Inflight Magazine of Brussels Airlines

Coming attractions

Image Kobal

More than 100,000 people will descend on Ghent next month for the 35th Ghent Film Festival. Renée Cordes gets a sneak preview

Cinema fans enter Kinepolis for
a gala screening at the Film
Festival; When a group of students staged Ghent’s first film festival 35 years ago, they never imagined it would grow into today’s annual blockbuster. Since then the Ghent International Film Festival (filmfestival. be) has carved out a prominent place for itself in a highly competitive industry. This year’s event, from 7 to 18 October, will attract over 100,000 visitors who come to watch screenings of around 120 feature films and 50 shorts from all over the world.

“One of the main purposes of the festival is to show films that the public would otherwise never get to see, not even in art-house cinemas,” explains festival spokesman Thomas Dierckens.

Although the programme is still being finalised, organisers have confirmed that the 2008 festival will spotlight Belgium’s Raoul Servais, one of the founding fathers of animation, who celebrates his 80th birthday this year. There will also be a retrospective of newly restored films starring Harold Lloyd (1893-1971), who ranks alongside Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton as one of the most popular comedians of the silent film era.

But it’s sound rather than silence that is the big draw at this festival. Since 1985, the Ghent event has focused on film music and has hosted the prestigious World Soundtrack Awards since 2001. Considered to be the Oscars of the film-score world, the annual awards honour the industry’s best soundtrack composers and have put Ghent on the map as a meeting point for established and up-and-coming talent.

left Multiaward-
winning John
Williams wrote the film
score for Superman; As in previous years, there will be several concerts of award-winning film scores. Among the lesser-known composers to be featured this year is Tuur Florizoone, a Belgian accordion virtuoso who recently completed the soundtrack for Christophe van Rompaey’s Moscow, Belgium. But this year’s highlight will undoubtedly be a performance of works by five-times Oscar winner John Williams, who wrote some of the most famous film scores in history, including those for Star Wars, Superman and Jurassic Park.

Don’t miss…

Even if you miss the festival, there’s still plenty to see in Ghent

Climb up Saint
Nicholas’ tower
or the Belfry 1 Six Days of Ghent zesdaagse.be Every November since 1922, Ghent has hosted the Six Days of Ghent, a famous track cycling race held in the Kuipke velodrome inside the Citadelpark in the centre of town. This year the event takes place from 18-23 November.

2 Three towers Ghent’s three medieval towers – the Belfry, Saint Nicholas’ Church and Saint Bavo’s Cathedral – offer superb panoramic views. They can all be seen from Saint Michael’s bridge. Finished in 1569, Saint Bavo’s houses Jan and Hubert van Eyck’s painted altarpiece Adoration of the Mystic Lamb.

3 Dulle Griet dullegriet.be Named for the nearby cannon – which in turn takes its name from the Flemish folk character also known as ‘Mad Meg’, who has cropped up in the odd Brueghel painting – Dulle Griet is a local tavern that serves up no less than 250 varieties of beer in cosy, wood-panelled surroundings. Those who order the house beer (a Max of the House) are required to give up their shoe, which is returned only when they produce an empty glass.

4 Unique city tours minervaboten.be Some of the best ways to get a real flavour of Ghent’s historic charm is to take a tour by horse-drawn carriage, boat or bicycle. The Minerva Boat Company rents out mini-yachts and sailboats.

5 SMAK www.smak.be Known by its Dutch acronym SMAK, the Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art, located in the Citadelpark, is always full of surprises. Until 25 January 2009, the museum’s permanent collection will be in the spotlight, featuring many newly acquired works.

Leave a Reply