'Cold War' by Paweł Pawlikowski and 'High Life' by Claire Denis victorious at 45th Film Fest Gent

The international jury consisted of painter and jury president Michaël Borremans, actress Mireille Perrier, musicians Stephen & David Dewaele and directors Hope Dickson Leach, Alexandre O. Philippe, João Pedro Rodrigues and Nele Wohlatz.

With the Grand Prix for Best Film, 'Cold War' takes home the biggest prize of the festival, worth €20.000 in distribution fees supporting the 31/10 Belgian release of the film by Cinéart, and a media campagne, including €10.000 in newspaper De Morgen.

'Cold War' by Paweł Pawlikowski in situated during the Cold War, in the 50s, in Poland, Berlijn, Yugoslavia and Paris. A passionate love story between two people with different backgrounds and temperaments who cannot live with, nor without each other. An impossible love in an impossible time.

"We award the Grand Prix for Best Film to an exquisite piece of cinema that shook and moved us. Next to that, we also want to honour the astounding performance of the lead actress. We therefore choose 'Cold War' by Paweł Pawlikowski," the international jury clarified.

'High Life' by Claire Denis, starring Robert Pattinson and Juliette Binoche, won the Georges Delerue Award for Best Music. The score was made by Stuart A. Staples, a British musician of indie band Tindersticks. The Georges Delerue Award comes with a distribution fee of €10.000 and a media campaign, including €5.000 in De Morgen. The jury praised the music and the sound of the film which "were an integral part of the story and vision of the film maker". De film will have its Belgian release on 20 March 2019.

The award for Best European Short, worth €3.000, went to 'Dark Chamber' by Ottó Bánovits "because of the inventive and concise approach, which sheds a light on an ongoing tragedy".

The Belgian Short jury gave out the award for Best Belgian Student Short, worth €5.000, to 'Après le silence' by Sonam Larcin. "We thought it was a moving film with an important theme, very important in the current political climate. The cinematographic choices to stay close to the subject made the film very intimate", said the jury consisting of directors Anthony Nti, Gilles Coulier, Elke Vanoost, artistic director of Cinema Galeries Frédéric Cornet and journalists Niels Putman and Elli Mastourou.

Earlier this week, ‘Provence’ by Kato De Boeck already won the ACE Image Factory + The Fridge Audience Award. Yesterday, the Explore Zone jury handed out the Explore Zone Award to ‘Mein Bruder heißt Robert und ist ein Idiot’ by Philip Gröning. The North Sea Port and Canvas Audience Awards will be announced next week.

After the award show, the closing film 'Beautiful Boy' premiered, in attendance of director Felix van Groeningen and authors David & Nic Sheff. For his first, long anticipated Hollywoodfilm, van Groeningen chose the true story of the crystal-meth-addicted Nic Sheff and his father David. David describes in his autobiography 'Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction' how he witnessed his son's descent into a devastating addiction - an experience on which Nic himself wrote in 'Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines'. The Belgische release is planned for 21 November 2018.