21 projects submitted! With the sole exception of the launch of the mixed Wallimage-Bruxellimage line a dozen years ago, this is the highest number of applications ever recorded at Wallimage. This is despite the fact that the Walloon fund offers five sessions throughout the year.
The small world of Belgian cinema is particularly dynamic these days and, thanks to the combined action of Tax Shelter and Wallimage, companies established in Wallonia are not about to miss out on opportunities. There are not even enough technicians in the region to respond to all the requests from producers. If you are an audiovisual professional and you want to be called regularly and earn a good living, Wallonia will be happy to welcome you with open arms.
Despite a budget of over 1.7 million, the Decentralized Co-Production Council was only able to select 9 of the 21 applications. More than 57% of proposals not funded: this is a very unusual figure for the Walloon fund. It may become quite classic if the inflationary trend continues.
Of the nine projects supported, three are rather small, but the other six have planned very large Walloon expenditures. Four of these nine projects, two feature-length fiction films and two documentaries, are Belgian initiatives.
BELGITUDE
Maldoror, Fabrice Du Welz’s new feature film, is an ambitious film noir, produced by Frakas Productions, with a substantial budget already well financed by the market, which is not common. 20 days of shooting are located in the region of Charleroi, 25 in Germany including 10 in the famous MMC studios in Cologne. The film will occupy three sets, which is quite exceptional. Twenty-six technicians will accompany Benoit Poelvoorde, but also Antony Bajon and Alba Gaïa Bellugi, on the shooting while a series of companies such as TSF, Luminesens, Level-9 SFX, Beam Lite, Nalo Event, Babel Subtitling and Chambre Noire will be involved to varying degrees in the adventure.
Kozak Films, the production company led by Pierre Foulon, has already received support from our Wallimpact development fund for Wallifornia Dreaming, a crazy, feminist and very exciting project that we can’t wait to see brought to the screen. This is the first time that this company has submitted a proposal for co-production investment. Reflection in a Dead Diamond will be the fourth feature film by Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani, two directors who are highly regarded throughout the world for their highly aesthetic, ultra-referential (Giallo, spaghetti western, spy film) and fetish-tinged work. Stars of the genre festivals, the directors try here to widen their spectrum of diffusion. The shooting, essentially Italian, will occupy seven Walloon technicians, but all the post-production will be localized here, including the crucial special effects, for more than 300,000 euros.
In the documentary department, Les Films de la Passerelle tackles a fascinating subject: the quest for immortality. The Carolinian-born director Thomas Licata investigated as far away as New Mexico on the tracks of companies that aim to break the Hayflick Limit (that’s the title of the film), that critical moment when cell division is accompanied by an alteration that crescendos until death. He also met an American woman who wanted to be cryogenically preserved and brought back to life when this famous barrier was eliminated, and who investigated the technology company that offered her this amazing prospect. Rarely has one been so excited by a subject of universal scope, but very Walloon in its conception as all the films initiated by the Liège-based company: most of the technicians live in Wallonia, Cetemi rents the equipment and the image post-production will be done at Genval-Les-Dames.
Even more regional in its essence, Incasables : la clef des champs follows the excellent documentary series Brigade des Mineurs, broadcast last year by RTBF. This time, director Clément Leenhardt will accompany four teenagers who have broken away from society and are being hosted at the Ecosphere Farm in Loupoigne. These young people (and their educators) will participate in the daily life of the farm: perform the recurring tasks of cleaning, feeding, egg collection, all in contact with the animals. Get your hands in the dirt to hoe, plant greenhouse crops, and maintain meadows. Like a breakaway stay, which aims to break the institutional codes, the project intends to open the young people to something else, to surround them, and to help them find “their key”. The shooting, managed by Prod à la demande, is obviously 100% Walloon, as are the technicians and the image post-production carried out in Genval-Les-Dames.
ANIMATION
Not surprisingly, animation remains in the spotlight in Wallonia with two impressive projects.
For The Girl in the Clouds, Scope Pictures reunites with Brio Films, with whom it had already co-produced The Scum of the Days and The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir. Inspired by a novel for young people, this epic story will be entrusted in Wallonia to Digital Graphics who will do 30% of the overall animation, under the direction of Guionne Leroy. A very first 3D feature film for Alleur’s company with 3.3 million invested in it that will generate 479 days of work.
In this fall, Dreamwall aims instead to feed its 2D team, which is just coming out of the Daughters of Dad and Monster Loving Maniacs series. She will then go on with Le Trésor de Barracuda, a Catalan tale with an original aesthetic, co-produced by Belvision . 2/3 of the animation and compositing will be done in Marcinelle. 23 people (21.6 FTE), including 4 managerial positions, will thus be employed for an equivalent of 2,078 man-days. The dubbing for the French-speaking territories will also be done in Wallonia.
COPRODUCTIONS
The three other files proposed for this session, which will be supported by Wallimage, are feature-length fiction films, Franco-Belgian co-productions (and more if affinities).
La Tête dans les étoiles is not strictly speaking a new project for Wallimage. We had already retained him in March 2021. But since then, the project configuration has evolved and Walloon spending has increased significantly. His Belgian co-producer Wrong Men, who had become a financial majority, therefore wished to give up this first support to represent him. In its current formula, this unbridled comedy will be shot 100% in Wallonia (35 days), notably in Marcinelle with Magic Loom’s led screens. More than half a million euros were spent on Walloon technicians, nearly 200,000 euros on sets and costumes, 130,000 euros for the production of the film. euros of technical means at TSF and more than 600,000 euros invested in post-production (sound, lab, VFX, credits and deliveries): the raw figures are enough to explain how this project ended up at the top of our ranking. Since its first run, Head in the Stars has been purchased by Amazon, which is co-financing it and will air it on its Prime platform for three years. This initial exclusivity does not prevent a later exploitation, at least on the French-speaking channels that love this type of mainstream comedy.
More intimate and less zany, Under the wind of the Marquesas proposed to us by Versus is the new film by Pierre Godeau (Raoul Taburin) who remains faithful to the Belgian leads since Benoit Poelvoorde is succeeded here by François Damiens, supported by a formidable female duo composed of Salomé Dewael (Lost Illusions) and Anne Coesens (Pandora, Duelles, Illegal…). Only one day of this shooting, which starts in the Breton setting of Ile aux Moines, is planned in Wallonia. But in addition to the main actor, a very consequent technical team, a little industry and the entire post-production sound (post-synchro, sound effects, editing, mixing) will be Walloon, with interventions of Bardaf, Cob Studio and Genval-Les-Dames.
Panache Productions is the last company to have obtained an investment from Wallimage during this fourth session of 2022, the 111th in the history of the fund. The Fourth Wall, signed by David Oelhoffen, is adapted from Sorj Chalandon’s novel of the same name, which won the Prix Goncourt des lycéens in 2013 and has since sold 500,000 copies. The intense and tragic drama, carried by the immense Laurent Lafitte and Simon Abkarian, will be mainly filmed in Lebanon. Even if the Walloon expenses are modest, they appeared to us constructive and varied: eleven technicians, including the sound engineer and the gaffer on the whole shooting, reinforcements during one week in Luxembourg, renting in post-production and VFX at the Other Company raised this small request in useful order in our classification, thus allowing André Logie to remain official co-producer of this beautiful project with obvious festival ambitions.
UPCOMING SESSIONS
Submission of applications for the final 2022 funding session is scheduled for 5 p.m. on November 24, the last deadline. In the meantime, Wallimage will organize a Wallimpact session. Projects in development must be sent to us by Thursday, October 20 at 5:00 p.m. at the latest (by e-mail).
In both cases, as usual, our co-production team is ready to give producers all the information they need to fine-tune their request. Our Green consultant will also help them make their files more eco-friendly (and earn valuable points in our rating grid).
