TELLUS
An exciting and intelligent Finnish crime series on the moral dilemmas of a group of young environmentalists8^th September available on DVDWritten and directed by Jukka-Pekka Siili
With Minka Kuustonen, Lauri TILKANEN, and Pirkka-Pekka PETELIUS

How far are we willing to go for our beliefs?
A group of young eco-activists under the name 'Tellus' operates, are sabotage against environmentally unfriendly organizations. All their actions are carefully planned so no one runs danger. But when they make a mistake, accidentally there is a dead involved. A manhunt is launched to the members of the group.

Technical specifications
Finland, 2014 | 6 x 50 mins | Language: Finnish | Subtitles:Dutch
Format: 16: 9 | Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1

Today the trailer of the opening film (The Ardennes) of FilmFest Gent is released!

A brutal homejacking goes hopelessly wrong. Dave, one of the two robbers, manages to run off, leaving his brother Kenneth behind. Four years later, Kenneth is released from prison and much has changed. Dave has his life back on track and is trying to help Kenneth whereever possible, but is witnessing how the highly strung Kenneth tries to win back his ex-girlfriend Sylvie.

Director: Robin Pront

Writers: Jeroen Perceval & Robin Pront

Cast: Jeroen Perceval, Veerle Baetens, Kevin Janssens, Jan Bijvoet, Sam Louwyck, Peter Van den Begin, Viviane De Muynck

Producer: Bart Van Langendonck - SAVAGE FILM (BE)

Co-producers: Peter Bouckaert - EYEWORKS (BE), Ellen Havenith - PRPL (NL)

With the support of: Creative Europe - Media programme of the E.U., the Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF), Netherlands Film Fund, Telenet-STAP, VTM, Belgian tax shelter for film financing

Benelux Distributor: Kinepolis Film Distribution

Sales agent: Attraction

Genre: thriller / crime drama

Release in Belgium: October 14, 2015

On DVD 12 OCTOBER 2015

Featuring a dazzling stellar cast, a stunning soundtrack and Martin Scorsese as executive producer, Grace Of My Heart hits all the right notes as it charts the inspirational story of a female singer-songwriter’s struggle to make her mark in the dynamic American music scene of the 1960s and 1970s and comes to UK DVD for the first time ever. 

Inspired by the life of Carole King this wonderfully nostalgic and exuberant 1996 feature film runs in parallel to King’s life and career and is released on DVD on 12 October 2015, courtesy of Odyssey and coincides with the Broadway hit Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, currently showing in London’s West End. 

Set at the time when prodigiously talented singer-songwriters were fighting for recognition in a tough, male-dominated music industry, Grace Of My Heart traces the ‘long and winding road’ to stardom of Denise Waverly (Illeana Douglas – Six Feet Under), whose songs bring fame to other people – until she finds her own voice.

A singing talent-show win takes Denise to late 1950s New York where she encounters eccentric record producer Joel Milner (John Turturro - Barton Fink). Dreaming of stardom she enters legendary ‘hit’ factory, the Brill Building, and writes songs in collaboration with Howard Caszatt (Eric Stoltz - Mask), her first husband. But Denise is destined to be a music pioneer. She doesn’t write hits for the guys: she writes them for the girls, sparking the craze for girl groups such as The Luminaries as well as solo singers like the enigmatic Kelly Porter (Bridget Fonda - Single White Female).

Confined to composing and overlooked as an artist she’s forced into an uneasy song-writing partnership with new British creative talent Cheryl Steed (Patsy Kensit - Holby City). Infidelity wrecks Denise’s marriage and she leaves everything behind, starting a new life with surf-rocker Jay Phillips (Matt Dillon - Crash) in California. However Jay’s tragic death inspires the breakthrough that propels Denise towards stardom once again as both singer and songwriter with the release of her debut solo album, Grace of My Heart. 

Written and directed by Allison Anders, this influential story based on real life events also stars Jennifer Leigh Warren (The Crossing Guard), Richard Schiff (The West Wing), Bruce Davison (X-Men), actor and singer Chris Isaak (Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me), David Clennon (Gone Girl), Christina Pickles (St. Elsewhere) and the voice of Peter Fonda (Easy Rider).

Grace Of My Heart – the story of one remarkable woman striving to find her own in a male-dominated industry.

Peek-A-Boo will, just like last year follow everything what is hot on Filmfest Ghent. We kick off our presentation of this year's screenings with LES COWBOYS

Director: Thomas Bidegain
Writer: Noé Debré
Stars: François Damiens, Finnegan Oldfield, Antonia Campbell-Hughes

Storyline
A father sets out to find his missing daughter with the help of his son.

Last week the official festival jury and the visual of the 42nd edition were announced as part of the British focus. Today Film Fest Gent releases its first 15 titles. Besides the best films from its own soil as well as international features, the programme also includes the closing event and anniversary of the 15th World Soundtrack Awards.

The official competition includes the French-Belgian co-production ‘Les Cowboys’ by Thomas Bidegain, also known as Jacques Audiard's screenwriter and ‘Our Little Sister’ by Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda. There are also two debuting features competing for Best Film and Best Music: British-New-Zealand ‘Slow West’ by John Maclean starring Michael Fassbender amongst others and Cannes sensation & Grand Prix winner ‘Son of Saul’ by László Nemes. ‘The Lobster’, the first international production by Yorgos Lanthimos, features a dazzling cast including Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, John C. Reilly and Léa Seydoux.

Besides the opening film ‘The Ardennes’ by Robin Pront, the section Galas & Specials consists of films that will be screened at the festival before being released in Belgian theatres. ‘Carol’ by Todd Haynes, an adaptation of ‘Price of Salt’, one of the most personal novels by Patricia Highsmith, starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara. 'The Assassin’ by Hou Hsiao-hsien proves once again why he remains the greatest director of Taiwan’s New Wave Cinema.

The section Global Cinema, which covers contemporary authors films, presents one of the most cinephile events at the last Cannes film festival: ‘Arabian Nights’, the monumental triptych by Portuguese director Miguel Gomes (‘Tabu’). Furthermore, there will a few intriguing portraits of artists and musicians such as ‘Mr Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown’ by doc guru Alex Gibney and actor Ethan Hawke delivers a touching homage to pianist and friend Seymour Bernstein in ‘Seymour: an Introduction’. For the 50th anniversary of one of the most well-known film books 'Hitchcock/Truffaut', Kent Jones asked A-list directors Martin Scorsese, David Fincher and Wes Anderson among others how they were influenced by the director of ‘Vertigo’ and ‘Psycho’.

This year the festival’s focus is on UK Cinema, which will cover a wide variety of recent British films. ‘45 Years’ by Andrew Haigh (‘Weekend’) features Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay as a retired couple undergoing a crisis when celebreating their 45th wedding anniversary. The amusing ‘A Royal Night Out’ by Jullian Jarrold is an imaginary piece of history about a night on the town with a young Queen Elisabeth II. 

The film music concerts also remain a highlight of Film Fest Gent. The British focus will also be showcased at the Great British Film Music Concert on 22 October and for the past 15 years the festival has always closed with the annual World Soundtrack Awards Ceremony & Concert. This year, central guests are Alan Silvestri, Patrick Doyle and Discovery 2014 Daniel Pemberton, who will all be attending the event on 24 October. The best scores of Silvestri were performed by Brussels Philharmonic and the Flemish Radio Choir, conducted by Dirk Brossé and recorded at the Flagey Studios by Galaxy Studios. The CD will be released later this October. 

Film Fest Gent and Vooruit will join forces once again! During the festival there will be two unique audiovisual shows from artists like Nozinja and Jeruzalem in My Heart. The legendary composer Terry Riley will perform live music to a film of his choice, together with his son Gyan. With his ensemble Black Flower, Nathan Daems provided the score for ‘Love, Theft and Other Entanglements’, the latest film of Palestinian director Muayad Alayan. There will also be various art installations in Vooruit and the literary event ‘Uitgelezen’ will be tailored to a film-based theme.

The entire program will be announced on 24 September. The 42nd edition of Film Fest Gent takes place from 13 October until 24 October at Kinepolis Gent, Studio Skoop, Sphinx, Vooruit, KASKcinema, Bijloke and ’t Kuipke. Info and tickets at www.filmfestival.be.

The listed films are divided throughout the various festival sections:

In competition:

- LES COWBOYS by Thomas Bidegam – Fr/Belgium

- THE LOBSTER by Yorgos Lanthimos – Griekenland/UK

- OUR LITTLE SISTER by Hirokazu Koreeda – Japan

- SLOW WEST by John Maclean – UK/New Zealand

- SON OF SAUL by László Nemes – Hungary

Galas & Specials

- THE ARDENNES by Robin Pront - Belgium

- THE ASSASSIN by Hou Hsiao-Hsien – Taiwan

- CAROL by Todd Haynes – UK/USA

Global Cinema

- ARABIAN NIGHTS I, II and III by Miguel Gomes – Port/Fr

- LOVE, THEFT AND OTHER ENTANGLEMENTS by Muayad Alayan – Palestine

UK Cinema

- 45 YEARS by Andrew Haigh – UK

- A ROYAL NIGHT OUT by Julian Jarrold – UK

Sound and Vision

- MR. DYNAMITE: THE RISE OF JAMES BROWN by Alex Gibney – USA

- SEYMOUR: AN INTRODUCTION by Ethan Hawke – USA

Artists on Film

- HITCHCOCK/TRUFFAUT by Kent Jones – USA