Eight audiovisual projects selected, including five initiated in Belgium! This 91st session of Wallimage is to be marked with a white stone. For once, the Board of Directors did not have to deliberate for too long, as the selected applications stood out, notably because of the quality of their expenditure in the region and the realism of their request, because of their markedly Walloon character and, for some, because of their undeniable strategic interest in the regional industry. On the menu of this eclectic selection: four feature films, two documentaries and two animated series.
The birth of trees by Laura Wandel, proposed by Dragon Film, will be the first feature film of a very promising young director who, along with Zoé Wittock or Virginie Gourmel, also co-financed by the Walloon fund, obviously represents these women who are the future of our cinema. For this modest 100% Belgian budget, the expenses are divided between the rental of equipment (TSF Liège), the post production at Dame Blanche Genval and 25 people including 11 postmasters. This is clearly a festival film and given the previous selection of the short film Les Corps étrangers on the Croisette, a Cannes screening is obviously not to be excluded.
The forest theme is also in effect for François Pirot, whose second feature film Tarantula will produce : Life in the Woods. Seven years after Mobile Home, the director returns to fiction with a subject that is dear to him : what to do with his life ? The characters are just a little older than in Mobile Home, the humor a little more surreal, the scenario just as catchy. 16 days of shooting out of 33 will take place in Wallonia. All the equipment will be rented in Liege at TSF, the boxes at Macadamcar, the canteen will be provided by Iris, the editing will be done at Cineregie and the VFX at Mikros Liege. Because yes, this time there are some tricky special effects on the program. In all, 35 Walloons, including 10 station managers, will be working on this film.
Director AND producer, Marc-Henri Wajnberg will try to offer us a perfect film. You might as well say that it won’t be easy, because his hero will first have to convince the financiers to invest in an original film that will quickly find itself transformed into a hybrid project according to the desires and delusions of everyone. Very funny, The Perfect Movie promises us a surprising casting (that we will reveal only when it is 100% confirmed). Co-produced in Romania, it will nevertheless be shot mostly in the Walloon Region with 29 regional staff, including 8 station managers. The electro, lighting and machinery rental will be done at Eye-Lite, the cameras and image editing at Oufti! and the sound work at Genval.
TWO DOCUMENTARIES
The two other Belgian files selected are documentaries. The first one was brought to us by the young company Agent Double which is quickly making a name for itself in the stirring club of Walloon producers. Directed by Idriss Gabel (Je n’aime plus la mer), L’Aumonier et le nazi (The Chaplain and the Nazi ) captures the astonishing memories of a Waterloo-born Protestant chaplain who was Rudolph Hess’s confidant during his last years of incarceration in Spandau, in a ghost prison where the Nazi officer was the only resident. A fascinating story that dwells a lot on the endearing personality of the man of faith who happens to be the grandfather of the director who co-wrote and shot the project with his cousin. A beautiful family business. All the post production of this small budget will be done at Dame Blanche, the sound rental at Twins audio and the sound editing at Stand Up !
The name of Idriss Gabel is inseparably linked to that of Thierry Michel who brings us The School of the Impossible, not a sequel, but a film inspired by the success ofLes Enfants du Hasard, his previous documentary. The director returns with his long-time producer Christine Pireaux to the school benches to meet a school where social diversity is not an empty word, carried by an enthusiastic director who has decided that nothing is inevitable. Sometimes to the chagrin of the teaching staff. Almost everything will be Walloon in this project produced by Les films de la Passerelle, which features 11 regional actors, including 8 postmasters.
A FIRST FOR WALLIMAGE
Behind this Belgian armada, a feature film initiated abroad managed to make its way among the winners of the session. Co-produced by Scope Pictures, Musique de Chambre is Christophe Honoré‘s new feature film. As personal as ever, the French director brings together Chiara Mastroianni, Vincent Lacoste and Camille Cottin for an improbable love mishmash, also fantastic, ignoring time and verisimilitude. 39 Walloons including 11 heads of post will be in action on this project including a first assistant, director, cameraman, a stage manager…. Eye Lite will provide the equipment, KGS the machinery, Macadamcar the dressing rooms, the canteen will be Iris while the studio team Wallonie/Filmik will take care of the scanning, color grading and mastering. The goal is Cannes, of course, for this feature film, which will be ready in March 2020.
TWO ANIMATION SERIES
A Wallimage session would not be complete without an animation project, the sector that has probably benefited the most from the support of the fund in Wallonia. This time there are even two, articulated in the form of series that will bring EACH more than 4000 days of work in our region. Something to be excited about !
Kid Lucky, which will tell the adventures of young Lucky Luke, a cowboy not yet solitary, but already very restless, will be partly produced by Dreamwall. This is a godsend for the teams currently working on Abraca, who will therefore be able to stay in Marcinelle to work for another year on another high-visibility 2D project. While waiting for the second season of Petit Poilu ? Keeping its best elements is one of the great challenges facing Walloon studios. This project is therefore doubly interesting for Dreamwall. 25 people including 6 post supervisors will be working to accomplish about 25% of the global work, that is 580 days of layout, 2967 days of animation, 516 days of compositing.
The other project, supervised by Be Films, will feed the pipeline of a company in Liège in full revival ! In addition to the sound effects and all dubbing at Genval les Dames (the original Canadian VO will be in English), all expenses for Hello Charlie are indeed centered on the Waooh! studio, which will take care of the layout and part of the animation, i.e. a team of 22 people including 5 station managers and 16 animators during 325 days. This will give the company a boost for another year.
