Screen Flanders # 2017 by Screen Flanders

SCREEN FLANDERS 2017

BIRDS’ EYE VIEWS A pair of new ANIMATION PROJECTS from Flanders focus on LITTLE BIRDS who can’t help THINKING BIG ON THE MONEY Racer and the Jailbird taps into all six Belgian film funds to reunite the Bullhead team LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION Two top practitioners talk about their careers in costume and production design

SCREEN FLANDERS THE BIRDS PART 1 The story of a sparrow who thinks he is a stork takes off for Berlin

ON THE STARTING GRID Michaël R. Roskam’s Racer and the Jailbird is set to burn rubber this summer

THE BIRDS PART 2 Iceland’s GunHil and Flanders’ Cyborn hatch the tale of a brave little plover called Ploey

IN THE RIGHT PLACE Production designer Kurt Loyens creates a mood of menace for The Prime Minister

PARTNERS IN CRIME Lunanime teams up with Norway for a taste of Flemish noir and with France for a 2D animation project

2 } CONTENTS

CONTENTS 20

LAIR OF THE BEAST

SPEED TWEAKS

DRESSING UP

The latest news from one of northern Europe’s top stop-motion studios

Flemish companies helped bring Germany’s Robby & Toby’s Fantastic Voyager to the screen in record time

It’s all in the detail, says Flemish costume designer Charlotte Willems

PLUS: THE SCREEN FLANDERS CO-PRODUCTION GUIDE

CONTENTS | 3

4 } RICHARD THE STORK

STRICTLY FOR THE BIRDS THE STORY OF A LITTLE SPARROW WHO WOULDN’T TAKE ‘NO’ FOR AN ANSWER

Richard is a little sparrow who was orphaned at birth and brought up by a family of storks, with the not surprising result that he thinks he is a stork. The awful truth is revealed when the time comes for the stork family to fly off to Africa for the winter. That’s a trip way beyond Richard’s little wings, so sadly the stork family have to leave him behind. But Richard is determined to be true to his inner stork and sets off on his own to hitch-hike all the way to Africa, making various feathered friends - including an owl with an imaginary friend and a disco-mad parakeet - as he bravely journeys south.

Made by some of the key producers of the international animation hit Ooops! Noah Is Gone…, Richard the Stork was produced by Knudsen & Streuber Medienmanufaktur and Ulysses Filmproduktion (Germany); supported by Screen Flanders and the Belgian Tax Shelter; and coproduced by Genk-based animation house Walking the Dog (see also pages 23-25) alongside Melusine Productions (Luxembourg) and Den siste skilling (Norway). The film had its world premiere in the 2017 Berlinale Generation Kplus section aimed at older children (13 and over) and is represented worldwide by Munich-based Global Screen who have already sold multiple territories.

RICHARD THE STORK | 5

ALL TOGETHER NOW For Racer and the Jailbird, the new film from Bullhead director Michaël R. Roskam, Savage Film’s Bart Van Langendonck has managed to unite all sections of the Belgian film world in one adventurous funding package.

RACER AND THE JAILBIRD* DIRECTOR } MICHAËL R. ROSKAM WRITERS } MICHAËL R. ROSKAM, THOMAS BIDEGAIN, NOÉ DEBRÉ MAIN PRODUCERS } SAVAGE FILM (BE), STONE ANGELS (FR) CO-PRODUCERS } EYEWORKS (BE), KAAP HOLLAND FILM (NL), SUBMARINE (NL), FRAKAS PRODUCTIONS (BE) CAST } MATTHIAS SCHOENAERTS, ADÈLE EXARCHOPOULOS

Is Bart Van Langendonck a superstitious person? You could be forgiven for thinking so. When Bullhead, the film he produced for director Michaël R. Roskam, was having its first test screening in front of an invited audience, he somehow couldn’t be there. Same thing for Robin Pront’s directorial debut, The Ardennes, which was one of the most acclaimed Flemish films of last year. So this Christmas, with

} ADÈLE EXARCHOPOULOS IN RACER AND THE JAILBIRD

KEY LOCAL SUPPLIERS } AUDUMLA, BULLETPROOF RENTALS, TRASHASTKHAN, AED STUDIOS, CINÉ QUA NON, PUKKA

FINANCED IN BELGIUM } 54% GENRE } FICTION FEATURE, AMOUR NOIR INTERNATIONAL SALES } WILD BUNCH

6 } RACER AND THE JAILBIRD

BUDGET } APPROX. 8 MILLION EUR

his biggest film yet booked for a test screening, Van Langendonck was taking no chances. “It turns out I’m never there for the big audience test screening,” he says over the phone from Costa Rica, where he has gone to pick up an award for the documentary The Land of the Enlightened. “But the other two both turned out to be successes, so let’s hope the same is true for this one.” THE FILM KEPT ON BREWING ‘This one’ is Roskam’s third feature, the EUR 8-million Racer and the Jailbird, and Van Langendonck could be forgiven for taking a little R&R: the film took up most of last year and the result has been eagerly awaited, ever since Bullhead made it through to the

nomination stage in the 2012 Academy Awards. That brought Roskam a lot of offers. He eventually went with Fox Searchlight, making his US debut with The Drop, a stylish Brooklyn-set thriller based on a story by cult crime writer Dennis Lehane. But, all the time, what would eventually become Racer and the Jailbird kept on brewing. “Michaël is very intrigued by stories that happen in Belgium,” says Van Langendonck, “and he’s very into gangster movies. He’s a big fan of Michael Mann, so he wanted to make his own gangster movie in Brussels. What is more, he and I were both intrigued by this gang in the 1980s in Belgium led by a very charismatic gangster called Patrick Haemers.” The gangster milieu provides the background - as it does in Mann’s films - but at heart Racer is a tragic tale of the love between a fearless

“Michaël is very into gangster movies. He’s a big fan of Michael Mann”

woman, Bibi Delhany, who races cars and is played by French star Adèle Exarchopoulos (she grabbed the world’s attention with Blue Is the Warmest Colour in 2013) and the charismatic but damaged gangster Gigi Vanoirbeek (Matthias Schoenaerts). PUTTING THE BULLHEAD CREW BACK TOGETHER “I consider Racer and the Jailbird to be the second part of my crime trilogy,” Roskam has said. “Each part is loosely based on a particular moment in Belgian criminal history. This time, I draw inspiration from the Haemers and de Staercke gangs and particularly the story of Murat Kaplan. However, it is a totally fictional tale of love and crime, of desire and failure. A love tragedy, or better, an ‘amour noir’ film.”

Bart Van Langendonck

RACER AND THE JAILBIRD | 7

} RACER AND THE JAILBIRD

“It is a totally fictional tale of love and crime, of desire and failure. A love tragedy, or better, an ‘amour noir’ film” Michaël R. Roskam

There is obviously a lot of ambition on the table here and, like all ambitious projects, Racer was a while in development. “Michaël always had an idea to make a Belgian film right after Bullhead,” says Van Langendonck. “We started thinking about a cycling movie, but then he got offered this deal by Fox Searchlight so he abandoned it. In the meantime, he came up with another project which marked the return of Matthias Schoenaerts, together with the DOP Nicolas Karakatsanis, the composer, the 1st AD… we really tried to put the crew from Bullhead back together.” Also back on board are

} MATTHIAS SCHOENAERTS AND SAM LOUWYCK IN RACER AND THE JAILBIRD

8 } RACER AND THE JAILBIRD

such top Flemish professionals as steadicam operator Jo Vermaercke, production designer Geert Paredis, costume designer Kristin Van Passel and editor Alain Dessauvage. ALL SIX MONEY SOURCES Putting the crew back together was one thing; however, funding the new film was another matter. Costing around four times as much as Bullhead, Racer and the Jailbird is a co-production between Belgium, the Netherlands and France. Most interestingly of all, it is the first film ever to tap into all six Belgian money sources, to which was added the money raised in France by PierreAnge Le Pogam of Stone Angels. “It’s really a 50/50 co-production between France and Belgium,” explains Van Langendonck. “Michaël is a partner in Savage Film so it was only logical that we would collaborate on another film. Meanwhile, he had met with Pierre-Ange in France and he proposed to raise the financing for his next film. In the end, we did it together

on a 50/50 basis, in which he brought in the French Canal +, Orange, Pathé and Wild Bunch for distribution and international sales; and we went to the funds and other local financiers. “First, of course, we went to the VAF (the Flanders Audiovisual Fund); that’s the one you need if you want to get additional funding from the French-speaking cultural funds and from the Dutch cultural funds. That’s really the cornerstone of financing for a Flemish film. Then we went to Screen Flanders, Eurimages, Wallimages and then finally the new Screen Brussels. They came in just

before we started shooting.” The screenplay - by Roskam and French writers/directors Thomas Bidegain (Un prophète, Les cowboys) and Noé Debré (Les cowboys, Dheephan) - portrays a polyglot world where people slip naturally from one (Belgian) language to another, and that certainly smoothed the production’s path through the funding process. Things went less smoothly with the weather. “It was a 60-day shoot,” says Van Langendonck, “and the idea was to have nice spring weather. But it was just horrible… the worst spring ever!” } RACER AND THE JAILBIRD

} RACER AND THE JAILBIRD

Bart Van Langendonck SAVAGE FILM RACER AND THE JAILBIRD* } 2017 PAST IMPERFECT* } 2016 COFFEE* } 2016 THE LAND OF THE ENLIGHTENED } 2016 DIAMANT NOIR* } 2016 THE ARDENNES* } 2015 GALLOPING MIND* } 2015 LIFE ACCORDING TO NINO* } 2015 ALLELUIA } 2014 LABYRINTHUS* } 2014 LAST HIJACK } 2014 ANTON CORBIJN INSIDE OUT } 2012 EMPIRE OF DUST } 2011 BULLHEAD } 2011 *Screen Flanders supported

RACER AND THE JAILBIRD | 9

FEAR OF FLYING How a little bird called Ploey has got the animation pipeline humming between Reykjavik and Antwerp.

PLOEY MAIN DIRECTOR } ARNI OLAFUR ASGEIRSSON CO-DIRECTORS } GUNNAR KARLSSON, IVES AGEMANS MAIN PRODUCER } GUNHIL – HILMAR SIGURDSSON CO-PRODUCERS (BE) } CYBORN, BNP PARISBAS FORTIS FILM FINANCE KEY LOCAL SUPPLIER } CYBORN ANIMATION STUDIO BUDGET } 6,900,178 EUR FINANCED IN BELGIUM } 50% GENRE } 3D ANIMATED FEATURE, COMEDY/ADVENTURE SALES } ARRI WORLDSALES

10 } P L O E Y

The plover is a dumpy, short-billed wading bird which makes a distinctive ‘peeping’ sound and can be found as far north as Iceland during the summer. When the cold weather comes, however, the plover heads south to warmer climes. Not Ploey. The hero of an exciting new 3D animation co-production between Flanders and Iceland, Ploey suffers a major trauma early in life during a flying lesson when he is attacked by the evil falcon Shadow - an incident which results in the death of his father. Forced to spend the winter in Iceland, Ploey seeks out Paradise Valley, a secret place where those left behind can survive the winter. Determined to find his best friend Ploveria once again, Ploey must overcome his fear of flying } PLOEY

and escape the clutches of Shadow. Will he? Well, you are going to have to wait until November to find out. That’s when GunHil Productions in Reykjavik and Cyborn in Antwerp will deliver their 3D animation feature. Munichbased sales agent ARRI Worldsales has been on board since the early stages and has already secured close to 20 international theatrical releases. THE SAME WAY OF THINKING The whole co-operation started with an earlier deal collapsing. “We were working with a German company,” recalls producer Hilmar Sigurdsson, the ‘Hil’ in GunHil (his partner Gunnar Karlsson is the ‘Gun’), “and they couldn’t deliver what they’d promised. Then we met the guys from Cyborn at Cartoon Movies in March 2015 and really got on: we both had the same way of thinking about animation. So, in a very short time, we paid a visit to their studio in Antwerp and decided

} WORK IN PROGRESS OF PLOEY AT THE CYBORN STUDIO IN ANTWERP

to aim for this co-pro deal. What was really nice was that Cyborn had in this short time already secured 80% of their part of the financing via the Tax Shelter and also Screen Flanders quickly identified the possibilities of the project, which meant we could close the deal.” Production began in January 2016. Sigurdsson and Karlsson set up GunHil with dotcom backing in 2000, then went solo in 2011 to make Iceland’s first animated feature, The Legends of Valhalla - Thor, which was a hit on the family market in 2012. They recently became a subsidiary of Iceland’s oldest film company, Sagafilm, with Sigurdsson as ceo of the whole operation. The GunHil/Cyborn co-production on Ploey is financed 50-50%, but the bulk of the animation work is being done in Antwerp by Cyborn. Its founder, Ives Agemans, co-producer and co-director of Ploey, says he is very pleased to be part of the project. “We love working with our Icelandic partners, as we both share the same drive and perfectionism to produce an appealing film that can be enjoyed by a large international audience,” says Agemans. “Now that we are halfway through the

production and everything is running smoothly, we are confident of reaching our goal.” Cyborn is one of Flanders’ leading animation companies, with custombuilt studios specialising in 3D and with a firm foothold in the brave new world of VR (see sidebar, p 13). “Even though Cyborn has 18 years of experience in 3D animation productions, partly as a kind of service company for other producers, this is the first feature film that we have produced ourselves. It will definitely not be our last, though,” he notes. “Cyborn will continue co-producing key-frame animated 3D animation films like Ploey. We can’t give many details right now, but we can say that we have some really nice projects on the way. “Additionally, we are developing our own ambitious sci-fi film Hubris, that will make use of the latest Vicon Motion-capture systems, our inhouse motion-capture-based facial animation system, and a lot of cool 3D VR stuff that will blow your mind.” A RANGE OF SPECIALISTS “Together with my partner in crime Iris Delafortry,” says Agemans,

“What was really nice was that Cyborn had in this short time already secured 80% of their part of the financing and also Screen Flanders quickly identified the possibilities of the project, which meant we could close the deal.” Hilmar Sigurdsson

P L O E Y | 11

} HILMAR SIGURDSSON

GUNHIL

Selected filmography

RED WATERS } 2019 THE BEACON } 2017 PLOEY – YOU NEVER FLY ALONE* } 2017 LEGENDS OF VALHALLA – THOR } 2012 ANNA AND THE MOODS } 2006 THE LOST LITTLE CATERPILLAR (SHORT) } 2002

“we have managed to create a stimulating and dynamic environment. We want to keep expanding our team and expertise and offer our colleagues challenging projects. We consider this to be one of the most important aspects of Cyborn.” For Ploey, Cyborn is taking care of the bulk of the 3D production, except for 15% of the character animation that will be done in Iceland. GunHil is in charge of the scenario, 2D designs, voice recordings, music, sound and lay-out. “For our part of the production,” Agemans explains, “we need a range of specialists. You have the character modellers, the environment modellers and the prop modellers. Then you have rigging artists who make the characters ready for animation. We have character animators, lighters, SFX artists, compositors and even a guy who does nothing but make hair and feathers…I can go on like this forever!” he laughs. The process is clearly labourintensive and, as a result Ploey, insists Sigurdsson, will not just be for kids. “Our basic line is, ‘Let’s structure the

} CYBORN STUDIO IN ANTWERP } IVES AGEMANS

CYBORN

Selected filmography

HUBRIS (IN DEVELOPMENT) } 2018 PLOEY – YOU NEVER FLY ALONE* } 2017 SOCIAL WINDOW (SHORT) } 2016 CRUPUS (SHORT) } 2015 DADDY WENT. DADDY DID. (SHORT, 3D ANIMATION) } 2014

*Screen Flanders supported

12 } P L O E Y

story so it has a universal appeal’. We have to cater for the entire family; it cannot be specifically for young children.” There are, he admits, some potentially frightening moments (the film will have a seven-plus advisory). “Ploey’s father dies early on and that’s part of a struggle he has to overcome. But look at the Grimm brothers: the old fairy tales were really scary! To some extent kids like to be scared. The first film we ever did, The Lost Little Caterpillar, has a really scary spider in it. At the premiere, we had young children crying. But the feedback we got from parents was, ‘Yes, they were scared but that was the part of the film their kids wanted to watch again and again!’” Which, as Disney’s success with Frozen testifies, is the holy grail of family entertainment.

THE REAL THING TWO FLEMISH COMPANIES LEAD THE WAY IN THE LATEST THING TO HIT THE ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS: VIRTUAL REALITY. New technology has been one of the main drivers in Flanders’ economic growth, and the film and animation business has been no exception. In Mol, Wilfried van Baelen of Galaxy Studios is designing new sound software specifically for Virtual Reality (VR). And Antwerp-based Cyborn is spearheading the region’s drive into the VR field, with work ranging from games and a Star Wars franchise to an App for a children’s hospital. “You can walk around the hospital and have realistic 3D doctors come and talk to you,” says Cyborn boss Ives Agemans. “It’s a way of trying to prepare kids for operations so they are less stressed. And that will help their recovery. It’s a great cause, but it’s also an interesting way for us to use our system to invent really realistic characters in VR.” Antwerp, says Agemans, is a good place to be for this. “In Flanders, there’s a lot of money for future technology. And it pays back really quickly. The busier you are, the more people come to you for jobs.” It is, he

insists, a win-win situation. Equally committed to establishing Flanders’ lead in the VR field is Wilfried van Baelen, who invented Auro 3D, the “first truly immersive 3D sound system” which adds a vertical stereophonic field to the left ear/ right ear horizontal set-up that limits other 3D sound systems. Auro 3D is now standard, from Hollywood mixing desks to the stereos fitted to top-ofthe range Porsches, with much more yet to come. VR is also very much on van Baelen’s to-do list, he says, since the existing sound set-ups are so disappointing. “When it is all so close to your ear, it is even more obvious that the sound does not match what you see.” To show what can be done, he is currently coproducing the first narrative Hollywood movie in VR. He cannot, he says, reveal details, but the result will be out for all to see later this year. “The biggest challenge is to make VR more real,” he says, insisting sound is 80% of the solution. “Without doubt, our sound is more natural.”

} VIRTUAL REALITY TEST AT THE CYBORN STUDIO, ANTWERP

“In Flanders, there’s a lot of money for future technology. And it pays back really quickly” Ives Agemans

V I R T U A L R E A L I T Y | 13

PUTTING THE WHAT IN WHAT IF? THE PRIME MINISTER DIRECTOR } ERIK VAN LOOY WRITERS } ERIK VAN LOOY, CARL JOOS MAIN PRODUCER } FBO CO-PRODUCERS } WOESTIJNVIS (BE), MILLSTREET FILMS (NL)

Production designer Kurt Loyens found the production value he needed for The Prime Minister in various parts of Flanders. But he still had to build a toilet.

The Prime Minister is the new film from leading Flemish director Eric Van Looy

CAST } KOEN DE BOUW, TINE REYMER, CHARLOTTE VANDERMEERSCH, DIRK ROOFTHOOFT, STIJN VAN OPSTAL, WIM WILLAERT GENRE } THRILLER KEY LOCAL SUPPLIERS } AED STUDIOS, AEROPLAY FILMS, ACE IMAGE FACTORY LANGUAGES } DUTCH/ENGLISH

INTERNATIONAL SALES } THE WORKS INTERNATIONAL

TOTAL PRODUCTION BUDGET } 5 MILLION EUR

(The Memory of a Killer, Loft). It opened in Belgium at the end of October, topping the local charts for three consecutive weeks. A taut, disturbing political thriller, it is, when you get down to it, basically a classic ‘What if..?’ story. What if an international terrorist group were to kidnap the Belgian Prime Minister on the eve of a visit by the President of the United States, holding his wife and two children hostage and telling him they will die if he doesn’t kill the President? The Prime Minister (played by Van Looy regular Koen De Bouw) has to carry on with his political duties while trying to figure out the two key ‘what ifs?’ of the story. What happens if he doesn’t kill POTUS..? And what happens if he does? STRIKING AND MEMORABLE For the story to work and the tension to be maintained, all the visual details don’t just have to be right: they have to be as striking and memorable as the film’s story. And that is where Kurt Loyens comes in. One of Flanders’ most experienced production designers, Loyens studied at film school, then worked his way up from assistant to props master to art director to production designer. Loft was his first major movie and his first with Van Looy. He went on to do both the Dutch version and the US remake } AULA ACADEMICA, GHENT UNIVERSITY

STUDIO SETS TOO “The studio was about 800 square metres,” says Loyens, “and we built the two sets next to each other. } THE TERRORIST’S VILLA, SINT-GENESIUS-RODE

} THE PRIME MINISTER’S VILLA, SINT-MARTENS-LATEM

A LOT OF PRODUCTION VALUE At the heart of the new film’s design is the contrast between the opulent state apartments - created out of reallife buildings like the imposing Vixx Hotel in Mechelen, the old Antwerp courthouse and the historic Aula Academica at Ghent University - and the sinister, abandoned coal washing plant where the bad guys are based. “We had a really good location manager (Ludo Volders),” says Loyens. “We asked him to find locations of two different sorts: some high-class interiors for the PM; and then, for the terrorists, we wanted to put them in an industrial setting. That was such a strange location,” he recalls. “It was a bit like an MC Escher picture with lots of stairways. “There is a lot of production value in the exteriors of The Prime Minister,” he says. “It was difficult to find it all but I think it looks really rich.” Two things they couldn’t find, however: a toilet of palatial proportions; and a flooded apartment. Those were built in the AED Studios in Lint.

We needed to do the toilet because there’s so many difficult scenes set in it. We had to build moving walls and a removable ceiling. It was all covered with beautiful tiles because you had to believe it was in a big, 1920s-style building in Brussels. Then we built the apartment of the Prime Minister’s lover. There’s a sequence where he’s dreaming that he’s in her apartment and it’s raining inside, so we built the whole set on a stage and put it in a big tank.” Loyens knows all about Flanders’ historic buildings, having just recreated great chunks of 16th-century Antwerp on a huge set for the Screen Flanders supported Dutch-Belgian coproduction Storm, a teen thriller about a young boy battling the forces of the Inquisition, which just opened in the Netherlands. But there are still lots of beautiful real-life Flemish locations to be discovered, he reckons. So a day out with Loyens is likely to involve frequent stopovers. “I have a location map on my computer,” he chuckles, “so when I see beautiful things, I always stop and put them in.”

all, he says, with totally different sets. “In Holland it was a different director and the exterior was completely different, so the interior had to be different, too. Then the American one was three times bigger than the Belgian Loft and in a totally different environment!”

KURT LOYENS Selected filmography

PRODUCTION DESIGNER STORM* } 2017 THE PRIME MINISTER* } 2016 IN MY FATHERS GARDEN* } 2016 RENDEZ-VOUS } 2015 SECRETS OF WAR } 2014 SALAMANDER (TV SERIES) } 2012 LOFT } 2008 BEN X } 2007 ART DIRECTOR WHAT MEN WANT* } 2015 THE LOFT (US) } 2014 BOWLING BALLS* } 2014 THE WHITE QUEEN* } 2013 THE HOT POTATO } 2012 LOFT (NL) } 2010 LOFT } 2008 MISSING PERSONS UNIT (TV SERIES) } 2008 HELL IN TANGIER } 2006 THE INTRUDER } 2005 *Screen Flanders supported

T H E P R I M E M I N I S T E R | 15

NOIR POWER THE TEAM* DIRECTORS } KATHRINE WINDFELD, KASPER GAARDSOE SCREENWRITERS } MAI BROSTRØM, PETER THORSBOE MAIN PRODUCER } NETWORK MOVIE (DE) PRODUCER (BE) } LUNANIME CAST } LARS MIKKELSEN, VEERLE BAETENS, JASMIN GERAT, KOEN DE BOUW, HILDE VAN MIEGHEM, FILIP PEETERS KEY LOCAL SUPPLIERS } LITES, GRIKAROS, ACE IMAGE FACTORY, THE IMAGE & SOUND FACTORY BUDGET } 12 MILLION EUR FINANCED IN BELGIUM } 32% GENRE } FICTION SERIES SALES } ZDF ENTERPRISES

Flanders may be a little far south to count as ‘Nordic’, but Ghent-based Lunanime is developing a strong taste for TV ‘noir’ made in Flanders.

From provincial cinema owner to diversified media operation, the Lumière Group has gradually expanded - it began by owning a cinema in Bruges - to encompass production and distribution arms, film financing and a thriving animation studio. Based in Ghent, the company has seized on the various forms of finance available in the region, plus the added value offered by the Belgian Tax Shelter - it has a finance unit, Lum. Invest, which raises tax shelter funds for its own and other companies’ productions - and has been at the heart of making Flanders a production hub out of all proportion to its size.

“There are a lot of countries that also have a tax shelter system,” says company co-owner Jan De Clercq, “but there are only a few countries where you have tax shelter, a fund like Screen Flanders which is important for us and then, in a lot of projects, we add a minimum guarantee because we also distribute. That makes it very attractive for people to co-produce with us.” SECRET WEAPON Being a distributor is Lumière’s secret weapon. In that sense, notes ceo Annemie Degryse, who heads up production arm Lunanime, the different parts of the company distribution and production - run along parallel lines. “Let’s say that we wouldn’t co-produce if we didn’t want to distribute it. If you don’t fall in love with it, you don’t want to tell people that it’s a great thing and there’s no

} THE TEAM

©JAN VAN DEN BUSSCHE

16 } L U N A N I M E

reason to co-produce it.” “We made our first movie in 2001: Meisje, which was the debut of Matthias Schoenaerts,” says De Clercq. “Then, in 2003, we started distributing films and TV series. The second thing we bought was La meglio gioventu (The Best of Youth) by Marco Tullio Giordana which was a huge success in the Benelux, so from then until now, we developed our distribution business very strongly, always with movies and TV series.” NORDIC NOIR MADE IN FLANDERS This philosophy has seen Lunanime participate in a number of international co-productions and animation features (see below). More recently, though, the company has moved into the world of ‘Nordic noir’, the phenomenon which has galvanised TV drama with series like The Killing and The Bridge. They are currently collaborating with the Swedish production company Yellow Bird, on the second series of the Norwegian political thriller Occupied, about what happens when Norway tries to go it alone in banning fossil fuels. Also in the pipeline is Hassel, a series based on books by a Swedish crime writer published in the 1970s, which will be a co-production between Flanders, Germany and Sweden. But Lunanime’s new Nordic adventures really began with a

} DIRECTOR JENS LIEN ON THE SET OF OCCUPIED II

high-end TV series called The Team about three maverick cops, one from Antwerp, one from Copenhagen and one from Berlin, who have to work together on a series of similar crimes. It was a big success, with an audience of 10-million-plus, but The Team was already some way down the track when Lunanime came aboard, recalls De Clercq. MOVE TO BELGIUM ”The idea came from Peter Nadermann who is well known as the connection between Germany and Scandinavia: he was the guy who discovered The Killing. He had had a ‘No’ from the UK and, I think, from France to be co-producers, so they were something like two or three million [Euros] short. I told them, ‘If you move from France to Belgium, then we will have the money you need’.” Lunanime’s participation in the second series of Occupied came about

OCCUPIED II* DIRECTORS } ERIK SKJOLDBJAERG, JENS LIEN, CHARLOTTE BRÄNDSTÖM SCREENWRITERS } KARIANNE LUND, STÅLE STEIN BERG BASED ON } AN IDEA BY JO NESBØ MAIN PRODUCER } YELLOW BIRD NORGE AS (NO) CO-PRODUCER (BE) } LUNANIME CAST } ELDAR SKAR, JANNE HELTBERG, ANE DAHL TORP, HENRIK MESTAD, INGEBORGA DAPKUNAITE, HIPPOLYTE GIRADOT, MEHDI NEBBOU KEY LOCAL SUPPLIERS } CINÉ QUA NON, SPOTS UNLIMITED BUDGET } 8.7 MILLION EUR FINANCED IN BELGIUM } 6.3% GENRE } FICTION SERIES SALES } ZODIAK RIGHTS

L U N A N I M E | 17

HASSEL* DIRECTORS } AMIR CHAMDIN, ESHREF REYBROUCK SCREENWRITER } PAQUALIN BJÖRN MAIN PRODUCER } NICE DRAMA (SE) CO-PRODUCER (BE) } LUNANIME CAST } OLA RAPACE, ALIETTE OPHEIM, ANA GIL KEY LOCAL SUPPLIERS } CINÉ QUA NON, SPOTS UNLIMITED, LITES BUDGET } 6.2 MILLION EUR FINANCED IN BELGIUM } 9.9% GENRE } FICTION SERIES SALES } BETA FILM } HASSEL

LUNANIME

Selected filmography

HASSEL (TV SERIES)* } 2017 OCCUPIED II (TV SERIES)* } 2017 FUNAN* } 2017 LE CIEL FLAMAND* } 2016 PHANTOM BOY* } 2015 LES COWBOYS } 2015 THE TEAM (TV SERIES)* } 2015 RHAPSODY IN PINK (SHORT) } 2015 THE TIE (SHORT) } 2015 OFFLINE } 2012 RUST AND BONE } 2012 A CAT IN PARIS } 2010

in a very similar way. Lumière had been involved in the first series as a distributor, selling it on to Flemish television and other local outlets, says De Clercq. “Then, last year, we were at the Nordic Film Market in Gothenburg and we had a meeting with Marianne Gray and Gudny Hummelvoll from Norway. On the second season of Occupied, they were looking for extra financing and they had some of the action taking place in France. So we went, ‘OK, we can do a co-production with you’. The combination with

Tax Shelter money worked very well, and Screen Flanders felt it was also financially interesting for them.” In the end, Occupied II shot for 20 days in Belgium. “We shot in Antwerp and Brussels,” says Hummelvoll. “We shot a lot of scenes that are supposed to be France and Poland. We were very happy that we got the support from Flanders. The crew really fitted in well with the Norwegian crew, so yes, I would do it again. We really like Belgium!” Thus was born the hybrid known as ‘Flemish noir’. “The big difference with the upcoming Hassel will be that the last two episodes have a Flemish director, Eshref Reybrouck,” concludes De Clercq, “and the DOP will be Christophe Nuyens who did The Tunnel 2 and is now doing a big BBC series called Riviera (with a Flemish director, Hans Herbots). It’s really Nordic noir with a Flemish touch.”

*Screen Flanders supported } JAN DE CLERCQ (L) AND ANNEMIE DEGRYSE (R) OF LUNANIME

18 } L U N A N I M E

} PHANTOM BOY

2D OR NOT 2D

“I discovered Funan in Annecy three years ago and I’ve had a crush on it ever since” Annemenie Degryse

STUDIOLUMIÈRE’S THIRD ANIMATED FEATURE WILL, LIKE THE TWO THAT CAME BEFORE IT, STICK TO THE TRADITIONAL 2D FORMAT.

Lunanime, the production arm of the Lumière Group, has made two highprofile features co-produced with France - De rouille et d’os (Rust and Bone), directed by Jacques Audiard; and Les cowboys, the directorial debut of Thomas Bidegain, screenwriter of Audiard’s Un prophète - as well as two Flemish films: Offline and Le Ciel Flamand, both directed by Peter Monsaert. But that’s only half the story: in 2010, Lunanime set up an animation department, StudioLumière, which has so far co-produced the Oscarnominated Une vie de chat (A Cat in Paris, 2010) and Phantom Boy (2015), the latter backed by Screen Flanders. Currently keeping 15 animators busy in the Ghent studio under artistic director Pascal Vermeersch, meanwhile, is Funan, directed by French-born Cambodian writer/director Denis Do. “I discovered it in Annecy three years ago when it was presented at the pitching sessions,” says production head Annemie Degryse, “and I’ve had a crush on it ever since.”

THE NEW PEOPLE Since then, she has been helping lead producer Sebastian Onomo of Les Films d’Ici complete the package, 18 minutes of which will be produced in Flanders. Subtitled ‘The New People’, Funan is set during the Khmer Rouge era in Cambodia and follows the desperate search of a mother for her four-year-old son from whom she has been separated. “It’s the director’s personal story,” says Degryse. “He didn’t live in Cambodia - he was born afterwards - but it’s the story of his mother and his brother during that period.” StudioLumière has dipped its toes into 3D with An Vrombaut’s children’s short, The Tie, which won a Crystal Bear in Berlin in 2015. But the 3D work on that was farmed out to another studio; and, like both its predecessors, Funan will be in 2D, a format to which Degryse remains fiercely committed. “That’s partly a matter of personal taste,” she says, “But there are already a lot of 3D studios in Belgium - there are two in Ghent alone - and I think it’s important to focus.”

FUNAN* DIRECTOR } DENIS DO SCREENWRITERS } DENIS DO, MAGALI POUZOL MAIN PRODUCER } LES FILMS D’ICI (FR) CO-PRODUCER (BE) } LUNANIME KEY LOCAL SUPPLIERS } LUMIÈRESTUDIO BUDGET } 5.05 MILLION EUR FINANCED IN BELGIUM } 13.1% GENRE } ANIMATED FEATURE SALES } BAC FILMS DISTRIBUTION *Screen Flanders supported

S T U D I O L U M I È R E | 19

THE NATURE OF THE BEAST In less than a decade, Beast Animation has emerged as one of northern Europe’s leading stopmotion studios.

RUSTY (RINTJE) * DIRECTORS } STEVEN DE BEUL, BEN TESSEUR SCREENWRITER } MIEKE DE JONG PRODUCERS } LEMMING FILM (NL), A PRIVATE VIEW (BE) KEY LOCAL SUPPLIERS } BEAST ANIMATION, SPOTS UNLIMITED, ACE IMAGE FACTORY, THE IMAGE & SOUND FACTORY BUDGET } 1.81 MILLION EUR FINANCED IN BELGIUM } 61,5% GENRE } STOP-MOTION SERIES SALES } BETA FILM

20 } B E A S T A N I M A T I O N

Scary by name but quite cuddly by nature, Beast Animation owes its company title to nothing more fearsome than the first names of its founders, Ben Tesseur and Steven De Beul - BEn and STeven with the A of animation in the middle. The pair met at film school and were determined to build a career in the then sparsely populated world of Belgian animation. “We had a student dream, a joke really, that one day we would start an animation studio,” recalls Tesseur. Twelve years later, that dream is solidly real in the shape of a } MAKING OF THE FIRST SEASON OF DIMITRI

400-square-metre building in Mechelen. “We have sufficient space to do what we do now,” says De Beul. “But if a big project comes up, it’s too small; and if there’s nothing to do, it’s too big!” Right now, keeping the space filled is proving no problem, with a dozen or so people working on a procession of projects, most of them tapping into the financing opportunities provided by Screen Flanders and the Belgian Tax Shelter (see pages 30-33). Two commercials for Danish company LEGO, a pilot for a series called Meneer Papier (Mister Paper), the second season of the successful children series Dimitri and The Magnificent Cake, the new film from the directors of award-winning short Oh Willy… are in production.

In pre-production is Coppelia, a feature-length film combining animation and ballet which they are developing with the Dutch National Ballet. In development, meanwhile, are a feature about the legendary horse Bayard and a new series. NO HOUSE STYLE Already in the can are such Screen Flanders-supported projects as the first season of Dimitri, the story of a little bird from northern Europe who ends up in Africa; a TV series called Rusty (Rintje) about a mischievous puppy; and another children’s series George & Paul. The latter is currently in post-production and stars two energetic friends made out of those brightly coloured geometrical wooden blocks that will be recognised by

} RUSTY

anyone who was ever a child. Each film has a strikingly different look: there is, it seems, no ‘Beast’ house style. But if you look closer there is a red line in their work: sophisticated animation and elaborate character development through movement and rhythm. Most of their work is done in, or has a link with, stop-motion animation, a technique where figures are moved around by hand in three-dimensional model backgrounds. Their movements

are recorded 12 or 24 times a second; between eight and 20 seconds of animation a day per animator is delivered, depending on the complexity of the scene to shoot. The result can be anything from realistic to surreal, creepy to comical. Until Aardman - home of Chicken Run and Wallace & Gromit - came along, stop-motion was associated with the high-art end of the movie spectrum, made by pioneers like the great Czech animator Jan Svankmajer or set in the distinctly experimental world of the Quay brothers. A WIDER AUDIENCE “We don’t really want to make films as artistic as Svankmajer’s were,” says De Beul. “Our ambition is to make series and films in stop-motion for a wider audience.” “When we graduated,” recalls Tesseur, “it was very difficult to find work.

} STEVEN DE BEUL (L) AND BEN TESSEUR (R) OF BEAST ANIMATION

GEORGE & PAUL* DIRECTORS } ERIK VERKERK, JOOST VAN DEN BOSCH SCREENWRITERS } JIMMY SIMONS, MARC VEERKAMP MAIN PRODUCER } PEDRI ANIMATION (NL) CO-PRODUCER (BE) } BEAST ANIMATION KEY LOCAL SUPPLIERS } BEAST ANIMATION, IMAGE & SOUND FACTORY, SPOTS BUDGET } 1.6 MILLION EUR FINANCED IN BELGIUM } 47,59% GENRE } STOP-MOTION SERIES SALES } DISTRIBUTION 360

} GEORGE & PAUL

B E A S T A N I M A T I O N | 21

DIMITRI * DIRECTORS } FABIEN DROUET, STEVEN DE BEUL, BEN TESSEUR, AGNES LECREUX SCREENWRITERS } AGNÈS LECREUX, JEAN-FRANÇOIS LE CORRE & MATTHIEU CHEVALLIER MAIN PRODUCER } VIVEMENT LUNDI! (FR) CO-PRODUCER (BE) } BEAST ANIMATION KEY LOCAL SUPPLIERS } BEAST ANIMATION, IMAGE & SOUND FACTORY, SPOTS UNLIMITED BUDGET } 1.86 MILLION EUR FINANCED IN BELGIUM } 20.18% GENRE } STOP-MOTION SERIES SALES } FRANCE TÉLÉVISIONS DISTRIBUTION

BEAST ANIMATION Selected filmography

DIMITRI, SEASON 2 (TV SERIES) } 2017 THE MAGNIFICENT CAKE (SHORT) } 2017 GEORGE & PAUL (TV SERIES)* } 2016 RUSTY (TV SERIES)* } 2016 UNDER THE APPLE TREE (SHORT) } 2015 A TOWN CALLED PANIC: BACK TO SCHOOL (TV SPECIAL) } 2015 DIMITRI, SEASON 1 (TV-SERIES)* } 2013 A TOWN CALLED PANIC: THE CHRISTMAS LOG (TV SPECIAL) } 2013 OH WILLY… (SHORT) } 2011 A TOWN CALLED PANIC (FEATURE) } 2009 *Screen Flanders supported

22 } B E A S T A N I M A T I O N

Steven worked for a few years in Germany and Holland on animation productions but I couldn’t find any job at all in animation. Then we both worked on the first series of Panique au village (A Town Called Panic), and that’s where we picked up our student dream again.” Beast Animation co-produced A Town Called Panic, the first Belgian stop-frame animation feature in 60 years, which had its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in 2009. The film chronicles the ramshackle adventures of Cowboy, Indian and Horse - toy figures moving jerkily around in a toy-town landscape as though propelled by some unseen child’s hand. Nothing could be further from the life-like figures of modern 3D CGI animation. “It looks very simple,” says De Beul, who was director of animation on Panic, “but it isn’t, the apparent simplicity lifts the animation to another level.” NOT JUST KIDS STUFF Like most filmmakers, Tesseur and De Beul see themselves as storytellers. “We play around with plastic figurines and try to express exactly the same thing as a 3D animation film, but in a different way,” says De Beul. But, admits Tesseur, “when we’re animating, we’re still little children, playing around with paper, toys or little cars.” Not that it is all kids stuff: the 2015 film Under the Apple Tree - a co-production with the Netherlands which the duo coproduced but did not direct - is a ‘bad-time story’ about death and decay, while Oh Willy…, a co-production with France and the Netherlands, tells the story of a man visiting his dying mother in a nudist camp. As the above suggests, co-productions

are the norm, and Beast Animation has regular partners in France (Vivement Lundi!, with whom they did the short Oh Willy… and are prepping The Magnificent Cake); Panique Productions in the Frenchspeaking region of Belgium; and Pedri Animation in the Netherlands, with whom they partnered on Rusty,

} OH WILLY… } UNDER THE APPLE TREE

George & Paul and - again The Magnificent Cake. “We like making films and series for children,” says Tesseur, “but we also want to make stuff for adult audiences. Every production is the next step to doing bigger or different productions. Although most of the stuff we do is stop-motion based, the films we do are all very different. You will never see two productions that are exactly the same.”

TAKING THE F-TRACK Flemish animation companies have got used to tapping into the international co-production pipeline, even if the learning curve is sometimes a little steep, as it was when the opening date of Robby & Toby’s Fantastic Voyager was brought forward by four months.

Film, said director John Boorman, is many things, but at its most basic it is the process of turning money into light. Many Flemish companies would agree: they have been doing just that for a variety of clients, in Europe and beyond. Recently completed, Robby & Toby’s Fantastic Voyager is the latest big-budget project to come down the animation pipeline, drawing simultaneously on the finance

available from Screen Flanders and the Belgian Tax Shelter and the skills and experience of a number of Flemish animation and special effects companies, in this case Walking the Dog, a regular partner in European animation films which is based in Genk; and Ace Image Factory, a digital special-effects house operating out of a former tannery near Brussels Airport in Zaventem.

} ROBBY & TOBY’S FANTASTIC VOYAGER

ROBBY & TOBY’S FANTASTIC VOYAGER ORIGINAL TITLE } ROBBI, TOBBI UND DAS FLIEUWATÜÜT DIRECTOR } WOLFGANG GROOS WRITERS } JAN BERGER, BASED ON THE NOVEL BY BOY LORNSEN MAIN PRODUCER } WÜSTE FILM (DE) CO-PRODUCERS } WALKING THE DOG (BE), STUDIOCANAL FILM (DE) CAST } ARSSENI BULTMANN, ALEXANDRA MARIA LARA, SAM RILEY, FRIEDRICH MÜCKE, JÖRDIS TRIEBEL, BJARNE MÄDEL, RALPH CASPERS GENRE } FAMILY ENTERTAINMENT, ADVENTURE KEY LOCAL SUPPLIERS } WALKING THE DOG, ACE IMAGE FACTORY TOTAL PRODUCTION BUDGET } 7 MILLION EUR FINANCED IN BELGIUM } 15.7% INTERNATIONAL SALES } ARRI WORLDSALES

} ROBBY & TOBY’S FANTASTIC VOYAGER F - T R A C K | 23

} MAKING OF ROBBY & TOBY’S FANTASTIC VOYAGER

} ERIC GOOSSENS

WALKING THE DOG

Selected filmography

ROBBY & TOBY’S FANTASTIC VOYAGER* } 2016 THE LAST SUMMER WITH MUM* } 2016 RICHARD THE STORK* } 2016 ANOTHER DAY OF LIFE* } 2015 KIKA & BOB: THE FLIGHT OF THE PIGEON (TV SERIES)* } 2014 LITTLE HOUDINI } 2014 JACK AND THE CUCKOO-CLOCK HEART* } 2014 THE CONGRESS } 2013 THE DAY OF THE CROWS } 2012 PINOCCHIO } 2012 A MONSTER IN PARIS } 2011 THE SECRET OF KELLS } 2009 THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE } 2003 * Screen Flanders supported

24 } F - T R A C K

Robby Toby’s Fantastic Voyager original title Robbi, Tobbi und das Fliewatüüt - is a EUR 7-million German children’s film based on a much-loved TV series from the 1970s which was turned into a stop-motion movie at the time. The new version, on which Hamburg-based Wüste Film is the lead producer, combines live action and animatronics with 3D animation in an entertaining mix of flying cars, comic robots, plucky kids and evil adults. It opened in Germany at the beginning of December 2016. A FLYING CAR Tobbi is a 10-year-old boy with a penchant for invention. One day, there is a big explosion and Robbi discovers Tobbi, a little robot who has been separated from his parents when their space ship crashed. Despite the best efforts of the wicked Sir Joshua and his henchpersons Brad Bloodbath and Sharon Silencer to capture Robbi, the two friends build a car that can

operate on land, sea and air - the Fantastic Voyager or ‘Fliewatüüt’ of the title - and set off in search of adventure and Robbi’s parents. Walking the Dog is no stranger to working on international co-productions, which have included Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart (co-produced with France) and Another Day of Life, which was produced in Poland, Spain, Germany and Belgium; cleaned up in the Philippines; and reanimated in Poland and Hungary. Robbi Tobbi, says the company’s founder Eric Goossens gratefully, “was less complicated because the live shooting was done mainly by Wüste Film in Hamburg. The only company working on animation was Walking the Dog.” A VERY BIG CHALLENGE “The robot took a while to develop,” says Goossens, “as did the Fliewatüüt, which was based on an old-model Fiat 500. When the real robot was

finally green-lit, we started to shape and animate it on a rough model for every sequence. We worked with F-Track, a data-management system that everybody could use. You upload what you’ve done, and the director can see it wherever he is. The challenge was to get as close as possible to the animatronics, but that is always the case for these kinds of movies.” Everything was going fine until the opening date was brought forward from March 2017 to December 1, 2016, so as to hit the Christmas market. “That,” says Goossens, was “a very big challenge.” Recalls Ace Image Factory’s VFX supervisor Stefan Rycken, “the last shots were delivered on a Tuesday, and on Saturday it was the premiere in Cologne. That was quite heavy.” RECREATING ICELAND In all, Ace did around 650 specialeffects shots, of which the most challenging was Robbi and Tobbi’s trip to the frozen north. “We had a big scene in Iceland,” says Rycken. “They shot everything in the studio on a green screen and we had to create Iceland behind it - the landscape, mountains, snow: everything.

We worked with different plates (background and foreground) and some other elements like rocks and ice sculptures, which we integrated to obtain both a very realistic Nordic landscape and a seemless interaction with the three main characters.” Ace also specialises in digital housekeeping – ‘invisible effects’, like removing wires from shots - alongside effects which are very much visible, like the presidential Air Force One used in The Prime Minister (see pages 14-15) which would have been too difficult or too expensive to shoot for real. Robbi Tobbi may already be delighting audiences in Germany - it sold over 25,000 tickets in its first week - but life goes on for both companies. Ace has operated very successfully for 26 years, recently working on both local films like The Prime Minister, Blind Spot, Pippa and The Ardennes and co-productions like Robbi Tobbi. Walking the Dog, meanwhile, is prepping a feature directed by Ari Folman (Waltz with Bashir, The Congress), with a new animated film by Bibo Bergeron (A Monster in Paris) at the financing stage. Clearly, there is no sign of the pipeline drying up.

“The last shots were delivered on a Tuesday, and on Saturday it was the premiere in Cologne. That was quite heavy.” Stefan Rycken

} STEFAN RYCKEN

ACE IMAGE FACTORY

Selected filmography

ROBBY TOBY’S FANTASTIC VOYAGER* } 2016 THE PRIME MINISTER* } 2016 BLIND SPOT* } 2016 PIPPA* } 2016 THE ARDENNES* } 2015 GALLOPING MIND* } 2015 CLEAN HANDS* } 2015 ME AND KAMINSKI* } 2015 LEE & CINDY C* } 2015 THE TREATMENT* } 2014 BOWLING BALLS* } 2014 THE VERDICT } 2013 MARINA } 2013 THE LOFT (USA) } 2012 BULLHEAD } 2011 * Screen Flanders supported

} ROBBY & TOBY’S FANTASTIC VOYAGER F - T R A C K | 25

} LARS MIKKELSEN IN THE TEAM

It took her a while to settle on a career, but costume designer Charlotte Willems is now firmly established on the Flemish production scene.

THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE

CHARLOTTE WILLEMS

COSTUME DESIGNER Selected filmography

I KILL GIANTS* } 2017 55 STEPS* } 2017 IRON SKY: THE COMING RACE* } 2017 WHAT MEN WANT* } 2015 THE TEAM* } 2015 IN FLANDERS FIELDS } 2014 QUIZ ME QUICK } 2012 THE DIVINE MONSTER } 2011 DOSSIER K. } 2009 THE EMPEROR OF TASTE } 2008

* Screen Flanders supported

It runs in the family. Charlotte Willems’ mother is a textile artist, her father an architect. Willems herself is one of Flanders’ top costume designers, as likely to be dressing Helena Bonham Carter and Hilary Swank in 55 Steps as she is Udo Kier, who plays Adolf Hitler in Iron Sky: The Coming Race. There were, however, a few false starts along the way to her career. The first was working as a graphic artist, a job in which she found she missed the human contact. “It was just me and my pencils and my paper!” she exclaims. The second was fashion

} UDO KIER ON THE SET OF IRON SKY: THE COMING RACE

26 } C O S T U M E

design, but that was very short-lived. Before signing up to the Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, she was looking through all the other courses you could take and spotted ‘Costume Design’. What appealed to her is that costume design is the art of the possible: dressing real people, rather than hanging frocks on the idealised shapes of haute couture. DRESSING MS BONHAM CARTER It’s a challenge she still relishes, as when dressing Bonham Carter for the upcoming Bille August movie 55 Steps, co-produced for Flanders by Potemkino. “It’s a very difficult character. We had to create fake breasts, create a belly, put some fat on the hips so it was really shaping the body, trying and retrying, then driving to Cologne [where the film was shooting] to try again. “Fortunately,” she adds, “I have a wonderful team who will work through the night if it is needed. I’m always looking for something. Something special - something that stands out - but

at the same time something that wouldn’t attract too much attention from the viewer. Details matter, and subconsciously they all add to the quality of the final result.” On TV series The Team - a coproduction between Flanders, Denmark and Germany - Willems scoured clothing stores for exactly the right kind of clothes modern cops might wear. For the Danish detective (Lars Mikkelsen), she shopped her way round Copenhagen before settling on a version of an ugly 1970s bomber jacket made over by local designer Mads Nørgaard into something hip and modern by adding a zipper here and a zipper there. “People who know something about fashion would understand that this is not a jacket I just bought in Antwerp: it really is by a Danish designer,” she says. GLASSES AND RABBIT EARS The same obsession with detail characterised her work on I Kill Giants, an Ireland/UK/Belgium co-production based on a graphic novel about a

young girl from Louisiana (played by Madison Wolfe) who escapes into a world of fantasy. “The character wears rabbit ears and spectacles so I said to the production, ‘If you want to fly her in three days before shooting, we might have a problem with the stunt doubles and the picture doubles. I need to go to New Orleans to do some tests.’” Off she set with two suitcases full of pairs of glasses and a selection of rabbit ears. “I went to her house and we tested for about five hours,” says the designer matter-of-factly. “I took pictures and then I flew back to Belgium and met the director.” Willems spends more time working abroad than she might personally prefer, but enjoys the different rhythms. “It’s nice to work on a Belgian production because it reminds me of where my roots are and where I learned things,” she says, “but what I like about international co-productions is that they have new ways of thinking. That inspires me and keeps me alert. It gives me something that I can also use in the Belgian productions.”

} BEHIND THE SCENES OF IRON SKY: THE COMING RACE AT FLANDERS-BASED AED STUDIOS

“People who know something about fashion would understand that this is not a jacket I just bought in Antwerp: it really is by a Danish designer.”

C O S T U M E | 27

SCREEN FLANDERS

CO-PRODUCTION GUIDE

SCREEN FLANDERS ECONOMIC FUND

} THE EXCEPTION, DIR. DAVID LEVEAUX, BE CO-PROD. UMEDIA PRODUCTION

With an annual budget of 4.5 million EUR, the Screen Flanders economic fund offers support to audiovisual productions and co-productions that spend all or part of their budget within the Flanders region. Belgian producers can apply to receive up to 400,000 EUR of refundable advances as an economic support to cover their audiovisual expenses in the Flanders region.

} ASTERIX AND THE MANSION OF THE GODS, DIR. LOUIS CLICHY, BE CO-PROD. GRID ANIMATION

Every euro invested in a production by Screen Flanders must yield at least one euro of audiovisual expenditure in the region. The projects submitted to the Fund show an average leverage of eligible spend of about six times. Financing of up to 15 to 20% of the eligible costs in Flanders is possible to a maximum of 400,000 EUR. The support is awarded in the form of refundable advances on net receipts. From these net receipts, a percentage needs to be repaid corresponding to the proportion of total support awarded by Screen Flanders in the overall financing of the audiovisual work. The Fund is entitled to this percentage even if the advance has been repaid. Periodical calls are made, each with a specific total budget. Applications are presented to a jury consisting of economic and cultural experts who assess and prioritise all projects based on qualitative and quantitative criteria. These criteria focus mainly on the economic potential of the project and the impact of the production on the Flemish audiovisual industry. Available funding is then allocated to the highest-ranking applications in descending order until the allocation is exhausted.

}

WHAT KIND OF PROJECTS QUALIFY FOR SUPPORT?

Fiction features with a minimum length of 60 minutes can apply for support. Documentary and animated features (min. 60 min.) and series may also apply for support. Fiction series spread over multiple episodes and telling an ungoing story are only eligible if they involve an international co-production in which the total Belgian share stated in the co-production contract is less than 50%. To be eligible, at least 50% of the financing of the overall production budget needs to have been secured at the time of application and the producer needs to spend a minimum of 250,000 EUR on eligible costs in the Flanders region. Furthermore, the project must enrich the cultural heritage of Flanders (the cultural test).

WHAT QUALIFIES AS AUDIOVISUAL EXPENDITURE?

}

Only certain types of expenditure are eligible when it comes to assessing how much support a project might be awarded. These expenses: • must take place in the Flanders region; • must be made with the aim of completing the audiovisual work in question; • and must benefit the structure of the Flemish audiovisual sector. Expenditure qualifying for support is exclusive of VAT and may not have been invoiced for at the time of application. It must be realistic and in line with market rates.

}

HOW TO APPLY?

Applications must be submitted by Belgium-based producers. Foreign producers must work with a Belgian co-producer that meets all conditions. Screen Flanders applications can only be made in response to a call. The Screen Flanders deadlines for 2017 are: 3 March, 8 September and 1 December.

}

OTHER INCENTIVES

Screen Flanders support can be combined with other mechanisms such as the Belgian Tax Shelter and the Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF), (see page 35).

}

CO-PRODUCERS

For foreign producers interested in accessing Screen Flanders support, the best and easiest way to find a local producer is through the producers’ associations (see page 35). Visit screenflanders.com for the full set of rules and regulations.

} A QUIET PASSION, DIR. TERENCE DAVIES, BE CO-PROD. POTEMKINO

}

CONTACT

SCREEN FLANDERS FUND Jan Roekens T +32 2 226 0642 E jroekens@vaf.be SCREEN FLANDERS FILM COMMISSION Katrien Maes T +32 2 226 0638 E kmaes@vaf.be FLANDERS FILM HOUSE Bischoffsheimlaan 38 BE-1000 Brussels Belgium E screenflanders@vaf.be W screenflanders.com S C R E E N F L A N D E R S | 29

BELGIAN TAX SHELTER The Belgian Tax Shelter is an efficient and transparent government-approved tax incentive designed to encourage the production of audiovisual works in Belgium. The system is open to Belgian productions as well as to qualifying international (mainly European) co-productions with Belgium. It is a win-win-win situation for the three parties involved: the producer is offered a very attractive way to finance projects; the investor obtains tax exemption through a virtually risk-free investment; and the Belgian state benefits from increased economic activity and spend. The first and necessary step for any foreign producer who wants to benefit from the Tax Shelter is to find a local coproduction partner (see page 35).

BELGIAN PRODUCER Sells Tax Shelter Certificates based on the eligible direct and indirect AV costs in EEA & Belgium

Optimal cash investment of 48.387% of the Tax Shelter Certificate value

Intermediary (not mandatory) charges a fee

interest on investment (Euribor + 4.5%) x 18/12

Eligible AV direct and indirect costs in Belgium = 90% of the Tax Shelter Certificate value

FEDERAL MINISTRY OF FINANCE

BELGIAN INVESTOR

ÂŠ CHARLES DE MOFFARTS

Tax benefits based on the final Tax Shelter Certificate value = audited Belgian AV expenditure

} MOONWALKERS, DIR. ANTOINE BARDOU-JACQUET, BE CO-PROD. POTEMKINO

WHAT KIND OF PRODUCTIONS QUALIFY FOR TAX SHELTER?

}

Animation, documentary and fiction features, mediumlength and short films qualify for the system as well as series, telefilms and TV documentaries. The audiovisual work must be approved by the competent departments of the Flemish, French or German-speaking communities of Belgium as a European audiovisual work: • as defined by the Audiovisual Media Services (AMS) Directive of 10/03/2010 (2010/13/EU); • or produced within the framework of a bilateral co-production agreement concluded between Belgium (or one of its communities) and another state. There are currently bilateral co-production agreements with China, Israel, Switzerland, Morocco and Tunisia.

}

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Based on the amount of direct and indirect qualifying audiovisual costs the production will spend in the European Economic Area, a producer can sell Tax Shelter Certificates to investors. The total value of the Tax Shelter Certificates may amount to a maximum of 70% of the direct and indirect qualifying audiovisual costs incurred in the European Economic Area, insofar as these expenses are specifically related to the production of the audiovisual work. The value of all the Tax Shelter Certificates sold for one audiovisual work may not exceed 15 million EUR. A minimum of 90% of the Tax Shelter Certificate’s value needs to be spent in Belgium on qualifying audiovisual costs, of which a minimum of 70% needs to be directly related to the production and exploitation of the audiovisual work. This refers to costs related to the creative and technical production and post-production of the audiovisual work. Costs related to the administration and financial management of the audiovisual work do not qualify as audiovisual spend and can only be taken into account to a maximum of 30% of the required expenditure in Belgium. In order to achieve an optimal return on investment, the investor will purchase the Tax Shelter Certificate for 48.387% of its audiovisual expenditure value. In return for purchasing the Tax Shelter Certificate, the investor benefits from a temporary exemption of any retained taxable profits worth up to 310% of the sum paid for the Certificate. The investors also receive interest on the sums paid to the producer; the applied rate is based on the Euribor 12-months rate augmented with 450 basis points.

} EISENSTEIN IN GUANAJUATO, DIR. PETER GREENAWAY, BE CO-PROD. POTEMKINO

}

CASH FLOW & TIMING

The investors must make full payment within three months of signing the framework agreement. The investors thus pre-finance the production and/or post-production costs by purchasing a temporary tax exemption. The producer must make the qualifying expenditure within 18 months of signing the framework agreement. For animated features, the maximum term is 24 months after signing the framework agreement.

Investors can be approached directly by certified producers to arrange investment under the Tax Shelter, which will involve some legal work. An alternative is for the producer to work with an intermediary company certified by the Belgian authorities. The intermediary will match potential investors with productions and handle all the paperwork. In return for these services, the intermediary charges a fee to the producer. As well as specialised intermediary companies, the major Belgian banks have created film funds or investment products to bring the advantage of the Tax Shelter to those of their clients who want to invest. Once the audiovisual work has been completed, the Ministry of Finance delivers the final Tax Shelter Certificate based upon the audited expenditure. The final tax exemption for the investors may then be recalculated: if at the end of the production the required spend is not fully met, the value of the Tax Shelter Certificate will be reduced pro rata with the qualifying expenditure in Belgium at a level of 10/9. B E L G I A N T A X S H E L T E R | 31

} SET OF IRON SKY: THE COMING RACE AT FLANDERS-BASED AED STUDIOS, DIR. TIMO VUORENSOLA, BE CO-PROD. POTEMKINO

}

WHAT’S THE ADVANTAGE FOR THE PRODUCER?

If we take the example of a production with a 2 million EUR direct and indirect qualifying audiovisual spend in the European Economic Area, this means that Tax Shelter Certificates can be sold to a total value of 70% - in this case 1,400,000 EUR. 90% of this expenditure (1,260,000 EUR) needs to be spent in Belgium on qualifying audiovisual costs, of which a minimum of 70% (882,000 EUR) needs to be directly related to the production, post-production and exploitation of the audiovisual work. To acquire the optimal investment rate (48.387%), the investors buy the Certificates with a total value of 1,400,000 EUR of qualifying expenditure for an amount of 677,418 EUR. In order to find potential investors and deal with the framework agreement and legal documents, a producer may hire the services of an intermediary company. In return for its services, the intermediary will charge a percentage, in this example 15% or 101,613 EUR. In addition to a tax benefit, the investor also earns interest on the sums paid to the producer. The interest percentage is defined by the Euribor interest rate (in this example -0.085% over 12 months) augmented with 450 basis points x 18 months/12, in this case 42,169 EUR. The net advantage of the Tax Shelter Certificate for the producer comes to 677,418 EUR - 101,613 EUR (commission) - 42,169 EUR (interest) = 533,636 EUR = 42% of the qualifying audiovisual spend in Belgium.

} THE WHITE QUEEN, DIR. JAMES KENT, JAMIE PAYNE, COLIN TEAGUE, BE CO-PROD. CZAR TV

} JACK AND THE CUCKOO-CLOCK HEART, DIR. MATHIAS MALZIEU, STÉPHANE BERLA, BE CO-PROD. WALKING THE DOG

48.387% optimal investment rate

2,000,000 EUR Direct & indirect qualifying AV costs in the EEA

677,418 EUR Cash investment based on the Tax Shelter Certificate value

70% Interest on investment (Euribor*** +4.5%) x 18/12 = 42,169 EUR

Tax Shelter Certificate 1,400,000 EUR*

90% 1,260,000 EUR 90% spent in Belgium on qualifying AV costs

Min. 70% 882,000 EUR Min. 70% spent on direct AV costs

Commission intermediary** f.e. 15% = 101,613 EUR

Net Tax Shelter available for production Investment – Interest – Commission = 533,636 EUR = 42% of the qualifying spend in Belgium

Max. 30% 378,000 EUR Max. 30% spent on indirect AV costs

The net advantage of the Tax Shelter Certificate for the producer comes to 677,418 EUR - 101,613 EUR (commission) - 42,169 EUR (interest) = 533,636 EUR = 42% of the qualifying audiovisual spend in Belgium

The value of the Tax Shelter Certificate may amount to a maximum of 10/9 of the qualifying spend in Belgium, in this case 1,400,000 EUR. ** Using an intermediary is not mandatory. In the schedule, a notional percentage of 15% was used to calculate the intermediary’s fee. *** In this example -0.085% over 12 months (January 2017). For the most up-to-date Euribor rates, please check www.euribor-rates.eu. The value of all the Tax Shelter Certificates sold for any audiovisual work may not exceed 15 million EUR.

} OOOPS NOAH IS GONE, DIR. TOBY GENKEL, BE CO-PROD. SKYLINE ENTERTAINMENT

} STORM, DIR. DENNIS BOTS, BE CO-PROD. BULLETPROOF CUPID

THE FLANDERS AUDIOVISUAL FUND (VAF) The Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF) is the cultural public funding body of Belgium’s Flemish Community. It includes three specialised funds: The VAF/Film Fund co-finances the production of individual films in various genres: fiction, animation, documentary and experimental film. Feature films, medium-length and short films are all eligible. For applications concerning foreign films, financing must be at least 50% in place or the project must have obtained production support from the lead territory’s selective film fund. The Film Fund receives an annual grant from the Flanders government, of which in 2016 10.4 million EUR was allocated to production support. The VAF/Media Fund focuses on the co-financing of highquality television series developed in co-production with a Flemish TV broadcaster. This includes fiction, animation, documentary and cross-media applications of TV series. In the case of foreign series, at least 50% of the financing must be in place, or the project must have obtained production support from the lead territory’s selective fund. At least 20% of funding must come from Flanders. It is also a requirement that a Flemish TV broadcaster should be financially involved in the production of foreign series. The total budget for production support of the Media Fund for 2016 was 3.6 million EUR.

34 } V A F

The VAF/Game Fund co-finances the development of video games by game companies in Flanders and Brussels. The Game Fund supports serious games for educational purposes and other types of serious and entertainment games. The total budget for support of the Game Fund for 2016 was 675,250 EUR. In addition, VAF has a promotional department, known as Flanders Image (flandersimage.com) along with a wide range of accompanying activities and support measures in the area of talent development, research and film culture. FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT VAF: T +32 2 226 0630 E info@vaf.be W vaf.be

CO-PRODUCING WITH THE FLANDERS REGION COMBINING INCENTIVES Support from the Screen Flanders economic fund can easily be combined with other financing mechanisms such as the Belgian Tax Shelter and in some cases the Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF). If, for example, an audiovisual cost is eligible for the regional Screen Flanders Fund, it can also be taken into account for the federal Tax Shelter system, which makes it simple to combine both mechanisms. Depending on the overall production budget, the Screen Flanders economic fund can add an additional 15-20% (to a maximum of 400,000 EUR) to the 42%Tax Shelter financing - an offer you can hardly refuse! PRODUCTION BUDGETS Flemish producers use the Anglo-Saxon production budget model. The fees listed in the budget include all labour costs. No additional fringe benefits or percentages need to be added. This is also the case for employees’ fees. CO-PRODUCTION PARTNERS The first step for any foreign producer wishing to benefit from one or more of the above-mentioned incentives is to find a local co-production partner. An overview of Flanders-based producers can be found in the Screen Flanders online Industry Database (screenflanders.com).

ANIM.BE Deschampheleerstraat 24-26 BE-1081 Brussels Belgium T +32 2 412 4110 E info@anim.be W anim.be FLANDERS DOC Mark Daems Helmstraat 139A BE-2140 Antwerp Belgium T +32 3 236 6663 E info@flandersdoc.be W flandersdoc.be FLEMISH INDEPENDENT FILM & TV PRODUCERS’ ASSOCIATION (VOFTP) Bosdellestraat 120, bus 15 BE-1933 Zaventem (Sterrebeek) Belgium T + 32 2 731 3708 E info@voftp.be W voftp.be

CREDITS SCREEN FLANDERS EDITION 2017 COVER PLOEY ©CYBORN/GUNHIL EDITORIAL BOARD KATRIEN MAES, JAN ROEKENS, CHRISTIAN DE SCHUTTER ART DIRECTION KARIN PAYS CONTENT & COPY EDITING NICK RODDICK, JO RODDICK PRINT WILDA.BE PUBLISHED BY SCREEN FLANDERS / VAF All stills copyrighted by the respective producers. This brochure can be viewed online on issuu.com and screenflanders.com More news and features on screenflanders.com

SCREEN FLANDERS IS POWERED BY: } THE MISSING I, DIR. TOM SHANKLAND, BE CO-PROD. CZAR TV

C R E D I T S | 35

YOUR NEXT PROJECT APPLY NOW!

3 MARCH - 8 SEPTEMBER - 1 DECEMBER 2017 SCREENFLANDERS.COM follow us on