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The proposals for support put forward during the second 2021 session by the Cinema Commission were approved by the Media and Culture Minister, Bénédicte Linard.
€3.5 million of funding was awarded to 60 film projects, providing support for writing, development or production. Production grants for films originated in French-speaking Belgium have been raised by 20% since 2020 in response to the funding problems arising from the pandemic.
27 feature films
Three feature films originating in French-speaking Belgium have received production funding. In Le syndrôme des amours passées, Ann Sirot and Raphaël Balboni (Madly in Life (Une vie démente)) follow a couple unable to have children. The only remedy: sleeping with their exes! After the short film You're Dead Hélène (T'es morte Hélène), Michiel Blanchart is making the leap to features with La nuit se traîne, in which a young locksmith in Brussels finds himself embroiled against his wishes in a crime beyond his control. Joachim Lafosse is also receiving funding for Le fils de la loi, his tenth feature film.
Four productions originating abroad are also receiving production funding, including Le bleu du caftan by Maryam Touzani (Adam) and La plus précieuse des marchandises by Michel Hazanvicius(The Artist), as well as the CCA-VAF production Holly from Fien Troch(Home).
Six films are receiving grants for artistic development, and one for production development. In Les fluides, Inès Rabadan follows the love story between a young rapper and a dancer, and the consequences when the dancer dies suddenly. After Space Boy, Olivier Pairoux is preparing Vigilantes, about a thirty-something who ensnares paedophiles by posing as a child on social media. Meanwhile, Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani are developing Darling, about a young painter searching for her attacker in 1960s New York.
On the writing side, eight feature film projects have been awarded support. Following his short film Little Hands (Les petites mains), Rémi Allier is preparing Quand ce sera la fin du monde, on sera riches, about a mother–daughter duo involved in a "genius" plan during an evacuation drill around their town's nuclear power plant. Also receiving funding are Laurent Micheli (Lola (Lola vers la mer)) with Nino dans la nuit and Zoé Wittock (Jumbo) with Transition, in which a forlorn mother tries to restore meaning to her life by supporting her child's transition.
21 creative documentaries
Among the nine creative documentaries from French-speaking Belgium receiving production funding, Nicolas Graux takes his camera to the confines of Siberia in 12 Months of Winter, while Marie-Eve de Grave paints a fragmented portrait of her father in Le graveur invisible. Christophe Cotteret, meanwhile, questions the nature and limits of the contemporary fight against terrorism in Autopsie d'une instruction. Three foreign documentaries are also receiving production support, together with one CCA-VAF documentary.
Three documentaries are being awarded development grants: La famille de Hayflick by Thomas Licata, who, following the discovery that cells can only divide perfectly a limited number of times, films the researchers trying to reverse the process and put an end to death, together with Volcan by Stéfanne Prijot and Dans le rôle by Alexandrine Jan.
Writing grants are being awarded to five projects. In Je jure de dire toute la vérité, rien que la vérité,Yaël André combs through the archives of the first Belgian trial about the Rwanda genocide, using animation to bring the witnesses to life, while Géraldine Doignon follows the daily life of Léane, aged 15, who lives alone and without parents, in We Are Family.
12 short films
Nine short films originating in French-speaking Belgium are receiving production support. After Mother's, his graduation film, Hippolyte Leibovici depicts a drag queen preparing to go on stage one last time before retiring in Beyond the Sea, while Maëlle Grand Bossi brings an encounter between a deadbeat and an executive on the brink of burnout to the screen in William sur le pavé. Three foreign short films are also receiving funding this session.