Les Invités

Guest of honor of our 5th edition who will be giving us the pleasure of his presence throughout the festival, Christopher Smith is a British filmmaker recognized for his work in the fields of horror, thriller and black comedy, with a reputation for mixing genres.

On Saturday, November 2 at 8:30 p.m., during the Masterclass, Christopher Smith will look back on his long career as a filmmaker, the cinematographic diversity of his filmography, filming secrets, the films that inspired him as well as some
confidences about his latest projects.

Belgian director, born in Antwerp in 1940. Harry Kümel is known as a precursor of Belgian fantasy cinema. In 1960, he directed Monsieur Hawarden, in which the heroine must assume the identity of a man. In 1971, he directed the avant-garde Daughters of Darkness, starring Delphine Seyrig as a lesbian vampire. On the strength of the film's success, Harry Kümel was offered the means to adapt Jean Ray's novel Malpertuis, with a 5-star cast including Orson Welles, Michel Bouquet and Sylvie Vartan and Susan Hampshire (who played a triple role). The film was the only one of the director's career to be selected at Cannes. He made a further 4 feature films until 1991, and taught cinema at the ULB and other film schools in Flanders and the Netherlands. In 2014, the Flemish Film Press Association awarded him the Mira d'Or (Merit Award) for his outstanding career.

Monsieur Kümel will be present November, 1st and 2.

Belgian filmmaker and musician. Born in 1989, Jérôme Vandewattyne has been passionate about cinema since early childhood. At the end of his communications studies at ISFSC, he made a fake trailer, She's a Slut, for BIFFF. In 2012, the same festival offered him carte blanche to make a short film in the same vein. He then created Slutterball. In 2017, he projected his first feature film, the mockumentary Spit'n'Split, after two years following The Experimental Tropic Blues Band, a band from Liège, on tour. 5 years later, he directed his second feature The Belgian Wave, just as unexpected and surprising as his first film.

Jérôme will be present November, 1st.

Belgian actress. Karen De Paduwa first made a name for herself on the stage. In 2002, she graduated from the Brussels Conservatory with a First Prize. She has appeared in numerous shows in Belgium, France and Canada. She played in Jean Racine's Phèdre at the Varia, Hôtel du Libre Echange by Compagnie Arsenic, Frankenstein at Villers-la-Ville Abbey and L'Odyssée at Théâtre du Parc. The actress also appeared as a comedian on the RTBF program Le Grand Cactus until 2021, and acted in a number of films before joining The Belgian Wave.

Karen will be present November, 1st.

Franco-Swiss actor living in Brussels. Born in 1973, Karim Barras graduated from INSAS in 1993. He made a name for himself on the stage in 1998. His performance in Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz's Le Fou et la Nonne won him the Prix du Théâtre Best Hope. In 2013, his performances as Hamlet in Shakespeare's play and José in Pedro Eiras' Une lettre à Cassandre won him the Prix de la Critique for Best Actor. Karim Barras' film career began in 2008 with Belgian director Vincent Lannoo's Vampires. He went on to star in François Troukens and Jean-François Hensgens' thriller Tueurs in 2017 and Nicolas Bedos' OSS 117 Alerte Rouge en Afrique noire in 2021. On TV, he appeared in season 2 of La Trêve, the series Les Rivières Pourpres and Polar Park. Karim Barras is also a dubbing actor. In The Belgian Wave, he plays Elzo, one of the film's leads.

Karim will be present November, 1st.

Belgian multi-talented artist Severine Cayron graduated with distinction from the IAD in 2007 as an actress. She then specialised in voice-over and dubbing. She has lent her voice to films such as Into the Woods (2014), Ouija (2014), Krampus (2015), Get Out (2017), Muse (2017) and Unfriended: Dark Web (2018), to name only a few genre films. At the same time, she writes, composes and performs with her musical projects Valkø and Pornographie Exclusive, alongside her partner Jérôme Vandewattyne. She plays the antagonist in the film The Belgian Wave.

Séverine will be present November, 1st.

Composer of The Belgian Wave soundtrack. Yannick Franck is the founder of Idiosyncratics and Antibody Label. He is a musician, performer and composer for his projects RAUM, MT Gemini and Der Mord. Passionate about sound as such, the artist doesn't limit himself to any musical genre. He has worked with EBM, cold wave, synth wave and noise, as well as reggae and ska. He also creates original soundtracks for artists and films. At the same time, Yannick Franck teaches at the ESRA film school in Brussels.

Yannick will be present November, 1st.