Berlinale 2023
H
Established in 1984, Wallonie Bruxelles Images (WBI) is the region’s official promotional arm for the audiovisual industry. Co-financed by France’s national film body, the CNC, and Wallonia-Brussels International, the region’s responsible authority for international relations, WBI benefits from a hefty budget, and an array of promotional tools at its disposal. As head of the promotional agency for the French-speaking Belgian audiovisual industry, Le Phuez is the go-to executive for all things Belgian cinema, and more. On-site at this year’s EFM, and with several Belgian titles throughout the various Berlinale selections, Le Phuez and the teams of Wallonie Bruxelles Images will be hard at work promoting the region’s hot-button titles and talents, with the hopes of demonstrating the region’s savoirfaire to the international audiovisual industry against the backdrop of the major market event. If you’re wondering about the process behind promoting the French-speaking region’s films, or are a producer looking to get your film promoted or supported, WBI is the agency to know, and Hervé Le Phuez is the man with the plan.
important. For example, Quebec is one of our main targets for our films, but of course, everybody has that American dream so it would be very nice to find an American distributor for some of our titles. As for South America and Asia, it would be amazing, but we know that it’s much more complicated. South America more so for social and economic reasons, which makes it very difficult to get a film distributed there, it’s a lot more difficult to penetrate this market. What kind of promotional tools, or others, does WBImages employ in order to bring Belgian filmmakers and audiovisual professionals to markets and festivals?
I understand Belgium is well represented across the various selections this year, and you have quite the line-up, can you speak on some of the hot-button titles that you have high market expectations for?
We have one title in the Generation 14Plus Selection, Zeno Graton’s The Lost Boys, it’s the director’s first feature film, produced by Belgium’s Tarantula Productions. We are looking forward to hearing the feedback on this one specifically because it’s a very exciting moment for a new director to share his first feature film. We also have a documentary in the Critics Week selection (parallel to the Berlinale), Dominique Loreau’s Such a Long Walk, and we also have two co-productions in competition, Giacomo Abbruzzese’s Disco Boy, within the official selection and coproduced by Panache Productions, as well as Patric Chiha’s The Beast in the Jungle, within the Panorama selection, co-produced by Frakas Productions. We are also in Berlin of course for the EFM, we have a booth there, we’ve got a lot of meetings set up especially with film festivals to discuss our line-up. We have a lot of fiction feature films this year, more than usual in fact, because shooting ramped up post-Covid.One of the titles that we’re super proud to present is the latest film from Joachim Lafosse, A Silence, produced by Stenola Productions and featuring Daniel Auteuil and Emmanuelle Devos, for which we have great expectations. Most notably, we have a lot of featurefilm directorial debuts. Among these first films, several came from the call
Herve Le Phuez « Our principal action is to play matchmaker with festivals » for projects “Low Budget”, launched by the Cinema Center, which often resulted in films with a different edge and energy. Our line-up contains approximately 20-25 fiction feature films, which, for French-speaking Belgium, is quite a lot.
Of course France is one, but are there others you can think of, any expectations?
I think that European countries are our main target in general with France at the forefront of course. France of course, but also the French-speaking countries, such as Canada, Switzerland, North African territories...So yeah, the French-speaking link is quite
What are the most profitable markets for Belgian productions?
Our principal action is really to play matchmaker with festivals, even though many of the titles already have sales agents, it’s really important for us to bring these titles to markets and festivals because all of the other major film festival delegations are present and we can provide a panorama of sorts for the titles we present. As of now I have a record amount of meetings set up with different festival players, so I’d really like to show them what we have and see if we can garner interest. So our promotional campaign is certainly geared towards that. What we also try to do on a daily basis is to position ourselves as an agency for Belgian professionals to turn to in order to penetrate the international market and to help them prepare for market events. For example, if a producer arrives and doesn’t yet have a sales agent for their title, we’re either going to be able to help bring them to festivals and markets, or help them find a sales agent, which will obviously in turn help them position themselves within the international landscape. Furthermore, we also want to help young graduates who are looking to enter into the audiovisual industry. We want to provide them with the tools they need to better understand the market, who are the sellers? why are workshops important? etc... So, we’re definitely here to promote titles, but also in a way to create an international guide for Belgian audiovisual players. Furthermore, we don’t only want to promote titles, but Belgian talents as well. Interviewed by Zoe Hofmann
WBI’s 2022 figures & achievements On-site for 8 different international markets Organized and promoted the French-speaking Belgian region’s films across over 100 festivals and industry events Completed the launch of their own streaming platform, WBstream with a catalog of over 800 films Renewed partnerships with industry institutions such as screen.brussels, Unifrance, and Film Fund Luxembourg Inaugurated a ‘Benelux Focus’ during the Fipadoc festival
15 février 2023 / Écran total n°1410
30
17_ETH_1410_DOSSER_BERLIN.indd 30
13/02/2023 21:27