 residents with dementia and related illnesses. Dans leur monde aims to get as close as possible to the residents’ reality. The film’s goal is to gently approach the world of people suffering from Alzheimer’s or a similar illness in order to better understand what they’re experiencing and feeling. The Brussels documentary will involve 70 days of post-production and 23 days of shooting in Brussels. The crew will mostly consist of technicians from Brussels, namely seven individuals, three of whom are heads of department. Cobalt Films (Brussels) will be responsible for image post-production, and Empire Digital (Schaerbeek) will handle the mixing.
L’EUkrainienne
A documentary coproduced by Domino Productions (Uccle), Tax Films (Paris, Freetown Films (Sweden) and 2Brave Productions (Ukraine), written and directed by Viktor Nordenskiöld (Sweden). While her country fights for survival, her task is to make sense of the new era that will begin when peace returns. Olha Stefanishyna is ‘the EUkrainian’, a young minister who has the almost insurmountable task of getting her country to join the EU and NATO. Almost half of the film will be shot in Brussels (13/30 days), where 140/225 days of post-production will take place. The crew will include five technicians from Brussels, including three heads of departments. Post-production work will be done by Sondr (Ixelles) and TGIF (Watermael-Boitsfort).
The Magic City - Birmingham by Sun Ra
Documentary co-produced by Naokos Films (Brussels) with Visualantics Productions (Brussels) and Les Films de la Butte (France), written and directed by Guillaume Maupin and Pablo Guarise (Brussels). On 22 May 1914, Herman Poole Blount arrived on Earth in Birmingham, Alabama. Many years later he would become known as Sun Ra, one of the most extraordinary and prolific jazzmen of the century, and the founder of a strange cosmic philosophy. A portrait of the artist as a young man as much as a portrait of a city, The Magic City tells the story of Sun Ra's early years in this city-universe that is at once political and magical, everyday and fantastic, disturbing and fascinating. The project is supported by a team of talented Brussels-based professionals, including the two directors, 2 heads of departments and a total of 9 Brussels-based technicians. Post-production will be carried out entirely in Brussels, with Empire digital (Schaerbeek) for editing, Le Studio l'Équipe (Evere) for the laboratory and Cobalt films (Brussels-City) for colour grading. The documentary will also include a third of the shooting in Brussels, i.e. 5/15 days.
A rare expanded session
As a reminder, due to the high quality and relevance of the projects submitted and the sums of the amounts to be invested exceeding our usual budget, the screen.brussels board of directors decided to allocate a higher budget to the 24th session – to the tune of €1.6 million rather than €1 million – to support the talents and businesses in the Brussels audiovisual sector.
The next session will be in 2025
In practical terms, this will involve a change to the session scheduling for 2024. It was therefore decided to allocate the remaining €1,367,000 of the 2024 budget to this 25th session, with the next funding session scheduled for January 2025 rather than September 2024.
Brussels keeps cultivating talent
Of these 13 projects, 10 are led by Brussels-based production companies (77%), while 6% of them will be directed by Brussels residents (9/16 people). In terms of gender, 38% of the producers and 25% of the directors are women. What’s more, 10 of the 13 projects will be filmed and/or made in Brussels, which will clearly be shown on screen on 6 occasions.
Three projects will be debuts for these Brussels-based directors
Among the six fiction features, three young Brussels talents will be showcasing their first directing projects: Kika by Alexe Poukine, La danse des renards by Valéry Carnoy and Clean by Koen Van Sande.
Two projects for Brussels Animation Valley
With a TV special and a feature-length film, two projects will be filling schedules at Brussels Animation Valley, particularly for Enclume Animation Studio and The Pack studios. These Brussels-based animation artists and talents will work on La grande rêvasion and Outfoxed, both for young audiences and produced by Brussels-based companies Kwassa Films and Walking the Dog, respectively.
Significant returns for the region’s economy
By investing €1,370,000 in the 13 selected projects, we estimate that around €12 million in spending will be generated in company salaries and commissions. In other words, every €1 invested in the region will result in €8 in spending in the Brussels audiovisual sector.