– In its 3rd 2025 session, the centre’s Film Commission has selected titles which will share a budget of 4.02 million euros
Elio Germano in front of Titian’s Venus of Urbino (Uffizi Gallery, with permission from the Italian Ministry of Culture) in The Man Who Could Have Changed the World
In its 3rd 2025 session, the Film Commission overseen by the Wallonia-Brussels Federation Film and Audiovisual Centre has chosen to allocate funds to 55 projects, 19 of which are feature films, with four of the latter receiving support for the production phase. The first of these is The Man Who Could Have Changed The World (read news), a second feature film by Anne Paulicevich (Working Girls) which paints an audacious historic portrait based on the true story of Ranuccio Bandinelli, an archaeology and history teacher who could have become one of the greatest heroes of all time when he was chosen to act as a guide during Hitler and Mussolini’s visit to Rome and Florence in 1938. Starring in the cast of this film – on which shooting between Belgium, Italy and Germany wrapped back in January – are three dependable names in European cinema: Elio Germano in the role of Bandinelli, Albrecht Schuch as Hitler, and Fausto Russo Alesi playing Mussolini. The film is a large-scale co-production between Versus Production (Belgium), Indigo Film and Piper Film (Italy), alongside NiKo Film (Germany).
Three first fiction feature films will also receive backing in the production phase. Dernier printemps by Sandrine Dryvers is a thriller focusing on a young 17-year-old woman called Alice, who questions the conclusions drawn by the police over her mother’s death. The film is represented by Stenola Productions.
In On empêchera la fin du monde, Rémi Allier (awarded the 2019 Best Short Fiction Film César for Little Hands) explores the theme of conspiracy theories by way of Nina, a young teenage girl who’s sent to live with her aunt after her mother – an activist in a radical conspiracy group – is arrested following an act of sabotage. The film sees Wrong Men continuing their work with the filmmaker following their collaboration on Little Hands.
Last but not least, Benjamin Dessy and Lionel Delhaye have been granted support for Un vrai flic, an action comedy where an insecure police officer from the Ardennes region finds himself at the mercy of a voiceover artist on 1990s action film trailers, who’s determined to turn him into a real cop. The film is also the first fiction feature by production company Narrativ Nation, who’ve turned heads in the domain of series and webseries.
The Commission is also aiding the return of filmmaker (and multi-award-winning actor) Bouli Lanners (The Giants, The First, The Last) through development support for Les Ephémères, and of Véronique Jadin (acclaimed for the dark comedy Employee of the Month), who’s working on the new, enigmatically titled comedy, Toutes les filles s’appellent Jean-Pierre. Margot Reumont has likewise been granted funds for her family animation, Vol-au-vent.
Memorable works receiving support in the writing phase include the new opus by the fantastic Abel and Gordon (Rumba, Lost in Paris, The Falling Star) and the second feature by another duo offering glimpses into a singular universe, Noëlle Bastin and Baptiste Bogaert (to whom we owe the genre-defying work Vitrival – The Most Beautiful Village in the World).
(Translated from French)
