Belgian director wins Hollywood award for film Beautiful Boy

Belgian filmmaker Felix Van Groeningen has won the Breakthrough Director Award at the Hollywood Film Awards for the movie Beautiful Boy. He was handed the award this week by Brad Pitt at the ceremony in Beverly Hills.

Van Groeningen is the director of several films, including De helaasheid der dingen (The Misfortunates) and the Oscar-nominated The Broken Circle Breakdown. The latter won him plaudits in the US and led to the chance to make Beautiful Boy, his first English-language film and his first made outside of Belgium.

Beautiful Boy is based on two best-selling memoirs from 2008. Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey Through His Son’s Addiction was written by American journalist David Sheff, and Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines, was published concurrently, written by David’s son Nic Sheff.

The film stars Steve Carell (Battle of the Sexes, The Big Short) as David Sheff and Timothée Chalamet (Call Me By Your Name) as Nic. Chalamet won the Hollywood Supporting Actor Award for his performance in the film.

“I am so very honoured to have received this prize,” said Van Groeningen. “Beautiful Boy is a film that I’m proud of and that covers an important theme. What is addiction, how do we see people who are addicted, how can we help them? And what is the impact on the people who love them?”

Van Groeningen was in the US for two months last year, filming the movie in and around Los Angeles and San Francisco. He took two of his regular collaborators with him, director of photography Ruben Impens and editor Nico Leunen.

The film has been in cinemas in the US since 12 October and opens in Belgium on 21 November.

Photo: A prize and a hug from Brad Pitt awaiting Flemish director Felix Van Groeningen at the Hollywood Film Awards on Monday. Pitt was one of the producers of Beautiful Boy (c)Courtesy Hollywood Film Awards