News

SkyShowtime has acquired the sun-soaked comedy series “All In,” which is set to premiere on the streaming service next year.

The series features a stellar Dutch cast including Katja Schuurman (“Costa!”), Diederik Ebbinge (“De Luizenmoeder”), Manuel Broekman (“Feuten”), Loes Luca (“Maud & Babs”), and Eric van Sauers (“Tropenjaren”).

“All In” follows a Dutch and Flemish family spending their summer at a Spanish all-inclusive resort. What begins as a dream holiday quickly spirals into a hilarious competition for the ultimate vacation experience. As if that weren’t enough, their carefree stay is turned upside down by a gang of criminals, and the hotel staff seem to be in desperate need of a holiday themselves.

From the race to claim the best room with the perfect view, to the daily sunbed wars at the pool, to adults acting like teens and teens pretending to be adults – “All In” brings “an entertaining mix of satire,...

"The hotel is shrinking!" This film premiered at the 2024 Toronto Film Festival and will be touring festivals before it opens sometime in 2025. From director Tallulah, Mr. K is another new Kafka story to get lost in. "Crispin Glover brings his best to Tallulah's delightfully Kafkaesque tale of a traveling magician who finds himself in a hotel full of unusual guests — with no way out." After spending the night in a remote hotel, Mr. K is stuck in a claustrophobic nightmare when he discovers that he can't leave the building. Glover stars with the ensemble cast featuring Sunnyi Melles, Fionnula Flanagan, Bjørn Sundquist, Dearbhla Molloy, Barbara Sarafian, Jan Gunnar Røise, Esmée van Kampen, & Sam Louwyck. TIFF teases more: "Though Glover's Mr. K expresses admirable patience and fortitude in the face of many curveballs, he inevitably starts to come undone. Conversely, Schwab grows ever more exacting in her control of the film's unabashedly peculiar tone.

Crispin Glover, Sunnyi Melles, Fionnula Flanagan star in the film.

LevelK has boarded world sales on Dutch drama Mr. K starring Crispin Glover, which has wrapped filming and is now in post-production.

Back To The Future star Glover plays the eponymous character, a travelling magician who finds himself in a Kafkaesque nightmare when he can’t find the exit of the hotel he just slept in. His attempts to get out only entangle him further with the hotel and its curious inhabitants.

LevelK has released a first look at the film, above. Paradiso will release the title in Belgium.

Written and directed by Tallulah Schwab,...

Flemish feature has drawn younger audiences to cinemas.

Flemish disco movie and crime thriller Zillion is breaking post-pandemic box office records in Belgium where it has out-performed the release of Disney/Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

Zillion was released by Brussels-based Kinepolis Film Distribution on October 26 and has been the number one film at the box office ever since, apart from for a few days immediately following the launch of the Black Panther sequel.

The film has reached 510,000 admissions and has taken more than €5.5m at the box office. Precise box office data is not readily available as Belgian...

UK crime drama The Missing ran for two seasons in 2014 and 2016 on BBC One, where it was a hit by anybody’s standards. The logical next step would have been a third and possibly fourth, fifth and sixth season, but none arrived. Instead, the show’s creators Harry and Jack Williams changed direction and created two seasons of a spin-off starring The Missing’s lead detective Julien Baptiste. With the British thriller now finding new fans internationally on Netflix, many are asking why season three of The Missing was never made.

The reason for the Williams Bros.’ switch to a spin-off was built into the original show’s premise. Seasons one and two of The Missing focused on failures in the long career of Det. Baptiste (Tchéky Karyo). The first was the disappearance of five-year-old Oliver Hughes, an English boy holidaying with his parents in a French town. The second...

"It's not about money. It's about people." Netflix has revealed the new official trailer for a series titled Soil, made in and produced in Belgium, but primarily about a Moroccan community in the country. Here's the setup for this dark comedy series: If a Muslim person passes away in Belgium, he burdens his relatives with a delicate dilemma: "Do we bury him here or in his native country?" Ishmael, better known as "Smile", has devised a solution: "What if we import soil from Morocco into Belgium to bury our deceased?" But without realising it, he's opening Pandora's 'coffin'. Ha. This originally premiered on TV in Belgium last year, and is coming to Netflix soon for everyone else to watch. The main cast includes actors Yassine Ouaich, Charlotte De Bruyne, Barbara Sarafian, Tom Vermeir, Saïd Boumazoughe, Mourade Zeguendi, Ahlaam Teghadouini, Dries Heyneman, Ward Kerremans, Emilie De Roo and Wannes Cappelle. This is clever!

Call The Midwife and Robin Hood star Jessica Raine is to star in BBC One’s spin-off of detective drama The Missing.

Raine is to play Genevieve in Baptiste, which sees Turkish-born French actor Tchéky Karyo play the eponymous investigator. Tom Hollander also stars, as Edward.

Filming will take place in Antwerp, Ghent, Amsterdam and Deal in Kent.

Baptiste is produced by Harry and Jack Williams’ All3Media-backed production company Two Brothers Pictures. The Missing aired on U.S network Starz, although there is no word yet whether it will take the spin-off.

The spin-off follows Baptiste and his wife on a visit to Amsterdam, when the Chief of Police, who happens to be an ex-girlfriend, seeks out his help on a case that takes him from the beautiful streets, canals and houses of Amsterdam to the seamy underworld beneath.

Karyo, Hollander and Raine are joined by a cast including...

It is the latest feature from director Christophe van Rompaey, whose 2008 film Moscow, Belgium won three awards in Cannes Critics Week that year.

Beta Cinema will begin pre sales on Vincent And The End Of The World at Cannes.

Directed by Christophe van Rompaey and written by Jean-Claude van Rijckeghem - the director/writer team behind Cannes award winning Moscow, Belgium, - the dramatic comedy about a 17 year old ecologist (played by Spencer Bogaert) who drives his family crazy with his bid to reduce their carbon footprint, is currently shooting.

The cast of the French-Belgium co-production also includes Alexandra Lamy, Barbara Sarafian (who starred in Moscow, Belgium) and Geert van Rampelberg.

Beta Cinema’s 2015 Cannes slate includes the international market premiere of Sergio Castellitto’s You Can’t Save Yourself Alone, Colonia starring Emma Watson and Daniel Bruehl and the market premieres of Ghosthunters On Icy Trails and The Pasta Detectives.

“I am so happy...

This week in home video releases you can find this year's Academy Award winner of Best Picture, a Best Foreign Language Film nominee, plus three of this year's biggest releases.

Find out all about this week's release on The Video Score!

Pick of the Week

"Bullhead" (2011)

Director: Michael R. Roskam

Cast: Matthias Schoenaerts, Jeroen Perceval, Barbara Sarafian

Story:

A steroid-fueled cattle farmer finds that his decision to do business with the Belgian cattle-hormone mafia could have potentially deadly consequences in this brooding Belgian crime drama that was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2012 Academy Awards.

On the Disc:

The Alamo Drafthouse is once again putting their best foot forward with their second home video release. "Bullhead" is full of worthy extras including a commentary from the director, a make-of documentary, an interview with Schoenaerts, and a booklet with an introduction from Michael Mann.

Reviews:

Rotten Tomatoes: 83%

Metacritic: 68

Where...

Title: Bullhead Directed By: Michael R. Roskam Starring: Matthias Schoenaerts, Jeroen Perceval, Jeanne Dandoy, Barbara Sarafian, Tibo Vandenborre, Frank Lammers, Sam Louwyck, Robin Valvekens, Baudoin Wolwertz, David Murgia, Erico Salamone, Philippe Grand’Henry, Kris Cuppens, Sofie Sente, Kristof Renson Talk about starting out on the right foot. Not only did first time feature writer-director Michael R. Roskam deliver a solid film, but he snagged an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. Will it claim the Oscar? I’m betting against it, but Bullhead is still undoubtedly a worthy watch. As kids, Jacky Vanmarsenille (Robin Valvekens) and his buddy Diederik Maes (Baudoin Wolwertz) get into a scuffle with a local bully,...

Note: This is a re-post of our Viff review.

The name Michael R. Roskam may become very familiar around cinematic circles—possibly as soon as next spring. Beating out all other accomplished filmmakers from Belgium, it is this writer/director’s first feature Rundskop [Bullhead] that has won the honor of representing its country at the Oscars. You’ll understand why it prevailed quickly, earning the praise of not just being a great debut, but a great film too.

Assured, intelligent, and gripping, this gangster tale isn’t necessarily unique in tone but is completely fresh in subject matter. Instead of cocaine or heroine as the central drug manufactured and distributed, the Flemish mob families here deal cows. By injecting growth hormones, multiple farms in Belgium have cultivated strong illegal trade circles of infused beef and milk. It’s big business and thusly under constant police surveillance, but somehow they’ve...

Title: Bullhead Drafthouse Films Review by: Harvey Karten Grade: B Director: Michael R. Roskam Screenwriter: Michael R. Roskam Cast: Matthias Schoenaerts, Jeanne Dandoy, Tibo Vandenborre, Jeroen Perceval, Barbara Sarafian, Frank Lammers Screened at: Critics’ DVD, NYC, 2/15/12 Opens: February 17, 2012 There’s a reason that people fly into rages over incidents that a rational person would consider almost neutral. Jackie (Matthias Schoenaerts), whose body is ripped from taking steroids, is a character looking for a revenge that the audience must consider thoroughly justified. In one of the several flashbacks, a handsome but decidedly weak 12-year-old unable to defend himself, is set upon by local young toughs, his testicles literally crushed,...

Theatrical movie trailer for Michael R. Roskam's Bullhead (Rundskop), starring Matthias Schoenaerts Michael R. Roskam directs and writes what is one of the year's most stunning international debuts. Bullhead is a harrowing tale of revenge, redemption and fate. Domineering cattle farmer Jacky Vanmarsenille (Matthias Schoenaerts in a ferocious breakout performance), constantly pumped on steroids and hormones, initiates a shady deal with a notorious mafioso meat trader. When an investigating federal agent is assassinated and a woman from his traumatic past resurfaces, Jacky must confront his demons and face the far-reaching consequences of his decisions. Cast of the Drafthouse Films release which opens on February 17th in New York, Los Angeles and Austin, Texas, also includes Jeroen Perceval, Jeanne Dandoy, Barbara Sarafian, Tibo Vandenborre and Frank Lammers.

Theatrical movie trailer for Michael R. Roskam's Bullhead (Rundskop), starring Matthias Schoenaerts Michael R. Roskam directs and writes what is one of the year's most stunning international debuts. Bullhead is a harrowing tale of revenge, redemption and fate. Domineering cattle farmer Jacky Vanmarsenille (Matthias Schoenaerts in a ferocious breakout performance), constantly pumped on steroids and hormones, initiates a shady deal with a notorious mafioso meat trader. When an investigating federal agent is assassinated and a woman from his traumatic past resurfaces, Jacky must confront his demons and face the far-reaching consequences of his decisions. Cast of the Drafthouse Films release which opens on February 17th in New York, Los Angeles and Austin, Texas, also includes Jeroen Perceval, Jeanne Dandoy, Barbara Sarafian, Tibo Vandenborre and Frank Lammers.

Theatrical movie trailer for Michael R. Roskam's Bullhead (Rundskop), starring Matthias Schoenaerts Michael R. Roskam directs and writes what is one of the year's most stunning international debuts. Bullhead is a harrowing tale of revenge, redemption and fate. Domineering cattle farmer Jacky Vanmarsenille (Matthias Schoenaerts in a ferocious breakout performance), constantly pumped on steroids and hormones, initiates a shady deal with a notorious mafioso meat trader. When an investigating federal agent is assassinated and a woman from his traumatic past resurfaces, Jacky must confront his demons and face the far-reaching consequences of his decisions. Cast of the Drafthouse Films release which opens on February 17th in New York, Los Angeles and Austin, Texas, also includes Jeroen Perceval, Jeanne Dandoy, Barbara Sarafian, Tibo Vandenborre and Frank Lammers.

Following the poster debut yesterday, we have the Us trailer for Bullhead. The Foreign Oscar-nominated film was picked up by Drafthouse Films for domestic distribution and our own Jared Mobarak even included it on his best films of the year list. I have the screener for it sitting right on my desk, so I’ll skip watching this trailer and direct you to Jared’s review, where he called the gangster tale “assured, intelligent and gripping.” Check out the trailer for Michael R. Roskam‘s film below via Apple, starring Matthias Schoenaerts, Jeroen Perceval, Barbara Sarafian, Jeanne Dandoy, Tibo Vandenbore and Sam Louwyck.

Synopsis:

Perhaps the year’s most stunning international debut, Michael R. Roskam’s Bullhead is a harrowing tale of revenge, redemption and fate. Domineering cattle farmer Jacky Vanmarsenille (Mattias Schoenaerts in a ferocious breakout performance), constantly pumped on steroids and hormones, initiates a shady deal with a notorious mafioso meat trader.

A little over a year after jailing and banning their most famous filmmaker from making movies, Iran might win an Academy Award for Best Picture. It would be a first for the nation whose government seems to strongly dislike creativity and freedom of speech, but its entry this year, A Separation, almost seems like a sure thing. Come February, writer/director Asghar Farhadi and Iran might be standing on the winner’s podium. But it’s not a done deal yet. A Separation and 8 other films were announced last week as part of the Oscar shortlist – just one step away from becoming an official nominee. They include a Danish comedy set in Argentina, a masculine drama about the underground world of illegal bovine growth hormones in Belgium, and something marvelous from Wim Wenders. It’s, to say the least, a varied group. Except that almost all of them are dramas from writer/directors. So...

The name Michael R. Roskam may become very familiar around cinematic circles—possibly as soon as next spring. Beating out all other accomplished filmmakers from Belgium, it is this writer/director’s first feature Rundskop [Bullhead] that has won the honor of representing its country at the Oscars. You’ll understand why it prevailed quickly, earning the praise of not just being a great debut, but a great film too.

Assured, intelligent, and gripping, this gangster tale isn’t necessarily unique in tone but is completely fresh in subject matter. Instead of cocaine or heroine as the central drug manufactured and distributed, the Flemish mob families here deal cows. By injecting growth hormones, multiple farms in Belgium have cultivated strong illegal trade circles of infused beef and milk. It’s big business and thusly under constant police surveillance, but somehow they’ve managed to stay off the radar from any real...

Reviewed by Charlie Trimarco

(March 2011)

Directed by: Geoffrey Enthoven

Written by: Jean-Claude van Rijckeghem and Chris Craps

Starring: Marilou Mermans, Lucas Vanden Eynde, Jan Van Looveren, Lea Couzin, Lut Tomsin and Michel Israel

Many films that at first glance appear to carry a “feel-good” label — especially those made for the mainstream American audience — invariably trip over their own feet trying to be the perfect uplifting experience. We can barely taste the doughnut under all that powdered sugar. In “The Over the Hill Band” the opposite is the case. By premise a feel-good film, that is only what lies at the surface of this extremely well-written piece that seamlessly shifts between drama and comedy (both dark and non), concluding with a slightly tragic, yet oddly heartwarming ending.

In a macabre, amusing opening scene, we see how Claire (Marilou Mermans) becomes a 69-year-old widow. We meet her two sons and learn they...

Reviewed by Charlie Trimarco

(March 2011)

Directed by: Geoffrey Enthoven

Written by: Jean-Claude van Rijckeghem and Chris Craps

Starring: Marilou Mermans, Lucas Vanden Eynde, Jan Van Looveren, Lea Couzin, Lut Tomsin and Michel Israel

Many films that at first glance appear to carry a “feel-good” label — especially those made for the mainstream American audience — invariably trip over their own feet trying to be the perfect uplifting experience. We can barely taste the doughnut under all that powdered sugar. In “The Over the Hill Band” the opposite is the case. By premise a feel-good film, that is only what lies at the surface of this extremely well-written piece that seamlessly shifts between drama and comedy (both dark and non), concluding with a slightly tragic, yet oddly heartwarming ending.

In a macabre, amusing opening scene, we see how Claire (Marilou Mermans) becomes a 69-year-old widow. We meet her two sons and learn they...

Though it slipped past us somehow the 2011 Berlin Film Festival released the first block of titles from their Panorama section yesterday and there are some very familiar names in there, among them Ryoo Seung-Wan's The Unjust, Jorge Padilha's Elite Squad 2, Angelique Bosio's The Advocate For Fagdom and Hugo Olsson's The Black Power Mixtape - all of which have received coverage here in the pages of Twitch. You want the complete list? Here it is:

Panorama Main Programme + Panorama Special Bu-dang-geo-rae (The Unjust) by Seung-wan Ryoo, Republic of Koreawith Jung-min Hwang, Seung-bum Ryoo, Hae-jin Yoo Chang-Pi-Hae (Ashamed) by Soo-hyun Kim, Republic of Koreawith Hyo-jin Kim, Kkobbi Kim Dance Town by Kyu-hwan Jeon, Republic of Koreawith Mir-an Ra, Seong-tae Oh The Devil's Double by Lee Tamahori, Belgiumwith Dominic Cooper, Ludivine Sagnier Dirty Girl by Abe Sylvia, USAwith Juno Temple, Milla Jovovich, William H. Macy, Dwight Yoakam, Mary Steenburgen, Jeremy Dozier...

'I'm not going to sleep with you - not in a million years," Matty tells Johnny in the romantic comedy "Moscow, Belgium." But time flies, and within the hour the two are getting it on in the cab of Johnny's yellow truck.

Matty (Barbara Sarafian) is a 41-year-old postal clerk in the working-class Belgian suburb of Moscow.

She lives with her three children (the oldest is 16-year-old Vera) in a high-rise apartment after her art-teacher husband runs off with one of his female students.

Johnny (Jurgen Delnaet) is a 29-year-old long-haul trucker ("My truck is my life") prone to drunken violence,...

Below from PosterGeek comes the poster for Moscow Belgium.  This Belgian import features a romantic triangle between Matty, a world-weary mother of three, her charming but philandering husband, and the hot-tempered, far younger truck driver Matty literally crashes into. Matty (Barbara Sarafian) is a no-nonsense, working class forty-one-year-old mother of three with a thousand yard stare whose life seems to come apart after a minor collision with a Belgian truck transporting Italian lollipops. The 29-year-old redhead driver Johnny (Jurgen Delnaet) has not only bruised her car but also ...

By Neil Pedley

There's a noticeably European flavor this week, combined with some good old-fashioned work-a-day miserablism just in time for the holidays. Laurent Cantet's Palme d'Or-winning doc shows a French school in minor crisis, Mickey Rourke battles his demons and Jim Carrey flails about -- all in good festive fun!

"The Class"

Considering that the ongoing debate over the education system approaches a national pastime in France, it's not difficult to see why Laurent Cantet's pseudo-documentary chronicling a year in a Paris classroom took home the Palme d'Or on its home turf in Cannes. Based on a semi-autobiographical account from former lit teacher François Bégaudeau, playing a similar role here for the cameras, Cantet delivers a studied microcosm of French society via a multiethnic school with an administration run by committee. During the course of a turbulent school year, every aspect of the human social dynamic is played out with points made,...

Cannes Film Festival Critics' Week

When care-worn Matty backs her battered family car into Johnny's truck in Christophe Van Rompaey's highly enjoyable romantic comedy "Moscow, Belgium", triggering a torrential exchange of inventive abuse, you just know they were made for each other. The story of how they bridge their differences is one that should appeal to audiences of broadly varying tastes in Europe and to arthouse moviegoers around the world.

The scale of these differences is formidable. For one thing, Matty (Barbara Sarafian) is 43, with fading looks, while Johnny (Jurgen Delnaet), a rugged 29, would be a catch for women half Matty's age. For another, she's just been dumped by Werner (Johan Heldenbergh), her art-teacher husband, and is hoping against hope that he'll return. Last but not least, there's the issue of class (not for nothing is the action set in a suburb of Ghent called Moscow): Matty and Werner are middle-class, albeit at the lower end of the scale, while Johnny is irredeemably proletarian in outlook.

Van Rompaey paints a warm and often witty picture of workaday life in modern (Flemish-speaking) Belgium.He has a keen eye for social detail, from Matty's edgy sparring with the street-wise Vera (Anemone Valcke), aged 16 and the eldest of her three children, to the grotesquely kitschy, out-of-key karaoke number with which Johnny serenades Matty in an attempts to patch up their latest spat. His portrayal of working-class life as it is lived in Belgium, and by implication much of northwestern Europe, is unsentimental and uncondescending and largely rings true.

When Werner, having had a row with his student paramour, decides finally to return to Matty, she is faced with a choice. But Van Rompaey generally applies a light touch and keeps the outcome (more or less) uncertain to the end. Sarafian's sympathetic portrayal of a woman facing a mid-life crisis and unable quite to believe that she has been given a second chance sustains this engaging movie, as do Ruben Impens' cinematography -- much of it shot at night -- and the rich accordion score.

Cast: Barbara Safarian, Jurgen Delnaet, Johan Heldenbergh, Anemone Valcke, Sofia Ferri, Julian Borsani. Director: Christophe Van Rompaey. Screenwriters: Jean-Claude van Rijckeghem, Pat Van Biers. No rating, 102 minutes.