Cinema city: Brussels International Film Festival is back

Downtown Brussels is transformed into cinema city as the sixth edition of the Brussels International Film Festival (BRIFF) gets underway from 27 June to 5 July.

Setting up its big top on Place de Brouckère, the festival village serves as a hub for the annual cinema event. Festivalgoers can congregate and meet invited festival guests, enjoy a drink and a snack and discuss the films screened at UGC de Brouckère, Cinéma Palace, Cinéma Galeries and Bozar. They can also sit back and benefit from the village’s free open-air concerts and screenings.

A total of 25 films from Argentina, Australia, China, France, Germany, Iran, Italy Portugal, Spain and Tunisia are vying for awards in the international competition. A dozen of Belgium’s best are in the national competition and seven filmmakers from across Europe are competing in the directors’ week competition.

Outside the competitions, there are special screenings, including Belgian shorts, family fare, ecological calls to arms, a trio of films that changed the history of cinema, screenings for the visually impaired, masterclasses and the aforementioned open-air screenings, which include the ever popular Ghostbusters and Beetlejuice.

Among the screenings are five films either entirely or partially in English all with Q&A discussions after the following screenings.

29 June, 18.30 Passages (Fr, 2023) at Cinema Palace
Starring Franz Rogowski, Ben Whishaw and Adèle Exarchopoulos, this drama depicts tangled relations between a long-time male couple, and a woman with whom one of them has an affair. The screening is followed by an extended Q&A with director Ira Sachs.

2 July, 21.00 Luka (Bel, 2023) at Cinema Palace
A gripping black-and-white fantasy drama set in stunning Sicilian landscape. An army is unable to find the enemy as it defends the final elements of civilization in a dystopian future (national competition). American-Belgian director Jessica Woodworth is in attendance.

2 July, 18.30 Limbo (Aus, 2023) at Cinema Galéries
This independent mystery-crime drama follows a detective pursuing a cold case ( the homicide of an aboriginal woman) in the Australian outback town of Limbo (international competition). Actor Simon Baker is in attendance.

2 July, 19.00 The Nightman (Bel, 2022) at UGC De Brouckère
In a psychological thriller set in an old Irish manor house, a young pregnant woman discovers her boyfriend may be a dangerous sleepwalker (national competition). Director Melanie Delloye-Bettancourt is in attendance.

3 July, 19.30 The Wall (Bel/Lux/Den/US, 2022) at UGC De Brouckère
An over-zealous border patrol agent loses control and kills a harmless migrant at a dangerous crossing point between Mexico and Arizona (national competition). With actors Vicky Krieps and Mike Wilson and director Philippe van Leeuw in attendance.

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