Limburgers win prizes at the Ensors: ‘Wil’ with Matteo Simoni is best film, Godforsaken best documentary (Showbiz and culture)

There was no limit to the popularity of ‘1985’ at the Ensor Academy, the sector association whose 2,000 members vote annually for their peers. The VRT series was voted best fiction series of the year, and both screenwriter Willem Wallyn and director Wouter Bovijn won prizes. Aimé Claeys won the Ensor for best leading role for his role as the radicalizing gendarme Franky, while Tom Vermeir took home the prize for best supporting actor for his performance as adjutant Goffinard. 1985 also won prizes for best sound, music, art direction, costume and editing.

Big shot: 1985 about the Nijvel gang. — © © VRT – Thomas Nolf

In the films, ‘Wil’ is the big one, with seven Ensors. The film adaptation of Jeroen Olyslaegers’ novel about collaboration during the Second World War in Antwerp was voted best film. Here too, screenwriter Carl Joos and director Tim Mielants won prizes, as did director of photography Robrecht Heyvaert. Stef Aerts was awarded for his leading role as assistant police officer Wil(fried), who alternates between resistance and collaboration. Jan Bijvoet won the Ensor for best supporting actor for his performance as police commissioner Jean, who in the film has his troops chanting along with ‘Hi-hi-hi. Ha-ha-ha. ‘I stood there and looked at it.’

‘Wil’, with Stef Aerts on the left. — © KFD

Wil also won the box office award because it attracted the most visitors to the cinemas in 2023. Since this week, the film can also be seen internationally on Netflix.

Standing ovation for ‘Forgotten God’

Both 1985 and Wil tell very masculine historical stories and this is also reflected in the gender distribution of the winners, both in front of and behind the scenes. Of the ten awards for 1985, only one went to a woman: costumer Sophie Van den Keybus. At Wil, all seven awards were won by men.

This means that the four acting awards, for leading and supporting roles in film and series, will be won by a male actor. Also in 2022, the first year that the acting awards were gender neutral, the four statuettes went to male actors. In 2023 it was fifty-fifty.

A total of 30 Ensors were awarded. Besides costumier Van den Keybus, only two other prizes went to women. Make-up artist Esther De Goey won for ‘Rough diamonds’, the popular series (both on VRT and Netflix) set in the Jewish diamond industry in Antwerp. Directors Ibbe Daniëls and Ingrid Schildermans from Pelt received the Ensor for best docuseries for the much-discussed VRT series ‘Godforgotten’. They were rewarded with a standing ovation during the awards ceremony on Saturday evening at the Casino Kursaal in Ostend, at the end of the Ostend Film Festival.

Ibbe and Ingrid, the makers of ‘Godforgotten’. — © Ensors

No prizes for ‘It Melts’ and ‘Holly’

Due to the dominance of 1985 and Wil, other productions lost out. It Melts, the film adaptation by Veerle Baetens based on the book by Lize Spit, and Holly, the film by Fien Troch selected for the Venice Film Festival, were each nominated eight times, but both went home empty-handed. The VRT series Knokke off received six nominations, but could not cash in on any of them. Rough diamonds was nominated eight times, but only won once (for best make-up).

Planet B by Pieter Van Eecke was chosen as best documentary film, Knor won the prize for best animated film and the fourth and final season of #LikeMe won the Ensor for best youth fiction. The audience award went to Zeevonk, the directorial debut of Domien Huyghe, while Michael Abay won a prize for his short film Klette.

Earlier during the Ostend Film Festival, special prizes were awarded to Jo Willems, who was director of photography for The Hunger Games, and to filmmaker and screenwriter Marc Didden, who received the Lifetime achievement award. Filmmaker Baloji won twice: the Ensor for best French-language Belgian film for Augure and the prize for promise of the year.