BRUSSELS EUROPEAN FILM FESTIVAL (July 1-9, 2005)


The Brussels European Film Festival closed today on the 9th of July at Flagey with the prize ceremony, presented by Dominique Janne (Festival Director) and Jan De Clercq (Programme Director) and followed by the screening of the film «Douches Froides» by Antony Cordier.

Organized from the 1st to the 9th of July, the Festival for the first time joined forces with Cinédécouvertes, the summer event of the Belgian Film Museum. During these nine days, spectators could discover 48 films of high standards and participate in ten memorable parties! The Festival brought together 27 first or second European feature films while Cinédécouvertes with its 21 films extended the selection to cover the five continents.

Several films have taken un the status of a real event, most notably “Czech Dreams”, in incredible practical joke played in the world of publicity, directed by Vit Klusak and Filip Remunda, “The Great Ecstasy of Robert Carmichael”, a remarkable first feature film by English Thomas Clay, or also the world premiere of “Ordinary Man”, the second feature film of the Belgian filmmaker Vincent Lannoo.

Directors, actors, producers : many of them were here to present their films or simply to lend their support to the young European cinema. The Festival has thus hosted Frédéric Balekdjian, Daniel Billiet, Jeff Bodart, Jérôme Bonnell, Philippe Bourgueil, Nathalie Boutefeu, Rachida Brakni, Jan Bucquoy, Thomas Clay, Antony Cordier, Tone De Cooman, Renaud Delourme, Claire Denis, Dominique Deruddere, Thomas De Thier, Catharina Deus, Daniel Espinosa, Carlo Ferrante, Noël Godin, Christine Grulois, Jan Hammenecker, Marion Hänsel, Thierry Jousse, Dagur Kári, Joe Lang, Vincent Lannoo, Bouli Lanners, Serge Larivière, Johan Libéreau, Stefan Liberski, Lio, Vincenzo Marra, Philippe Maynial, Pierre Perrier, Micha Pletinckx, Bruno Putzulu, Filip Remunda, Anthony Rey, Arash T.Riahi, Steven Schoukens, Assumpta Serna, Georges Siatidis, Salomé Stévenin, Hannes Stoehr, Irena Taskovski, Vera Van Dooren, Jaco Van Dormael, and many, many others !

Composed of young European actors and directors, the Official Jury had to award prizes among fourteen films of the competition. Other jurys also had prizes to award amounting to a total value of 55.000 €.


Moved to the month of July for the first time this year, the Brussels Festival had a greater possibility of choice for its programme. Looking at from the ticket sales, spectators have flocked to the Festival in large numbers. At the writing of this communiqué, the figures already show an increase of 15 % in visitor numbers with more than 15.000 tickets sold.

BRUSSELS EUROPEAN FILM FESTIVAL WINNERS 2005

Jury Members
Veerle Baetens (Belgium - actress)
Dominique Deruddere (Belgium - director)
Bouli Lanners (Belgium – actor & director)
Bruno Putzulu (France - actor)
Assumpta Serna (Spain - actress)


Iris Award for Best Film
10.000 euro offered by the Region Bruxelles-Capitale

awarded to « Dark Horse » (Voksne Mennesker)
by Dagur Kári (Denmark / Iceland - 2005)

Prize for Best Actress
2.500 euro offered by the Community of Ixelles

awarded to the actress Annika Hallin
for the film « Kissed by Winter » (Vinterkyss) by Sara Johnsen (Norway 2005)

Awards of Other Jurys

Prize TV RTBF for the Best Film
10.000 euro (in form of distribution support), awarded by RTBF La Deux
to « King’s Game » (Kongekabale)
by Nikolaj Arcel (Denmark 2004)

Prize TV Canvas for Best Film
10.000 euro (in form of distribution support), awarded by the public
to « King’s Game » (Kongekabale)
by Nikolaj Arcel (Denmark 2004)


Prize Be TV for best Film
5.000 euro (in form of distribution support), awarded by Be TV
to « Czech Dream » (Cesky Sen)
by Filip Remunda & Vit Klusák (Czech Republik 2004)

Audience Award
2.500 euro offered by the Community of Ixelles
Prize awarded by the public among all the films of the festival
awarded to « Ordinary Man »
by Vincent Lannoo (Belgium / France 2005)