Céline Sciamma, Flo Van Deuren, Kato De Boeck and more female talent at Film Fest Gent 2022
Céline Sciamma
On Wednesday 12 October, Céline Sciamma will attend Film Fest Gent for a Director's Talk with Lukas Dhont, the director of Close, the opening film of the festival. For the talk, Film Fest Gent will screen Sciamma's most recent film, Petite maman. In addition, the French director will receive the Joseph Plateau Honorary Award.
© Claire MathonIn 2020 Portrait de la jeune fille en feu became the most watched French film worldwide. The lavish period drama has been setting hearts aflame since its release through the palpable chemistry between leads Noémi Merlant and Adèle Haenel, the lush photography of Claire Mathon and the exquisite screenplay and direction by Céline Sciamma.
With her debut feature Water Lillies, Sciamma won the Louis Delluc Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007, which she shared with Mia Hansen-Løve, who won with her first feature All is Forgiven. Water Lillies was followed by Tomboy and Girlhood in 2011 and 2014, concluding this loose trilogy of coming-of-age stories in the Parisian suburbs. In 2016 Sciamma co-wrote the screenplay for the moving stop-motion animation Ma vie de Courgette. She also regularly works on the screenplays of other directors such as André Téchiné (Being 17) and Jacques Audiard (Paris, 13th District). She broke the monotony of lockdown with her latest film Petite maman, a meandering daydream about mothers and daughters.
Un beau matin by Mia Hansen-Løve
Over the past decade, Mia Hansen-Løve has built up an oeuvre that is full of the complexities of everyday life. Whether it's childhood love in Un amour de jeunesse, a deceived and grieving teacher in L'avenir or the worries of an artistic couple in Bergman Island, the French filmmaker's cinema is always sensitive, (bitter)sweet, familiar and full of empathy.
For her eighth film, director Mia Hansen-Løve turned to star actress Léa Seydoux. Together they created a sensitive portrait of a young mother and widow who begins a passionate relationship with an old friend while trying to cope with her father who has a neurodegenerative disease.
Roomies by Flo Van Deuren and Kato De Boeck
Directors Kato De Boeck and Flo Van Deuren got to know each other during film school at the RITCS in Brussels. During their studies they were not only best friends but also roommates. It is therefore no surprise that after their acclaimed graduation films – Provence and Bamboo respectively – De Boeck and Van Deuren shot Echo together, a short film for the VRT series Lockdown.
In this series, Bibi and Ama, two lesbian friends in their early twenties, move in together in an apartment in Brussels, hoping to become a better version of themselves. Each in their very own way, but under the very same roof, they come to share at least one new insight: coming out doesn't mean coming clean. Take a look at the teaser here.
Un petit frère by Léonor Serraille
What is it like to arrive in a new country? French filmmaker Léonor Serraille explores that experience in her gripping coming-of-age film Un petit frère. Although the original French title suggests that this drama will mainly focus on the detached experience of a little brother moving from Ivory Coast to France, Serraille's film actually falls into three chapters. These separate parts highlight first the view of mother Rose, then that of son Jean and finally that of Ernest – the 'petit frère' of the title.
His memories of the many obstacles he faced together with his brother and their mother while trying to build a new life in Paris, tie Serraille's meditative film together into a heartbreaking portrait – which, thanks to the beautiful photography of Hélène Louvart (The Lost Daughter), takes your breath away.
Call Jane by Phyllis Nagy
"Call Jane". This call turned up regularly in the streets of Chicago in the 60s and 70s. Often on flyers and posters that used code language to announce that this mysterious Jane could help with unwanted pregnancies. One of the women who is reached by this call is Joy (Elizabeth Banks). She is a pregnant woman who knows what she wants. Until the doctor tells her that her heart is too weak to bring another baby into the world. It's her life or that of her unborn child.
But she has no choice: abortion is illegal. Luckily, there is Jane, a collective led by Virginia (Sigourney Weaver) that helps perform safe abortions. Phyllis Nagy, who as screenwriter of Todd Haynes' fifties portrait Carol proved that she has a special sense of place and time, also knows how to draw and dissect the American seventies in her directorial debut.
© Michelle ShiersAlliance for Women Film Composers wins WSA Industry Award 2022
The annual World Soundtrack Awards will again take place on Saturday, October 22. The first part of the nominated composers has already been announced. The second wave of nominations will be launched on Friday, September 16.
We can also announce one winner already. This year's WSA Industry Award goes to the Alliance for Women Film Composers. The AWFC is a community of composers that strives to support and celebrate the work of women composers.
Catherine Joy, President of the Alliance for Women Film Composers, will be present at the World Soundtrack Awards to receive the award.
The WSA Industry Award is presented to an individual or organization that makes a notable and significant contribution to the film music industry. Composer Robert Kraft received the previous WSA Industry Award in 2012.