Editor

Today, at restaurant Pakhuis in Ghent, the Ghent Film Festival announced the complete programme of its 38th edition, which runs from 11 to 22 October. Once again it includes over a hundred high-quality films and special events on the fringes of cinema. Highlights are the 11th World Soundtrack Awards, the Maestros of Suspense concert and the exhibition about Ingmar Bergman at the Caermersklooster Provincial Cultural Centre. Star guests this year are the Canadian director Norman Jewison, who will receive a Joseph Plateau Honorary Award, the Italian disco pioneer Giorgio Moroder, who will be honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award, and the French actress Isabelle Huppert, who will present her newest film, Mon Pire Cauchemar (My Worst Nightmare). More than 150 international guests will be attending the festival.

The gala opening of the Ghent Film Festival will take place in Kinepolis on 11 October with the Belgian première of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by Tomas Alfredson, a film version of John le Carré's bestseller of the same name. Director Tomas Alfredson and composer Alberto Iglesias will be present at the opening. The general public will be able to watch the opening film on 12 and 13 October. On the same night the documentary The Magic Trip will open the 'Almost Cinema' section at the Arts Centre Vooruit.

Thirteen titles will compete in the international competition. They are: Beyond by Pernilla August, Blue Bird by Gust Van den Berghe, Cigán (Gypsy) by Martin Šulík, Elena by Andreï Zviaguintsev, Frit Fald (Rebounce) by Heidi Maria Faisst, The Future by Miranda July, L'Hiver Dernier (Last Winter) by John Shank, The Invader by Nicolas Provost, Martha Marcy May Marlene by Sean Durkin, The Mountain by Ole Glæver, Poulet aux prunes (Chicken with Prunes) by Marjane Satrapi & Vincent Paronnaud, We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lynne Ramsay and Wu Xia by Peter Ho-Sun Chan. The international jury consists of the Norwegian director Erik Poppe, the German producer Marion Döring, the American director Jessica Woodworth, the American composer Nathan Larson and the Israeli director Eran Riklis.

No fewer than three Belgian films are competing for the main prize: Blue Bird, L'Hiver Dernier (Last Winter) and The Invader. Noteworthy festival previews this year which will definitely be part of the ordinary film circuit are Lena, the latest film by Christophe Van Rompaey (Aanrijding in Moscou/Moscow, Belgium), Tate Taylor's The Help, Jonathan Levine's 50/50, JC Chandor's Margin Call and Cary Joji Fukunaga's Jane Eyre. The extended documentary section looks promising too. The programme includes Page One, a documentary about The New York Times, and Life in A Day, Kevin Macdonald's YouTube compilation, amongst others.

Apart from films there are a whole lot of fringe events on the festival programme as well. In partnership with the Province of East Flanders, the Ghent Film Festival has organised the exhibition ‘INGMAR BERGMAN: TRUTH AND LIES' at the Caermersklooster Provincial Cultural Centre. It will run from 14 October to 15 January. The exhibition is a production of Deutsche Kinemathek in cooperation with the Ingmar Bergman Foundation, Svensk Filmindustri and the Swedish Film Institute. Ghent is the third city, after Berlin and L.A., hosting the exhibition. In addition to this, in the Memory of Film section, there will be a Bergman retrospective.

It is no secret that music is important to the Ghent Film Festival. The annual World Soundtrack Awards & Concert will welcome a few top composers again for the 11th time this year. The Brussels Philharmonic - Flemish Radio Orchestra, conducted by Dirk Brossé, will play some pieces by Hans Zimmer (Inception), Howard Shore (The Lord of the Rings) and Elliot Goldenthal (Frida). Abel Korzeniowski, who won the Discovery of the Year Award for A Single Man last year, is also coming to Ghent to perform his work. Besides the more symphonic works, the Italian disco pioneer Giorgio Moroder will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award for his film music (Scarface, Midnight Express). And finally, for those who want to enjoy an evening of excitement and suspense, there is our Film Music Masterpieces: Maestros of Suspense concert, where music by Bernard Herrmann and Franz Waxman will be played.

In addition to enjoying film music you can learn something about it too at the Ghent Film Festival. The legendary sound designer Walter Murch will explain his work method at the Film Sound Seminar on 20 October. It is obvious from the number of people who have registered for the seminar that Murch's work is appreciated in Belgium, because it was sold out in no time at all.

The latest CD in the For The Record series is also being released. After Craig Armstrong (Romeo + Juliet), Mychael Danna (Little Miss Sunshine), Angelo Badalamenti (Mulholland Dr.) and Shigeru Umebayashi (House of Flying Daggers), Gabriel Yared is the fifth composer whose work will appear on a For The Record CD. The album will be presented on 20 October at 5 p.m. in the presence of Gabriel Yared at Bar Ingmar, next to Kinepolis Ghent.

Once again the Ghent Film Festival is collaborating with Arts Centre Vooruit on Almost Cinema, a twelve-day festival that explores the boundaries between film and music, theatre and (media) art. Some surprising installations, performances and concerts will shake up our familiar experience of film.

38th Ghent Film Festival
11 to 22 October 2011

For the complete programme and more details go to http://www.filmfestival.be/ or consult our free programme brochure Knack Focus Special.