Festival
'Gente de Bien' by Franco Lolli wins Grand Prix for Best Film at the 41st Film Fest Gent
On Wednesday the 22nd of October the international jury of Film Fest Gent announced the winners in different competitions.
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Young Critics
Review: ‘White God’ - Andrew Lapin
Kornél Mundruczó’s animal fable ‘White God’ depicts the stray dogs of Budapest rising up against their human tormenters after putting up with one too many abuses. The film was clearly made by dog lovers: Mundruczó shoots often from his canine stars’ eye level and allows them to band together in a kind of squatters’ community on an abandoned lot. When they rebel, the language of Cinema Apocalyptica – empty streets, people falling over each other in their mad rush to escape, wind howling through hastily made barricades – emboldens their cause. Nevertheless, the film shows dogs being shot, drugged, and tortured for sport, making a mockery of DoesTheDogDie.com.
Young Critics
Review: ‘Gente de Bien’ - Vanity Celis
Franco Lolli's debut feature is a contemporary exercise in Neorealism that concerns itself with the misfortunes of a slightly disheveled pair. Ten-year-old Erik seems nothing short of a hoodlum in the making. His father Gabriel is a lethargic layabout who means well but cannot get his finances straight.
Young Critics
Review: An Educator’s Devotion and the Wrong Kind of Intimacy in ‘The Kindergarten Teacher’ - Fran Hoepfner
Educators are tasked with a great responsibility: inspiring a thirst for knowledge and a passion for art and science in each generation’s youth. Nadav Lapid’s new film ‘The Kindergarten Teacher’ takes this mission to a new extreme. The story itself is simple. The teacher Nira (Sarit Larry) discovers that one of her students Yoav (Avi Shnaidman) – a quiet, stoic child – will recite his own poems whose brilliance goes above and beyond her own abilities as a writer. In turn, she deems it her mission to nurture his ability at the risk of his and her wellbeing.
Young Critics
Review: ‘Reality’ - Chris Frieswijk
'Reality' is like a graphic by M.C. Escher: a film that'll actively approach your viewing experience and its conventions. It might leave the viewer puzzling though, as every attempt to make sense of the story is countered with ever more complex layers of metafiction and internal references. Several layers of reality are presented without a clear coherency in space and time, leading the unsuspecting viewer into elusive paradox. The film's form ties ends together in an impossible way and thereby hints to the artificial and dream-like nature of cinema.
Young Critics
Review: ‘Black Coal’ - Zack Miller
The only thing slicker than the ice that coats the ground in Diao Yi’nan’s ‘Black Coal’ is the heavy aestheticism that has dominated the neo-noir genre of late. Ablaze with colored lights in nearly every frame, Diao’s northern Chinese detective puzzler holds on to the stylish tendencies of American counterparts like Drive, but grounds them in a world that feels ultimately more livable.
Young Critics
Review: 'Jauja' - Vanity Celis
What makes a life function and move forward? The quote is a question that is visually posed in Jauja, an existential parable that uses the outlines of a Western to treat us to a profusion of iconic shots, toned in deeply saturated colors to resemble vintage photographs, or painted stills from a 19th century novel.
Young Critics
Review: 'Je Suis à Toi' - Fran Hoepfner
Nothing in this world comes for free. Even love and sex come at a heavy personal and financial cost. David Lambert’s film 'Je Suis à Toi' explores this notion of what humans pay and receive through the story of three people living in a Belgian village.
Young Critics
Review: Leviathan - Chris Frieswijk
“Where there is force, there is power,” are the supposedly wise words the orthodox priest mentions halfway through 'Leviathan', the artful work of director Andrey Zvyagintsev.
Young Critics
Review: Gone (but not forgotten) Girl: The Power of Death in 'Une Nouvelle Amie' - Zack Miller
To start a film with a dead body is an audacious choice, typically reserved for pulpy murder mysteries or stories about, well, death. Une Nouvelle Amie, the latest effort from François Ozon, purports to be the latter while remaining something squarely its own through the French filmmaker’s hallmark playful dissection.
Young Critics
Review: 'Waste Land' - Andrew Lapin
The line between seen and unseen threats is a prominent theme in Pieter Van Hees’s 'Waste Land'. What begins with a straight-shooting yet violently impulsive detective’s routine murder investigation quickly jumps down a rabbit hole into dark, trippy cultural mysticism.
Music @ Film Fest Gent
Music is more than ever represented on the 41st edition of Film Fest Gent. Not only several concerts celebrate the beauty of film music, but also films in the Sound and Vision-section show documentaries, fiction about concerts, musicians and music styles and cross over the boundaries of the classical film genre. And this year’s musical programme promises to make for another fantastic year at Film Fest Gent!
Festival
'Waste Land' selected for Official Competition at Film Fest Gent
‘Waste Land’, the third feature by Pieter Van Hees will have his European premiere at the 41st Film Fest Gent
Festival
Cliff Martinez concert at the 14th edition of the World Soundtrack Awards
Film Fest Gent proudly welcomes Cliff Martinez, American composer and former drummer of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, to the traditional film music concert during the second part of the World Soundtrack Awards Ceremony & Concert on Saturday October 25th
Festival
Rock band Goblin to play Suspiria at Vooruit
During Film Fest Gent the Italian prog-rock band Goblin will be playing live music during the screening of the surreal horror classic "Suspiria" at Vooruit on Saturday 18 October.
Festival
Nick Cave film 20,000 Days on Earth at Film Fest Gent
20,000 Days on Earth, a documentary about singer and culture icon Nick Cave by the artists Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, will have its Belgian premiere at the 41st Film Fest Gent. The surprising and heartfelt film is the second title of the renewed music section Sound and Vision: presented by Spotify.
Festival
Bret Easton Ellis to head jury of 41st Film Fest Gent
US author and screenwriter Bret Easton Ellis has been named president of the international jury of the 41st Film Fest Gent (14 to 25 October).
Festival
Chaplin's The Tramp centennial
Film Fest Gent (14 to 25 October) is celebrating the 100th anniversary of Charlie Chaplin’s the Tramp with exceptional screenings of two of the greatest classics of Charles Spencer Chaplin: 'The Circus' and 'The Gold Rush'.
On 26 October, the festival will be getting an additional film music event toward its ending with a family concert of the silent film classic 'The Circus' (1928). The film be screened with music composed by Chaplin, performed by a live orchestra led by Music Director Dirk Brosse at Kuipke Gent.
Dirk Brosse: "Leading a silent film is always very exciting. Sometimes I feel like a tightrope walker who suddenly looks down, in this case almost literally. The music that Chaplin composed is compelling and efficacious. It waltzes from comedy to drama and banters from laughter to tears. And as is often the case: melancholy is never far away."
In recognition of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on 17 October, Film Fest Gent will screen 'The Gold Rush' (1925), in collaboration with OCMW Ghent at City Hall. Each year different organizations from Ghent join forces to honour the victims of poverty, exclusion and violence at the Statue of Human Rights at the St. Peter's Square. Other activities are also organised at Ghent City Hall.
Chaplin’s 'The Circus' presented by Proximus and supported by Ghent University will take place on Sunday, 26 October at Kuipke Gent at 15:00
Tickets are €15 (standard) and €12 (kids under 12) and are available through this link.
Festival
The Loft opens 41st Film Fest Gent
The 41st edition of Film Fest Gent will open on Tuesday 14, October with 'The Loft': Erik Van Looy’s long-awaited American remake of the phenomenal success Loft by Bart De Pauw and Erik Van Looy.
Festival
Film Fest Gent honours Federico Fellini with a major exhibition
On the initiative of and in collaboration with Film Fest Gent, the Province of East Flanders presents a large-scale exhibition about the work of Italy’s most renowned filmmaker Federico Fellini.
Festival
Catherine Deneuve graces the posters of the 41st Film Fest Gent
Catherine Deneuve in all her glory and in one of her most famous roles. Who better than Deneuve in Belle de Jour (1967) as the incarnation of French cinema as we like it – chic, stylish, reserved, mysterious and a tad naughty?
Festival
Concert: Rota/Fellini
In conjunction with a major exhibition at the Caermersklooster Provincial Cultural Centre, the 41st edition of Film Fest Gent (14 to 25 October 2014) is shining the spotlight on the world of Federico Fellini with various events. On Thursday 23 October, De Bijloke Music Centre is hosting the concert Rota/Fellini with symphonic music from the director of La Dolce Vita and La Strada, performed by the Brussels Philharmonic conducted by Dirk Brossé.
Festival
Focus on France at the 41st edition of Film Fest Gent
The 41st edition of Film Fest Gent (14-25 October 2014) is focusing on French cinema. The annually recurring sections will be complemented by a separate one-off section dedicated to recent French films (as was the case last year with American Independent Cinema). However, this doesn’t mean that French films won’t also feature in the other festival sections (Competition, Galas & Previews, Classics, Out of the Box and Artists on Film). French directors and actors have been invited to present their latest films to the festival audience. The programme also includes debates, Q&As, director talks and meetings with French film professionals. We are collaborating closely with UniFrance and, of course, with Belgian distributors for the development of the programme and the invitation of talented French film professionals. Click here for additional info.
Festival
Port of Ghent Public Choice Award: Short Term 12 (Destin Daniel Cretton)
The jury has chosen its winners and now your votes have been counted as well. The winner of the Port of Ghent Public Choice Award goes to 'Short Term 12' by Destin Daniel Cretton.