Connext, Flanders Image’s annual film and TV showcase, taking place from October 9-10 in Antwerp, is fast growing its reputation on the international stage.
Paolo Bertolin, a member of the selection committee of the Venice Film Festival, visited the Antwerp-based showcase for the first time in 2022 with a simple ambition to meet Belgian talent and discover the best up -and- coming projects from the region.
Among the projects he saw was Fien Troch’s Holly, a then work-in-progress about a young teenage girl who seems to have uncanny powers. “I had some vague knowledge [Troch] was making a new film but I didn’t know where she was standing with it,” remembers Bertolin.
He was so impressed by what he saw he spoke with Troch and her producers and strongly advised them to submit it to Venice where it screened in the main competition last month. “It all started [at Connext],” says Bertolin. “It was a major achievement for her career and it was a nice achievement for us.”
Holly is just one example of a project showcased at Connext that has gone on to have a significant international life: Veerle Baetens’ When It Melts premiered in the World Cinema Dramatic programme at the Sundance Film Festival this January and star Rosa Marchant was awarded the best actress prize, while Bas Devos’ Here scooped the Encounters prize at the Berlinale in February.
Lukas Dhont, the Oscar-nominated director of Girl and Close, is one of those major talents whose work has been presented at Connext. He is back in Antwerp this year to introduce the Future Five initiative through which he has selected five rising Flemish talents.
Connext features pitches, work-in-progress screenings and completed films and dramas. Regular attendees praise how Connext organisers curate a showcase that appeals to festival programmers and international execs on busy schedules.
“It is a perfectly organised and efficient networking event, where I get a full overview of current and upcoming film projects,” says Tine Klint, founder and CEO of Danish sales outfit, Level K, of Connext. Last year she picked up Domien Huyghe’s Sea Sparkle, which went on to screen in the Berlinale, and Dutch-Belgian co-production Mr K, which is in post-production.
Titles generating buzz in advance of the showcase include: comedy Chameleon, produced by De Mensen; Dimitri Verhulst’s The Weeping Walk, a drama based around a funeral produced by Czar; and Holy Rosita directed by Wannes Destoop and produced by Giles Coulier’s De Wereldvrede.
Renata Santoro, head of programming at Giornate Degli Autori in Venice, is visiting Connext for the first time. “Belgium is a peculiar territory for cinema. it’s so small but the number of talents and good films is so amazing,” she says. “That’s why we keep a close eye on upcoming projects and trace projects from the very beginning so we can have more chance of getting some films.”
“Connext helped me in to be in touch with the most talented people in the Flanders industry,” says Albin Lewi, artistic director of TV festival Canneseries.
Like Venice’s Bertolin, Lewi didn’t know the Flemish industry at all well before he first attended Connext. Now, he has forged close connections with Peter Bouckaert, managing and creative director, film and TV drama at Eyeworks, one of Belgium’s leading production outfits and leading Belgian producer, Coulier. Belgian titles to have shown at Canneseries include 1985, about the Brabant killers, and Roomies, the award-winning short TV series by Flo Van Deuren and Kato De Boeck.
“Connext is six months before my event and so it’s great timing,” says Lewi, who is in town this year to check out projects for 2024 and 2025.
Fellow French exec Emmanuel Eckert, deputy director acquisitions at Mediawan, has attended Connext since 2019. “I really love meeting with all the key players in Benelux,” says Eckert, who will be looking for “early stage shows I could commit on and help the producers to finance”.
Mediawan doesn’t yet own companies in Belgium but is looking to extend further its footprint in Benelux — and being at Connext is one way for the fast-expanding company to identify the best local producers.
When it comes to acquiring series, Eckert says young audiences in France and elsewhere are increasingly open to Flemish fare — another reason why Connext has increasing relevance. “Young people looking at Netflix, Amazon or a big streamer are very interested in all different types of show,” he reflects. “They don’t care about the language anymore. For the older audience it might be a little more complicated, but for the younger audience, if the show is good, the language and where it comes from doesn’t matter.”
Eckert will also deliver a keynote speech this year. Further speakers include Hannah Walker from Ampere Analysis who will lead a conversation called ’The end of “peak TV” and what this means for smaller territories”.
Connext is supported by the the Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF) with Screen Flanders and Screen Brussels.
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