Belgium is essentially a bi-lingual country divided into the Flemish

Flemish

Flemish can refer to anything related to Flanders, and may refer directly to the following articles:*Flemish, an informal, though linguistically incorrect, name of any kind of the Dutch language as spoken in Belgium....

 (Dutch

Dutch language

Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...

-speaking) north and the French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

-speaking south. There is also a small community of German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

 speakers in the border region with Germany. Belgium is further a federal country made up of three regions (the Flemish Region

Flemish Region

The Flemish Region is one of the three official regions of the Kingdom of Belgium—alongside the Walloon Region and the Brussels-Capital Region. Colloquially, it is usually simply referred to as Flanders, of which it is the institutional iteration within the context of the Belgian political system...

, the Walloon Region and the Brussels-Capital Region) and three language communities (the Flemish Community

Flemish Community

The term Flemish Community has two distinct, though related, meanings:...

 (Dutch-speaking), the French (i.e., French-speaking) Community

French Community of Belgium

The French Community of Belgium is one of the three official communities in Belgium along with the Flemish Community and the German speaking Community. Although its name could suggest that it is a community of French citizens in Belgium, it is not...

 and the German-speaking Community

German-speaking Community of Belgium

The German-speaking Community of Belgium is one of the three federal communities of Belgium. Covering an area of 854 km² within the province of Liège in Wallonia, it includes nine of the eleven municipalities of the so-called East Cantons...

).
Due to these linguistic and political divisions it is difficult to speak of a national, unified Cinema of Belgium. It would be more appropriate to talk about Flemish

Flemish

Flemish can refer to anything related to Flanders, and may refer directly to the following articles:*Flemish, an informal, though linguistically incorrect, name of any kind of the Dutch language as spoken in Belgium....

 or Dutch

Dutch language

Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...

-language cinema of Belgium and Walloon

Walloon language

Walloon is a Romance language which was spoken as a primary language in large portions of the Walloon Region of Belgium and some villages of Northern France until the middle of the 20th century. It belongs to the langue d'oïl language family, whose most prominent member is the French language...

 or French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

-language cinema of Belgium.

Early history

While the invention of the cinématographe

Cinematographe

A cinematograph is a film camera, which also serves as a film projector and developer. It was invented in the 1890s.Note that this was not the first 'moving picture' device. Louis Le Prince had built early devices in 1886. His 1888 film Roundhay Garden Scene still survives.There is much dispute as...

 by the French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 Lumière brothers is widely regarded as the birth of cinema, a number of developments in photography preceded the advent of film. Among the people pioneering work on animation devices was a Belgian professor of experimental physics Joseph Plateau. Plateau, who was active at the Ghent University

Ghent University

Ghent University is a Dutch-speaking public university located in Ghent, Belgium. It is one of the larger Flemish universities, consisting of 32,000 students and 7,100 staff members. The current rector is Paul Van Cauwenberge.It was established in 1817 by King William I of the Netherlands...

 invented an early stroboscopic

Stroboscopic

Stroboscopic may refer to:* Stroboscopic effect, visual temporal aliasing* Stroboscope, any of various stroboscopic devices* Strobe light, high-intensity and short-duration stroboscopic device...

 device in 1836, the "phenakistiscope". It consisted of two disks, one with small equidistant radial windows, through which the viewer could look, and another containing a sequence of images. When the two disks rotated at the correct speed, the synchronization of the windows and the images created an animated effect. The projection of stroboscopic photographs, creating the illusion of motion, eventually led to the development of cinema.

The first public projection in Belgium took place on March 1, 1896 at the Kings Gallery in Brussels

Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

. In the following years there was a surge in activity, initially dominated by the French industrial Charles Pathé

Charles Pathé

Charles Pathé was a major French pioneer of the film and recording industries.The son of a butcher shop owner, Charles Pathé was born at Chevry-Cossigny, in the Seine-et-Marne département of France. In 1894, together with his brother Émile, he formed Pathé Records...

. One of his assistants, Alfred Machin

Alfred Machin

Alfred Machin was one of the rare French film directors whose films expressed progressivist tendencies before World War I. Ironically it turns out during this war his films of the current events were of cinematographic service to the French Army. After 1920, AlfredMachin devoted himself in...

 founded the first production studio in 1910; some of his films are still preserved in the Royal Filmarchive in Brussels. The first Belgian movie producer was Hippolyte De Kempeneer, who produced several interesting films until his studio burned down in 1923.

1930 - 1980

The 1930s however saw the first serious attempt at cinema. Several prominent figures such as Charles Dekeukeleire

Charles Dekeukeleire

Charles Dekeukeleire was a Belgian film director. He pioneered modern Belgian film with Henri Storck. He was inspired by French avant-garde cinema, particularly the works of Germaine Dulac.-Biography:...

 and Henri Storck

Henri Storck

Henri Storck was a Belgian author, film-maker and documentarist.In 1933, he directed, with Joris Ivens, Misère au Borinage, a film about the miners in the Borinage area. In 1938, with Andre Thirifays and Pierre Vermeylen, he founded the Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique...

 experimented with new filming techniques and founded the Belgian Documentary School, which was long regarded as one of the highlights of Belgian Cinema. With the advent of sound, directors such as Jan Vanderheyden fully explored the possibilities of the medium, adapting popular literary works such as De Witte of Ernest Claes

Ernest Claes

Andreas Ernestus Josephus Claes was a Flemish author.Some of his works are written under the pseudonym G...

. De Witte proved to be a pivotal work in the history of Belgian Cinema. The film was a tremendous popular success and would spawn a future remake and a TV series that was widely acclaimed in its own right.

While attempts to produce a serious feature length film were frequently met with difficulty, Belgian animated films slowly gained a reputation abroad, led by animators such as Raoul Servais

Raoul Servais

Raoul Servais is a Belgian filmmaker. He was born in Ostend.-Filmography:* 1963: The False Note* 1966: Chromophobia* 1968: Sirene* 1969: Goldframe* 1970: To speak or not to speak* 1971: Operation X-70...

, who won several awards throughout the sixties in a career that culminated with a Golden Palm for best short feature in 1979 for Harpya

Harpya

Harpya is a 1979 short Belgian animated film written and directed by Raoul Servais. It stars Will Spoor, Fran Waller Zeper and Sjoert Schwibethus...

.

From 1964 on, film could be subsidized by the government, making way for a new generation of filmmakers such as André Delvaux (De Man Die Zijn Haar Kort Liet Knippen, after Johan Daisne

Johan Daisne

Johan Daisne was the pseudonym of Flemish author Herman Thiery . Born in Ghent, Belgium, he attended the Koninklijk Atheneum before studying Economics and Slavic languages at Ghent University, receiving his doctorate in 1936...

's novel), Roland Verhavert (Pallieter, after Felix Timmermans

Felix Timmermans

Leopold Maximiliaan Felix Timmermans is a much translated author of Flanders.Timmermans was born in the Belgian city of Lier, as the thirteenth of fourteen children in the family. He died in Lier, aged 60. He was an autodidact, and wrote plays, historical novels, religious works, and poems. His...

's novel) and Harry Kümel.

1980 - 2000

The 1980s however saw a break with the tradition of the 60s and 70s, which was increasingly perceived as too stagy or otherwise preoccupied with rural dramas, giving rise to more personal and gritty filmmaking, led by people such as Marc Didden

Marc Didden

Marc Didden is a Belgian film director. He and his family moved to Brussels when he was age two, where he had lived for most of his own life...

 (Brussels by Night) and Robbe De Hert

Robbe De Hert

Robbe De Hert is a Belgian film director.-Movies:*Camera Sutra *De Witte van Zichem *Le filet américain *Maria Danneels of Het leven dat we droomden...

 (Blueberry Hill, Brylcream Boulevard). 1985 however saw the release of the ambitious but spectacular failure De Leeuw van Vlaanderen, written and directed by Hugo Claus

Hugo Claus

Hugo Maurice Julien Claus was a leading Belgian author who published under his own name as well as various pseudonyms. Claus' literary contributions spanned the genres of drama, the novel, and poetry; he also left a legacy as a painter and film director...

, after Hendrik Conscience

Hendrik Conscience

Henri "Hendrik" Conscience was a Belgian writer. He was a pioneer in writing in Dutch after the secession from the Netherlands in 1830 left Belgium a mostly French speaking country....

's novel. Belgian acclaim in animation continued with an academy award

Academy Award for Animated Short Film

The Academy Award for Animated Short Film is an award which has been given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as part of the Academy Awards every year since the 5th Academy Awards, covering the year 1931-32, to the present....

 for best animated short in 1987 with A Greek Tragedy, by Nicole van Goethem.

Belgian cinema finally took flight during the 1990s, gaining international prominence with such films as Man Bites Dog

Man Bites Dog (film)

Man Bites Dog is a darkly comedic crime Belgian mockumentary starring Benoît Poelvoorde. In the film, a crew of filmmakers follow a serial killer, recording his crimes for a documentary they are producing...

(with Benoît Poelvoorde

Benoît Poelvoorde

Benoît Poelvoorde is a Belgian actor and comedian who often associates cynicism, humour and drama in his movies.His mother was a grocer and his father a driver, who died when Poelvoorde was still young...

), Daens

Daens (film)

Daens is a 1992 Belgian film directed by Stijn Coninx. This 1992 drama starring Jan Decleir, Gérard Desarthe, Antje de Boeck and Michael Pas, tells the true story of Adolf Daens, a Catholic priest in Aalst who strives to improve the miserable working conditions in the local factories...

(directed by Stijn Coninx

Stijn Coninx

Stijn, Baron Coninx is a Belgian film director best known for the movie Daens. He was made a Baron by King Albert II of Belgium...

), Rosetta

Rosetta (film)

Rosetta is a 1999 French-Belgian film written and directed by Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne. It is about a seventeen year old girl who lives in a trailer park with her alcoholic mother...

(directed by the Dardenne brothers

Dardenne brothers

Brothers Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne are a Belgian filmmaking duo...

) and Toto le Héros

Toto le Héros

Toto le Héros is a 1991 Belgian film by Belgian film director and screenwriter Jaco Van Dormael.-Plot:...

(Toto the hero) by Jaco Van Dormael

Jaco Van Dormael

Jaco Van Dormael is a Belgian film director, screenwriter and playwright. His complex and critically acclaimed films are especially noted for their respectful and sympathetic portrayal of people with mental and physical disabilities.- Biography :In the 1980s, he became interested in filmmaking and...

. Toto le Héros gained wide critical acclaim, winning both the César Award

César Award

The César Award is the national film award of France, first given out in 1975. The nominations are selected by the members of the Académie des arts et techniques du cinéma....

 for best foreign film and the Camera d'Or

Caméra d'Or

The Caméra d'Or is an award of the Cannes Film Festival for the best first feature film presented in one of the Cannes' selections ....

 at the Cannes Film Festival

Cannes Film Festival

The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...

. In 2000, Dominique Deruddere

Dominique Deruddere

Dominique Deruddere is a Belgian film director.- Filmography:* Crazy Love * Wait Until Spring, Bandini * Everybody's Famous! -External links:...

's Everybody Famous!

Everybody Famous!

Everybody's Famous! is a 2000 film directed by Dominique Deruddere. It was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 73rd Academy Awards.-Plot:...

was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is one of the Academy Awards of Merit, popularly known as the Oscars, handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...

. Like Rosetta

Rosetta (film)

Rosetta is a 1999 French-Belgian film written and directed by Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne. It is about a seventeen year old girl who lives in a trailer park with her alcoholic mother...

, the Dardenne's 2005 film L'Enfant won the Palme d'Or

Palme d'Or

The Palme d'Or is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival and is presented to the director of the best feature film of the official competition. It was introduced in 1955 by the organising committee. From 1939 to 1954, the highest prize was the Grand Prix du Festival International du...

 at the Cannes Film Festival

Cannes Film Festival

The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...

. Other important Walloon directors include Fabrice du Welz

Fabrice Du Welz

Fabrice Du Welz is a Belgian film director and screenwriter.- Biography :Du Welz studied at the Conservatory of Dramatic Arts in Liège and at INSAS, a film school in Brussels. In the 90's he directed many films in Super 8 and wrote humorous sequences for Canal +...

, Lucas Belvaux

Lucas Belvaux

Lucas Belvaux is a Belgian actor and film director. His directing credits include the Trilogie, consisting of three films with interlocking stories and characters, each of which was filmed in a different genre. The three films are Cavale, a thriller; Un couple épatant, a comedy; and Après la vie,...

, Bouli Lanners

Bouli Lanners

Philippe "Bouli" Lanners is a Belgian actor, author and film director...

 and Vincent Lannoo.

Present

Erik Van Looy

Erik Van Looy

Erik Ludovicus Maria Van Looy is a Belgian film director.In Flanders he is also known as a television presenter .His most famous movies are:*Ad Fundum *Shades...

's detective movie The Alzheimer Case

The Alzheimer Case

The Alzheimer Case is a 2003 film directed by Erik Van Looy, based on the novel De Zaak Alzheimer by Jef Geeraerts....

(known internationally as The Memory of a Killer) was released in 2003. Van Looy's follow up thriller Loft

Loft (2008 film)

Loft is a 2008 Belgian thriller directed by Erik Van Looy, starring an ensemble cast of notable Flemish actors. The script was written by Bart De Pauw.-Synopsis:...

opened in 2008 and had twice as many opening weekend admissions as The Alzheimer Case. Ben X

Ben X

Ben X is a 2007 Belgian drama film based on the novel Nothing Was All He Said by Nic Balthazar, who also directed the film. The film is about a boy with autism who retreats into the fantasy world of the MMORPG ArchLord to escape bullying...

directed by Nic Balthazar

Nic Balthazar

Nic Balthazar is a Belgian film director and a TV/radio personality .His first movie is Ben X.In Flanders he is well known as a movie critic and television presenter...

 became an international success after its release in 2007. The movie was the Belgian Best Foreign Language Film entry in 2007, but failed to be nominated.

Classic literary works continue to be adapted, in particular the work of Willem Elsschot

Willem Elsschot

Willem Elsschot , was a Flemish writer and poet . A few of his works have been translated into English.-Life:...

, and often in coproduction with Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 film companies.

Adaptations of new literary works are also frequent. The Misfortunates directed by Felix Van Groeningen and released in 2009 is an adaptation of the book De helaasheid der dingen by Flemish writer Dimitri Verhulst

Dimitri Verhulst

Dimitri Verhulst is a Belgian writer and poet. He currently lives and works in Huccorgne.-Biography:Dimitri Verhulst comes from a broken home and spent his childhood in foster homes and institutes. As a writer, he made his debut in 1999 with a collection of stories, De kamer hiernaast about his...

. The film won several awards including the Prix Art et Essai at the Cannes Film Festival

Cannes Film Festival

The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...

's Quinzaine des Réalisateurs and three Golden Starfish Awards at the 17th Hamptons International Film Festival

Hamptons International Film Festival

Hamptons International Film Festival was founded to provide a forum for independent filmmakers from around the world to express their vision. The Festival is traditionally held for five days in mid-October in theatre venues from Montauk to Southampton and attracts roughly 15,000 visitors annually...

. The film is the official Belgian entry for the 82nd Academy Awards

82nd Academy Awards

The 82nd Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences , honored the best films of 2009 and took place March 7, 2010, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:30 p.m. PST / 8:30 p.m. EST. The ceremony was scheduled well after...

 in 2010 in the category Best Foreign Language Film. Another example of a film adaptation of a modern novel is the 2007 movie Ex Drummer

Ex Drummer

Ex Drummer is a 2007 Flemish film directed by Koen Mortier. It is based on the book by Herman Brusselmans of the same name.- Plot :In Ostend three handicapped musicians are looking for a drummer for their band, consisting entirely of disabled people. They want to perform only one time at a music...

 directed by Koen Mortier that was based on the book by Herman Brusselmans

Herman Brusselmans

Herman Frans Martha Brusselmans is a Flemish novelist, poet, playwright and columnist. He lives in Ghent.Herman Brusselmans studied Dutch and English at the University of Ghent. In his early twenties he was a successful football player. He played for Vigor Hamme and SK Lokeren. He now has his own...

 of the same name.

Belgium also annually hosts several film festivals, the most important of which are the Flanders International Film Festival Ghent

Flanders International Film Festival Ghent

The Flanders International Film Festival Ghent was created in 1974. It takes place every year in October. The film festival is famous for its focus on film music, with the World Soundtrack Awards as the highlight.-Grand Prix for Best Film:...

 and the Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film

Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film

The Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival , previously named Brussels International Festival of Fantastic Film was created in 1983 as a venue for horror, thriller and science fiction films. It takes place in Brussels, every year in March...

.

Belgian films

• De Witte (1934)
• Toto le Héros
  Toto le Héros
  Toto le Héros is a 1991 Belgian film by Belgian film director and screenwriter Jaco Van Dormael.-Plot:...
  
  (Toto the hero) (1991)
• Man Bites Dog
  Man Bites Dog (film)
  Man Bites Dog is a darkly comedic crime Belgian mockumentary starring Benoît Poelvoorde. In the film, a crew of filmmakers follow a serial killer, recording his crimes for a documentary they are producing...
  
  (1992)
• Daens
  Daens (film)
  Daens is a 1992 Belgian film directed by Stijn Coninx. This 1992 drama starring Jan Decleir, Gérard Desarthe, Antje de Boeck and Michael Pas, tells the true story of Adolf Daens, a Catholic priest in Aalst who strives to improve the miserable working conditions in the local factories...
  
  (1993)
• Le Huitième Jour
  Le Huitième Jour
  Le huitième jour is a Belgian 1996 film that tells the story of the friendship that develops between two men who meet by chance...
  
  (The Eighth Day) (1996)
• Camping Cosmos
  Camping Cosmos
  Camping Cosmos is a Belgian 1996 film, sequel to La Vie sexuelle des Belges 1950-1978, directed by Jan Bucquoy. It stars Claude Semal, Lolo Ferrari , Noël Godin , Herman Brusselmans and Arno ....
  
  (1996)
• Rosetta
  Rosetta (film)
  Rosetta is a 1999 French-Belgian film written and directed by Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne. It is about a seventeen year old girl who lives in a trailer park with her alcoholic mother...
  
  (1999)
• Everybody's Famous! (2000)
• The Alzheimer Case
  The Alzheimer Case
  The Alzheimer Case is a 2003 film directed by Erik Van Looy, based on the novel De Zaak Alzheimer by Jef Geeraerts....
  
  (2003)
• Steve + Sky
  Steve + Sky
  Steve + Sky is a 2004 Belgian comedy-drama film directed and written by Felix Van Groeningen and starring Titus De Voogdt, Delfine Bafort and Johan Heldenbergh.- Plot :...
  
  (2004)
• L'Enfant (2005)
• Ben X
  Ben X
  Ben X is a 2007 Belgian drama film based on the novel Nothing Was All He Said by Nic Balthazar, who also directed the film. The film is about a boy with autism who retreats into the fantasy world of the MMORPG ArchLord to escape bullying...
  
  (2007)
• Small Gods
  Small Gods
  Small Gods is the thirteenth of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, published in 1992. It tells the origin of the god Om, and his relations with his prophet, the reformer Brutha...
  
  (2007)
• Loft
  Loft (2008 film)
  Loft is a 2008 Belgian thriller directed by Erik Van Looy, starring an ensemble cast of notable Flemish actors. The script was written by Bart De Pauw.-Synopsis:...
  
  (2008)
• The Misfortunates
  The Misfortunates
  The Misfortunates is a 2009 Belgian comedy-drama film from director Felix Van Groeningen, adapted from the book De helaasheid der dingen by Belgian writer Dimitri Verhulst...
  
  (2009)
• Dirty Mind
  Dirty Mind
  Dirty Mind is the third studio album by American musician Prince, released October 8, 1980 on Warner Bros. Records. Produced, arranged and composed primarily by Prince, it contains prominently sexual lyrics and incorporates musical elements of funk, dance and rock music. The album debuted at number...
  
  (2009)
• Mr. Nobody
  Mr. Nobody (film)
  Mr. Nobody is a 2009 Belgian science fiction drama film directed by Jaco Van Dormael, starring Jared Leto, Diane Kruger, Linh Dan Pham, Sarah Polley, Natasha Little, Rhys Ifans and Daniel Mays. This movie tells the life story of Nemo Nobody, the last mortal on Earth. Nemo is 118 years old and lives...
  
  (2009)
• Luke and Lucy: The Texas Rangers (2009)
• Bo
  Bo (film)
  Bo is a 2010 Belgian film directed by Hans Herbots based on the novel Het engelenhuis by the Belgian author Dirk Bracke. It tells the story of a sixteen-year-old girl, Deborah , who, in an attempt to escape from the triviality of her life in the suburbs of Antwerp, becomes involved in high-end...
  
  (2010)
• Oxygen (2010)
• Bullhead
  Bullhead (film)
  Bullhead is a 2011 Belgian drama film written and directed by Michaël R. Roskam and starring Matthias Schoenaerts. It tells the story of the young Limburg cattle farmer Jacky Vanmarsenille who is approached by an unscrupulous veterinarian to make a shady deal with a notorious West-Flemish beef...
  
  (2011)

Directors

• Pascal Adant
  Pascal Adant
  Pascal Adant is a Belgian film and television director, screenwriter, producer, animator and composer.Before moving into filmmaking, he was a photojournalist for the Vox magasine and was sent in Africa to cover the Somali civil war...
  
  
• Chantal Akerman
  Chantal Akerman
  Chantal Anne Akerman is a Belgian film director, artist, and professor of film at the European Graduate School. Akerman's best-known film, Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles , exemplifies a dedication to the ellipses of conventional narrative cinema.-Early life:Akerman was born to...
  
  
• Yaël André
• Jean-Jacques Andrien
  Jean-Jacques Andrien
  Jean-Jacques Andrien is a Belgian film director. Le Monde deem his film Le Grand Paysage d'Alexis Droeven , to be the first great Film of a Walloon cinema This film addresses two problems; the first is that of Belgium's region, site of a bitter conflict between Flemish and Walloon inhabitants,...
  
  
• Lucas Belvaux
  Lucas Belvaux
  Lucas Belvaux is a Belgian actor and film director. His directing credits include the Trilogie, consisting of three films with interlocking stories and characters, each of which was filmed in a different genre. The three films are Cavale, a thriller; Un couple épatant, a comedy; and Après la vie,...
  
  
• Edmond Bernhard
• Jean-Marie Buchet
  Jean-Marie Buchet
  Jean-Marie Buchet is a Belgian author and filmmaker.-Early life & education:At the age of twelve, Buchet said to a school-fellow, after having failed at an examination: "Later I will make cinema!"...
  
  
• Jan Bucquoy
  Jan Bucquoy
  Jan Bucquoy is an anarchist and author-filmmaker born in Harelbeke, Belgium who started as a theatre practitioner and who worked as a cartoon-scriptwriter.-Career:...
  
  
• Frans Buyens
• Stijn Coninx
  Stijn Coninx
  Stijn, Baron Coninx is a Belgian film director best known for the movie Daens. He was made a Baron by King Albert II of Belgium...
  
  
• Dardenne brothers
  Dardenne brothers
  Brothers Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne are a Belgian filmmaking duo...
  
  
• Robbe De Hert
  Robbe De Hert
  Robbe De Hert is a Belgian film director.-Movies:*Camera Sutra *De Witte van Zichem *Le filet américain *Maria Danneels of Het leven dat we droomden...
  
  
• Eric de Kuyper
  Eric de Kuyper
  Eric de Kuyper is a Flemish-Belgian and Dutch writer, semiotician, art critic, and experimental film director. Fictionalized autobiographical novels, written in the 3rd-person, account for most of his creative work. His academic writing encompasses reviews, essays, articles, and books on...
  
  
• Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
• Charles Dekeukeleire
  Charles Dekeukeleire
  Charles Dekeukeleire was a Belgian film director. He pioneered modern Belgian film with Henri Storck. He was inspired by French avant-garde cinema, particularly the works of Germaine Dulac.-Biography:...
  
  
• André Delvaux
• Paul Demeyer
• Dominique Deruddere
  Dominique Deruddere
  Dominique Deruddere is a Belgian film director.- Filmography:* Crazy Love * Wait Until Spring, Bandini * Everybody's Famous! -External links:...
  
  
• Marc Didden
  Marc Didden
  Marc Didden is a Belgian film director. He and his family moved to Brussels when he was age two, where he had lived for most of his own life...
  
  
• Frederik Du Chau
  Frederik Du Chau
  Frederik Du Chau is a film director, screenwriter and former animator. He is well known for directing films like Racing Stripes and Underdog...
  
  
• Noël Godin
  Noël Godin
  Noël Godin is a Belgian writer, critic, actor and notorious cream pie flinger or entarteur. Godin gained global attention in 1998 when his group ambushed Microsoft CEO Bill Gates in Brussels, pelting the software magnate with cream pies...
  
  
• Marion Hänsel
  Marion Hänsel
  Marion Hänsel is a Belgian film director, producer, actress and screenwriter. Her film Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea was entered into the 1995 Cannes Film Festival.-Selected filmography:* Palaver...
  
  
• Patric Jean
• Yasmine Kassari
  Yasmine Kassari
  Yasmine Kassari , is a Belgian-Moroccan film director.After studying medicine in Paris for one year, she registered at INSAS in Brussels and worked for the production company Les films de la drève...
  
  
• Harry Kümel
• Joachim Lafosse
  Joachim Lafosse
  Joachim Lafosse is a Belgian film director and screenwriter.- Career :Lafosse studied at the IAD at Louvain-la-Neuve between 1997 and 2001. His graduation film Tribu, a 24-minute short, won the best Belgian short subject category at the 2001 Namur Film Festival...
  
  
• Benoît Lamy
  Benoît Lamy
  Benoît Lamy was a Belgian motion picture writer-director.Lamy was born in Arlon, Luxembourg, Belgium and died in Braine-l'Alleud, Walloon Brabant, Belgium....
  
  
• Boris Lehman
  Boris Lehman
  Boris Lehman, , is a Belgian author-filmmaker of experimental cinema. Lehman initially studied piano, but in the early 1960s became interested in photography and cinema...
  
  
• Roland Lethem
  Roland Lethem
  Roland Lethem is a Belgian filmmaker and writer.Influenced at his beginnings by Buñuel, Cocteau, the surrealists and by the Japanese cinema , stunned by the Festival of the film expérimental of Knokke in 1967 and by May 1968, Roland Lethem wants to push the people to look at the things of which...
  
  
• Ernst Moerman
  Ernst Moerman
  Ernst Moerman was a Belgian writer and film director.He directed only one film—Monsieur Fantômas in 1937—but this work is very important in the history of the Belgian cinema.- References :...
  
  
• Koen Mortier
• Picha
  Picha
  Jean-Paul "monda" Walravens is a cartoonist and film director. He was born in Brussels, Belgium.-Biography:Jean-Paul Walravens, quickly fascinated by drawing, performs his studies at the Institute of Fine Arts Saint-Luc...
  
  
• Maurice Rabinowicz
  Maurice Rabinowicz
  Maurice Rabinowicz is a Belgian film director and writer.He studied theatre at the Institut national supérieur des arts du spectacle in Brussels, graduating in 1970. His style of film-making has been described as Brechtian...
  
  
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau
  Jean-Jacques Rousseau
  Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer of 18th-century Romanticism. His political philosophy influenced the French Revolution as well as the overall development of modern political, sociological and educational thought.His novel Émile: or, On Education is a treatise...
  
  
• Raoul Servais
  Raoul Servais
  Raoul Servais is a Belgian filmmaker. He was born in Ostend.-Filmography:* 1963: The False Note* 1966: Chromophobia* 1968: Sirene* 1969: Goldframe* 1970: To speak or not to speak* 1971: Operation X-70...
  
  
• Olivier Smolders
• Ben Stassen
  Ben Stassen
  Ben Stassen is a Belgian film producer and director. He founded nWave Pictures in 1994, producing highly successful CGI ride films including the groundbreaking Devils Mine...
  
  
• Henri Storck
  Henri Storck
  Henri Storck was a Belgian author, film-maker and documentarist.In 1933, he directed, with Joris Ivens, Misère au Borinage, a film about the miners in the Borinage area. In 1938, with Andre Thirifays and Pierre Vermeylen, he founded the Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique...
  
  
• Samy Szlingerbaum
  Samy Szlingerbaum
  Samy Szlingerbaum was a Belgian screenwriter, actor and film director.Szlingerbaum began his career as a director by co-directing the 1973 film Le 15/8 with Chantal Akerman. Then in 1980 he wrote and directed Brussels Transit, a feature film in Yiddish which tells of his parents moving to Brussels...
  
  
• Boris Szulzinger
  Boris Szulzinger
  [[Category:Year of birth missing [[Category:Living people]][[Category:Belgian film directors]][[fr:Boris Szulzinger]][[is:Boris Szulzinger]]...
  
  
• Henri d'Ursel
  Henri d'Ursel
  Henri, 8th Duke d'Ursel was a Belgian film director and writer.He lived in Paris during the 1920s, at the height of the surrealist and avant-garde movements...
  
  
• Patrick Van Antwerpen
  Patrick Van Antwerpen
  Patrick Van Antwerpen is a Belgian author-filmmaker born on 17 May 1944 in Ixelles and deceased in this commune on 3 December 1990.- Filmographie :* Jules, Julien, Julienne * La baraque * Le banc...
  
  
• Jan Vanderheyden
• Jaco Van Dormael
  Jaco Van Dormael
  Jaco Van Dormael is a Belgian film director, screenwriter and playwright. His complex and critically acclaimed films are especially noted for their respectful and sympathetic portrayal of people with mental and physical disabilities.- Biography :In the 1980s, he became interested in filmmaking and...
  
  
• Felix Van Groeningen
• Erik Van Looy
  Erik Van Looy
  Erik Ludovicus Maria Van Looy is a Belgian film director.In Flanders he is also known as a television presenter .His most famous movies are:*Ad Fundum *Shades...
  
  
• Roland Verhavert
  Roland Verhavert
  Roland Verhavert is a Belgian film director. He directed 44 films between 1955 and 1993. He co-directed the 1955 film Seagulls Die in the Harbour, which was entered into the 1956 Cannes Film Festival. His 1974 film The Conscript was entered into the 24th Berlin International Film...
  
  
• Jan Verheyen
  Jan Verheyen
  Jan Verheyen may refer to:*Jan Verheyen , Belgian retired footballer*Jan Verheyen , Belgian film director of e.g. Dossier K....
  
  
• Julien Vrebos
• Thierry Zéno
  Thierry Zéno
  Thierry Zéno is a Belgian author-filmmaker. His films include the controversial Vase de Noces , and a documentary ¡Ya basta! Le cri des sans-visage on the Zapatista rebels of Chiapas, Mexico,...
  
  
• Fien Troch
  Fien Troch
  Fien Troch is a Belgian left field film director, producer and screenwriter. After graduating from the Sint-Lukas art academy in Brussels in 2000, she achieved several nominations and awards in her chosen career....
  
  
• Hans Herbots

Actors and actresses

• Antje De Boeck
• Koen De Bouw
• Jan Decleir
  Jan Decleir
  Jan Decleir is a prolific Belgian movie and stage actor born in Niel, Antwerp .He had his first big role in Fons Rademakers "Mira" and has since then appeared in countless Flemish and Dutch films and tv productions...
  
  
• Cécile de France
  Cécile de France
  Cécile de France is a Belgian actress. After achieving success in French cinema hits such as L'Art de la séduction and Irène , she gained international attention for her lead role in Haute Tension and Hereafter .- Career :Born in Namur, she left Belgium at the age of 17 to go to Paris where she...
  
  
• Josse De Pauw
  Josse De Pauw
  Josse De Pauw , is a versatile Belgian actor, film director, dramatist, author and columnist. He is married to modern dance performer Fumio Ikeda.-Theatre:...
  
  
• Émilie Dequenne
  Émilie Dequenne
  Émilie Dequenne is a French-speaking Belgian actress.-Biography:She won the Best Actress award at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival for her debut film performance in the Palme d'Or-winning film Rosetta...
  
  
• Jean-Claude Van Damme
  Jean-Claude Van Damme
  Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg , professionally known as Jean-Claude Van Damme, is a Belgian martial artist and actor, best known for his martial arts action films, the most successful of which include Bloodsport , Kickboxer , Double Impact , Universal Soldier , Hard Target , Timecop ,...
  
  
• Dora Van Der Groen
  Dora van der Groen
  Dora van der Groen is a Belgian actress. She has appeared in 120 films and television shows since 1945. She starred in the 1975 film Dokter Pulder zaait papavers, which was entered into the 26th Berlin International Film Festival....
  
  

External links

• Flanders Image- a website dedicated to the Flemish film industry