Re-imagining Belgium beyond the split

Last week, Bram Van Beek successfully defended his PhD dissertation entitled Re-imagining Belgium beyond the split: national identity in contemporary Belgian cinema. Bram’s research critically examined the historical divide between Dutch- and French-speaking cinematic traditions in Belgium, uncovering recent trends that suggest a revival of Belgian identity of Belgian identity in Belgian cinema. His work not only deepens the understanding of the interplay between Belgian cinema and national identity but also makes a pivotal contribution to the broader debates on the concept of national cinema.

Bram’s dissertation also forms the most important scientific output of the University of Antwerp BOF research project ‘The state of the nation in Belgian cinema’, which I initiated in 2019. Working closely with Bram, including our collaboration on the article ‘Intranational film industries’ for French Screen Studies, has been a true pleasure. I eagerly anticipate continuing our fruitful partnership on future endeavours!

The doctoral jury of Bram’s PhD defense was chaired by Remco Sleiderinck (University of Antwerp) and included Leen Engelen (LUCA School of Arts/KU Leuven), Daniël Biltereyst (Ghent University), Bénédicte Rochet (University of Namur, Steven Jacobs (University of Antwerp/Ghent University) and myself as supervisor.

Intranational film industries

The latest issue of French Screen Studies has been published and includes an article by Bram Van Beek and myself entitled ‘Intranational film industries: A quantitative analysis of contemporary Belgian cinema’. You can read the full article here or download it here:

Intranational film industriesDownload

The article presents a quantitative analysis of Belgian fiction film production between 2000 and 2019. Analysing an extensive database, it explores the current state of Belgian cinema, which is characterised on the one hand by a strong international dimension, and on the other hand by two largely separate intranational industries: a Flemish and a francophone Belgian film industry. Despite the persistent gap between the two industries, a certain rapprochement seems to be manifesting recently. This industrial analysis is preceded by an exploration of the conceptual and practical difficulties and limitations that arise when trying to determine whether a film can be labelled (partly) ‘Belgian’, ‘Flemish’ and/or ‘francophone Belgian’. Emanating from the complexity of the Belgian situation, these difficulties reveal some of the theoretical contradictions of the concept of national cinema. As such, departing from a quantitative study of Belgian cinema, this article also provides an original contribution to ongoing debates on the concept of national cinema.

NECS conference

The annual NECS (European Network for Cinema and Media Studies) conference, hosted by the University of Palermo but taking place online, started yesterday, running until Sunday. This enabled us to to present the research project ‘The state of the nation in Belgian cinema’ to an international academic audience for the first time. Bram Van Beek, who works as a PhD researcher on this project since November 2019, presented the quantitative part of our project, focusing on industrial developments in Belgian film production.

The original poster for the NECS conference, which was first scheduled in June 2020

The panel we were part of, gently chaired by Elena Oroz, also included interesting presentations by Jenny Stümer, Egor Shmonin and Samira Makki. While everyone is looking forward to meet physically again and to continue conversations beyond the official conference programme, it was very nice to share our research findings with colleagues and to feel part of the international film studies community again..!