Belgium picks Broken Circle Breakdown for Oscar race

Belgium has selected The Broken Circle Breakdown as its entry in the foreign-language film race at next year’s Academy Awards, writes Variety’s Shalini Dore. Directed by Ghent’s Felix van Groeningen, The Broken Circle Breakdown is a drama about the love affair between tattoo artist Elise (Veerle Baetens, recently seen in the BBC’s The White Queen) and bluegrass musician Didier (Johan Heldenbergh). Written by van Groeningen and Carl Joos, the Dutch-language film has been a box office success all over Europe. It has picked up the Panorama Audience Award at Berlin, the screenplay award at Tribeca and nine Ensor Awards (including film, director, actress and music) in Belgium. The production is also nominated for the People’s Choice Prize at December’s European Film Awards, and Variety selected van Groeningen as one of its 10 European Directors to Watch this year. The Broken Circle Breakdown is released by Tribeca Film in the U.S. on November 1.