LOOK!-competition 2022

In the LOOK!-competition, a professional international jury will award the Best Film, in which the image lifts the story to a higher level in a striking or influential way. Awards will also be given to the Best Director Of Photography and the Best Screenplay. The UFK Press Award will be chosen by the Union of Film Critics.

Winners

Movie

Drama

Leave No Traces

The Polish-Czech-French co-production 'Leave No Traces' won two awards. The jury was very impressed by the production design of Pawel Jarzebski: "The production design is rich in detail and takes us effortlessly to the early 80’s in Poland. The apartments, the police office, the courtroom, the consistent decoration of the locations: everything we see in the film, exists for a reason.

'Leave No Traces' won the top prize for Best Film. In his film, director Jan P. Matuszyński dissects a painful chapter of Polish history books. On 12 May 1983, the student Grzegorz Przemyk falls victim to police brutality. The 18 year old aspirant poet succumbed from his injuries. The jury was very moved by this story:

The film appealed to our sense of justice. The story of the friend group is told in a dazzling way and is emotionally riveting. The characters are never unambiguously bad, but are depicted as an element in a cruel system. The creators even succeed in flirting with humor, regardless of the film’s heavy story. Despite its title, the film definitely leaves its traces.

Movie

Drama

Nobody Has To Know

The jury awarded 'Nobody Has To Know', by the Belgian director Bouli Lanners and D.O.P. Frank van den Eeden, with the prize for Best Cinematography. The LOOK! competition is unique in Europe and does not hand over this award to the director, but to the director of photography. "Frank van den Eeden's camera work lifts up the screenplay and the film. It is simultaneously oppressive when it comes to social control and liberating when it comes to love. The camera is not objective, it remains very close to the skin. The spectator is intimately engaged with the two main characters. Wonderful.

D.O.P. Frank van den Eeden’s impressive resume includes Belgian successes such as Home, Girl and De Patrick. Bouli Lanners and lead actress Michelle Fairley attended this edition of the Ostend Film Festival and received a star on the Ostend Walk of Fame.

Movie

Drama

Drive My Car

Finally, the screenplay of 'Drive My Car by' the Japanese director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi was recognized by the jury in the Best Screenplay category: "The screenplay of 'Drive My Car', by Haruki Murakami and Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, is intelligently and carefully written with beautiful dialogues, where the moments of silence speak volumes.

Jury

President of the jury Monic Hendrickx is a dutch actress and television host. She already won four Golden Calves for, among others, her roles in 'De Poolse Bruid' (1998), 'Nynke' (2001), 'Het Zuiden' (2004) and the television series 'Penoza' (2010-2017).

Director Sahim Omar Kalifa won several awards in 2017 with his feature debut 'Zagros'. He won the Ensor for Best Film, among other awards. Now we are looking forward to his new feature 'Baghdad Messi', which is based on his short film of the same name.

Fleur Pierets is an artist, writer and LGBTQIA+ activist. Together with her wife Julian P. Boom, she worked on '22-The Project': a performance piece in which the couple would marry in all countries where gay marriage was allowed. Sadly, Julian died after the fourth wedding, in 2018. Fleur Pierets' book 'Julian' was published in September 2019. The film adaptation will be the directorial debut of Maaike Neuville.

Robrecht Heyvaert worked as D.O.P. on 'Torpedo' and 'Patser', among others, but he also stood side by side with Adil and Bilall on the set of 'Bad Boys for Life'. Soon we will also see his work in the TV series 'Ms. Marvel' and the Flemish film 'Zillion'.

Eurydice Gysel is a managing producer at the international film and television production company CZAR. She has produced films such as 'Ex Drummer', 'Coureur' and 'Rookie'. She also co-produced the recent films of Alex van Warmerdam.