08 19 Oct '24

50th Film Fest Gent

This was the 50th edition of Film Fest Gent
Award Ceremony 10
Ffg remake 1 min

The first ever FFG merch has arrived!

For its 50th edition, Film Fest Gent, in collaboration with Howest Industrial Product Design students and Ghent design label Volmaakt, had merchandise products developed from used promotional materials. Dated flags, roll-up banners and old paper experience a second youth. Discover our bags, document covers, flower pots and notebooks!

FFG2023 18okt JDB 6 van 42 1

Director's Talk: Ken Loach

Director Ken Loach came to FFG2023 to introduce his latest - and last? - film The Old Oak and also took the time to talk at length about his career and ideals, about colonialism, about migration, about Gaza, about propaganda and about listening to each other.

Ken Loach op FFG2023

In 2016, Ken Loach won a Joseph Plateau Honorary Award at Film Fest Ghent. Seven years later, he returns with The Old Oak. The eternally militant and combative director broke through in 1970 with the gripping Kes and in the decades that followed nestled himself in the hearts of the hard-working Briton as well as the cinephile. No filmmaker has devoted so much of his work to the life and suffering of the working class. Even today, Loach believes in the power of cinema. After the screening of The Old Oak, he takes ample time to look back on his extensive filmography.

18
Wednesday October
+ Guest
18:30 Kinepolis 2 Subtitles: Nederlands - Frans
FFG2023 14okt JURY logo

Portraits by Bas Bogaerts

Bas Bogaerts, Film Fest Gent portrait photographer, gets all our guests in front of his lens. Check out the glamorous result. Including

  • Lukas Dhont
  • Cathalina Geeraerts
  • Anthony Chen
  • Bas Devos
  • Colin Stetson
  • Juanita Onzaga
  • Fenne Kuppens
  • Baloji
  • Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
Ken Loach f1619679179
"Why do they say I hate my country? And what does that even mean? Am I supposed to hate my town, am I supposed to hate all English people, or my government? And if I do hate my government, does that mean I hate my country? It's a democratic duty to criticize the government."
Ken Loach Director of 'The Old Oak' (2023), 'The Wind That Shakes The Barley' (2006)
The old oak

The Old Oak van Ken Loach

Ken Loach's latest forms the final part - after I, Daniel Blake and Sorry We Missed You - of a trilogy about the disastrous consequences of failing British politics in northern England. In a former mining village, the pub 'The Old Oak' is the only remaining refuge for impoverished workers, but the water is also on the lips of owner TJ, from whom all hope has drained. When Syrian refugees are placed in the village without much consultation, the two neglected communities are condemned to each other.

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