The Brussels Art Film Festival will mark its 25th anniversary from 10 to 15 November with an expanded programme of 38 films across several venues in Brussels, Mons and Antwerp.
Organisers said on Tuesday that this anniversary edition will take place at the Palace, Bozar, the Cinematek and ISELP in Brussels, as well as at Plaza Arthouse Cinema in Mons and De Cinema in Antwerp.
Reflecting this year’s poster, the festival will celebrate collage as its central theme.
Organisers describe it as an art of assembly, encounter and the bringing together of opposites, showing that living together does not mean erasing differences but giving them space within a shared environment.
The festival will open with 'Days of Wonder' by Karin Pennanen, a film about Finnish artist Markku Pennanen, whose work notably explores the practice of collage.
In the national competition, BAFF has selected 13 films. 'Nostalgia for the Future' by Brecht Debackere, which had its world premiere in Cannes, will open the competition on 12 November at the Cinematek.
The line-up also includes five other feature films produced or co-produced in Belgium, several of them receiving their Brussels premieres. Among them is 'Donn, le danseur du XXe siècle,' a portrait of Argentine dancer Jorge Donn by Mariano Baez and Florencia Dávila.
The programme will also feature short films, several of which will be shown for the first time in Brussels. They include 'Marieke Doubts' by Maura De Troyer, 'Moon Safari' by Hugo Amoedo Canal, 'Portrait of an Unknown Artist' by Eli and Owen Gothill, and 'What We Said to Brussels Airlines' by the Faire-Part collective.
Alongside the competition, audiences will be able to see an out-of-competition International Panorama, bringing together 15 documentaries from around the world. Most of them will be screened in Belgium for the first time.
Lebanon will also be the focus of a special programme, 'News from Lebanon,' organised in support of the Beirut Art Film Festival, which is due to take place in early November.
The festival will close on 15 November at the Palace with the Lebanese film 'Souraya mon amour' by Nicolas Khoury, a portrait of his muse, dancer and actress Souraya Baghdadi.
Baghdadi, who is also a member of the jury, will attend the screening.
