Held in the cathedral city of Ghent, the Flanders International Film Festival takes place between 8 and 19 October. The programme comprises a range of sections and sidebars designed to meet the objectives of the festival organisers: to introduce the best of international cinema to Belgian audiences; to evaluate the impact of new technology and multimedia on cinema; and to provide a platform for the international film industry to assess at first-hand the viability of investing in Belgian film.
The festival was founded in 1974 by Ben ter Elst, then owner of the Studio Skoop arthouse theatre. It was originally organised to entertain the large student population of Ghent, but the rapid growth in its popularity made it necessary, in 1979, to run the festival on a professional basis and to expand its range.
In 1995 65,000 visitors and more than 1,500 accredited professionals went to the festival. The programme featured over 160 feature films and 80 short films from 65 countries. This year, to further enhance the quality of the programme, the number of features has been reduced to 140.
The festival is budgeted at 80 million to 90 million Belgian francs (US$2,600,000 to US$2,925,000); 60% comes from private sponsors, 25% from the federal and Flemish governments, the Province of East Flanders and the city of Ghent, and the rest from ticket sales.
A prime objective of the festival is to screen the best films produced by world cinema, says Jacques Dubrulle, the festival secretary-general; and the programme of events he organises mirrors this objective.
The official selection comprises two parts: the films screened in competition and those screened out of competition. The central theme of the competition is the impact of music on film, and within this context films compete for the George Delerue prize. The other prizes up for grabs are the Golden Spur for the best film and the Silver Spur for the best director. All prizes include a distribution grant totalling in the region of Bf2.2 million (US$800,000).
The important Film Spectrum section screens films which do not yet have a Belgian distributor. It is, says Peter Bouckaert, the festival assistant manager, the section in which genuine discoveries can be made. Five years ago 20 tapes were sent in by producers around the world, hoping that their films would be included in this section: last year 500 were submitted. Film Spectrum is an important part of the festival, Bouckaert stresses.
The festival is also staging two seminars geared specifically towards the notion of stronger European integration. The first, for Producers of the Countries of European Cultural Alliance, brings together producers from minority-language nations with Flemish producers with the aim of nurturing co-production opportunities. This year the producers hail from Scotland, Wales and Ireland. The second seminar, held in association with and subsidised by Media 2, allows film representative bodies from European countries, such as Wallonie Bruxelles Images, Flanders Image and the Austrian film Commission, to set out their overall strategy for exploiting the global market for their national product.
A third seminar, titled Digiform, will highlight the relationship between new media and cinema. It will include a lecture by Peter Greenaway.
Bouckaert stresses the strategic positioning of the festival, which helps to facilitate a stronger business sense. It is a very important place to make contacts with the Belgian film industry, as this is the most important film festival in the country. One of the strengths of the festival is its ability to attract producers from all over Europe and a strong contingent of buyers from across the world. This is shown by the three-fold increase in accredited attendance over the last five years.
When asked if this success would encourage the festival to widen its brief and stage a market he is philosophical: A market can only evolve naturally. It's not good to artificially impose a market. But the festival is growing towards a market possibility.
The combination of a desire to entertain its public and a specific recognition of its own importance within the European film business framework places the Flanders Film Festival comfortably in the top ten festivals of Europe.
Jacques Dubrulle comments: The festival will keep on growing. If you assess the number of people attending, the number of films, the impact our festival has and the way the programme is constructed, I think that the festival will, in 20 years' time, still be one of the most important in Europe. That is our purpose.
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