Film Fest Ghent and Courtisane join forces again in 2021

As times remain unstable for festival organisers in the first half of 2021, the film initiative Courtisane decided early on to move the festival to October. The successful collaboration in 2020 formed the beginning of a more extensive creative alliance.

Pieter-Paul Mortier, Courtisane coordinator and programmer: "Normally, our anniversary edition would have started tomorrow/Wednesday 31 March. It was crystal clear that this was not possible. The fact that we can count on the high-quality support of Film Fest Ghent this autumn is a blessing. This way, we can, even in 2021, guarantee full publicity to our beloved filmmakers and audio-visual artists on the big screen, together with our beloved audience in the theatres.”

Wim De Witte, Programme Director of Film Fest Ghent: "The fruit of our collaboration and one of the highlights of Film Fest Ghent 2020 was an intensely fascinating masterclass by Pedro Costa, whose film Vitalina Varela (2019) was also selected for our Official Competition. We can only look forward to the further exchange of both of our idiosyncratic film selections and audiences."

About Courtisane

Courtisane is a film platform dedicated to film and audio-visual arts. Every year, Courtisane organises a film festival in spring, which highlights both recent and older or rediscovered films by local and international filmmakers and visual artists, with a special focus on the relations between images and the world, aesthetics and politics, experimentation and commitment.

While celebrating its 20th anniversary in October 2021, Courtisane will also present Out of the Shadows during the festival, a programme and publication focusing on five female pioneers of Arab cinema. The work and vision of filmmakers such as Assia Djebar, Jocelyne Saab, Heiny Srour, Selma Baccar and Atteyat Al-Abnoudy will be brought back to the foreground. At last, this programme can be discovered after it unfortunately could not take place in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Practical information

Film Fest Ghent 2021 will take place from 12 to 23 October. The Courtisane films will be programmed in parallel with the FFG programme, between 20 and 24 October. The full programme of Film Fest Ghent and the Courtisane festival will be announced in September 2021.