Filmfestival Oostende first days

On Friday the 26th of January the Filmfestival of Oostende officially started with the opening film Holy Rosita from director Wannes Destoop. 20.000 people saw the film that was shot in Ostend. Before the film was shown in the evening, earlier that day master of this edition of FFO Gene Bervoets and director Wannes Destoop received a star on the Walk of Fame of Ostend. Both were very happy and honored to get a star.

So, the festival started in a good way on Friday and on Saturday, it was another amazing day. I went to see a few films myself, starting with the short film directed by Nicolas Daenens and made by kleinVerhaal, a socio-cultural organisation in Ostend. With Hazegras, they made a film of the neighborhood known as the Hazegras in Ostend. It’s all people who live there that were playing in the film. It was beautifully done and shows you the real Ostend. This is already the third film they made about a neighborhood in Ostend and I look forward to what they have in store in the future. Then I went to see my first real long film, Firebrand, with Alicia Vikander and Jude Law. It was a nice film that tells the story of Katherine Parr, the sixth and final wife of King Henry VIII.

In the evening, like every night of the Filmfestival, there were several stars coming to the red carpet to present their film. There was Klaas Backers and Matthieu Bonne that were there to present their new documentary 8 Islands, director Kyros Papavassiliou came to show his film Embryo Larva Butterfly and Benoît Dervaux for his film Let Me Go. Jaione Camborda, Janet Novás and Kathleen Goossens come to show their new film The Rye Horn, Marc Didden, who received a star and the Lifetime Achievement Award earlier that day, come to show his film Istanbul, Heleen Declercq, Sam Peeters, Zaïde Bil, Kaouthar Darmoni, Hanne Gaby Odiele and Mieke Van Hove were there for She They Us and the some of the cast and crew of Here I Go, including Jaan Stevens, Ruben, Arnaud Callens, Calixte De Coster, Bo De Group, Hans Everaert, Angela Otten and Gillis Van Der Wee, were there. Finally we also had the cast and crew of the new Belgian film Skunk that was present, including director Koen Mortier, Geert Taghon, Thibaud Dooms, Natali Broods, Dirk Roofthooft, Colin van Eeckhout, Boris Van Severen and Sarah Vandeursen.

I saw two films that night: One Life with Anthony Hopkins, Johnny Flynn and Helena Bonham Carter and The Iron Claw with Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White and Harris Dickinson. There were both beautiful films based and inspired by true events. One Life tells the true story of British humanitarian Sir Nicholas Winton as he looks back on his past efforts to help groups of Jewish children in German-occupied Czechoslovakia to hide and flee in 1938–39, just before the beginning of World War II. Hopkins plays the older version of Winton and Flynn the younger version of Flynn. It’s sad to see that this had to happen all because of the war and so I had tears in my eyes at the end of the film. 669 children were saved by that man and some of those actual children are seen in the film.

The Iron Claw is also inspired by true events that happened to the Von Erich family, one of the biggest and greatest wrestling families there was and still is. Written and directed by Sean Durkin, it stars Holt McCallany as Fritz Von Erich, the father of the Von Erich children, all men. We have Kevin played by Zac Efron, Kenny played by Jeremy Allen White, David played by Harris Dickinson and Mike played by Stanley Simons. It’s hard to see when you know that everything that happened in the film also happened in real life and that the film doesn’t even show everything that happened to that family. I wouldn’t want to be part of that family.

So these are already three beautiful films I saw in a day and there are more to follow. Today, on Sunday January 28, I also went to see Sometimes I Think About Dying with Daisy Ridley in the lead role, which was another nice film to see. It made me uncomfortable sometimes but also made me laugh sometimes. Later in the evening there is Sam Heughan – who you may know from Outlander – and Eleanor Tomlinson, who got a star on the Walk of Fame and they will be presenting their newest series The Couple Next Door. More about that tomorrow on January 29 here on Six To See.