6th Belgian Fantastic Film Day

On April 16th 2010, our country is in the spotlights ! The Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival is an efficient work tool for movie professionals, from Belgium and from abroad : directors, producers, distributors and journalists. At a local level, the platform offered by the Festival is made up of some 60.000 spectators ( since its creation, the Festival has aimed at giving the widest possible access to the largest possible audience ), half of them diehard movie buffs ( who are also opinion leaders according to a CRIOC survey ). Since 1988, the BIFFF has opened its program to short features by creating an international competition. In 2004, the Festival reorganized this section in order to give it greater visibility. Therefore, the short movie competition and the presentation of the results of our student’s workshop Fantastic Brussels are shown on the same day, allowing film students and professionals to mix. Finally, in 2005, the Festival inaugurated a competition dedicated to Belgian fantastic short features. Since 1996, the BIFFF is also one of the few festivals that actively produces audiovisual content. Every year, students from Brussels’ film schools ( this year, the RITS and the INSAS ) will write, produce, shoot and edit two to three short features, this under the supervision of an experienced foreign genre director. Presence and visibility of Belgian productions The BIFFF is aware of the added value it can offer to the international promotion of a film: it seizes every opportunity to select Belgian long feature films. The sole restrictions: we ask for the Belgian premiere and the subject must, of course, be true to the BIFFF spirit, which isn’t that obvious for a small country such as Belgium that is not especially known for its genre cinema ( except for a short period in the seventies ). The BIFFF is a real focus of interest for the entire community of festivals on a European and worldwide scale: the movies of Harry Cleven, Olivier Smolders, Gilles Daoust, …, started their successful tour on the international festival circuit at the BIFFF. Therefore, we can state without a doubt that the BIFFF is a decisive factor in the promotion of Belgian long and short features. Presence and visibility of Belgian artists The presence of Belgian artists and professionals in the various long feature juries. The many Plastic Art exhibitions at T&T with works of Belgian artists. There is also a significant evolution that needs to be pointed out: if the Festival has become a “Cultural Ambassador of the Brussels Capital Region”, it has also become an ambassador for all the artists who have displayed their works at the BIFFF. If high profile artists such as H.R. GIGER or Yoshikata AMADO decide to exhibit their works at the Festival ( while taking in charge all transport costs ! ), it’s obviously because the Festival offers them an international visibility that can not be found elsewhere. Now most of the exhibitors are either Walloons, Flemish or from Brussels and, as it is the case for the Belgian filmmakers, these artists quickly exhibit at other festivals in Belgium, Europe and across the world. The impact is probably even more important when it comes to theater companies. The history and the success of the Magic Land Theatre is intimately linked to the Festival. This goes as well for the Make- Up Contest, which has opened many professional doors for its participants. Presence and visibility of Belgian productions The BIFFF is aware of the added value it can offer to the international promotion of a film: it seizes every opportunity to select Belgian long feature films. The sole restrictions: we ask for the Belgian premiere and the subject must, of course, be true to the BIFFF spirit, which isn’t that obvious for a small country such as Belgium that is not especially known for its genre cinema ( except for a short period in the seventies ). The BIFFF is a real focus of interest for the entire community of festivals on a European and worldwide scale: the movies of Harry Cleven, Olivier Smolders, Gilles Daoust, …, started their successful tour on the international festival circuit at the BIFFF. Therefore, we can state without a doubt that the BIFFF is a decisive factor in the promotion of Belgian long and short features. Presence and visibility of Belgian artists The presence of Belgian artists and professionals in the various long feature juries. The many Plastic Art exhibitions at T&T with works of Belgian artists. There is also a significant evolution that needs to be pointed out: if the Festival has become a “Cultural Ambassador of the Brussels Capital Region”, it has also become an ambassador for all the artists who have displayed their works at the BIFFF. If high profile artists such as H.R. GIGER or Yoshikata AMADO decide to exhibit their works at the Festival ( while taking in charge all transport costs ! ), it’s obviously because the Festival offers them an international visibility that can not be found elsewhere. Now most of the exhibitors are either Walloons, Flemish or from Brussels and, as it is the case for the Belgian