HEADLINE: AMBASSADORS OF AN ART FORM
Koen Van Bockstal (1961) is a historian of Ghent University by training. After a short period as a history and aesthetics teacher in secondary education and freelance journalist at De Morgen, he worked for over 18 years in the music industry as CEO (including at MCA Music Entertainment, Sony Music Entertainment and SONY BMG).
After a short visit as business manager at the Ghent Film Festival, he started working as managing director at Oxfam Wereldwinkels and Oxfam Fairtrade. He recently led Literatuur Vlaanderen, the sister fund of the VAF, which focuses on supporting the literary world for 8 ½ years. After a short period as director of UNICEF Belgium, he started working as director-intendent at the Flemish Audiovisual Fund in January 2021.
TFV: The Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF) is proof that you don’t have to be a very large country or organization to support successful films. Most notably the recent film CLOSE has gained worldwide attention. What is your secret to drawing so much attention to the films and filmmakers in the region?
KOEN: Obviously everything starts with the talent of the creative community. And Flanders, despite it’s modest size and population, has an amazing pool of talented script writers, directors and independent producers. At VAF we have always believed that you need to promote that talent and their films from the early stages in the creative process until they go public and onto worldwide screens. Through Flanders Image we have a very strong presence and build a big network we cherish, to become and remain ambassadors of our films and filmmakers.
TFV: How do you work with the filmmakers in the overall process to bring award winning awareness to your films?
KOEN: VAF is much more than just an agency of the Flemish Government where you can get the initial financing for your project. We accompany filmmakers through all the different stages of the process. We offer a wide program of talent development trainings, we give a lot of attention and individual coaching to script writers, and the same applies for the development of projects and the production phase. We invest in pitching sessions to teach our creatives how to present themselves internationally, and through Flanders Image we also help to introduce them to potential co-producers, broadcasters and streamers, festival curators, sales agents and distributors. Last but not least, we also actively promote them through trade press and our presence at festival markets worldwide. As much as we can manage with our small team we go for a personalized and tailormade approach, fit for each genre and individual project. It takes a lot of work and detailed attention, but that’s what makes the difference for a small region that doesn’t have the same financial resources as bigger countries. And our annual CONNEXT event, whereby we invite professionals from across the globe for 2 days to Flanders to get a real introduction on everything new or work in progress, is very valuable.
TFV: Many people don’t fully understand the true value of a national film fund. What do you say when people ask you what you do? And what would you say is the greatest value?
KOEN: The true value of a national film fund lies in the fact that making or earning money is not our initial goal. We are ambassadors of an art form and want to reach the biggest possible audience, both in our own country and internationally (taking into account the real potential of each project and genre). We see ourselves as a facilitator and catalyst to make sure that our original, unique and authentic stories coming from independent production companies get attention worldwide. That doesn’t mean we stay away from the economical agenda. On the contrary, we play an important role to sustain the independent production companies in an ever increasing global world by helping to create a healthy eco-culture for them locally. We defend Flemish and European cinema in order to maintain our voice and history, and we embrace cultural differences. Last but not least, film funds have a responsibility towards society: they need to show the way in terms of sustainability. We need to address and stimulate best practices in terms of “green and sustainable” filming; we need to actively advocate and embrace inclusion and gender equality; we have to deal with unacceptable behavior on film sets and work with other partners on a fair play and fair pay system in the film community. Obviously there is a lot of responsibility for the producers to reach all these goals, but we as a not-for-profit agency see it as our task to be at the stimulating forefront of all these important challenges.
TFV: The film industry continues to grow and globalize in its reach. It not only drives revenue for film makers, but for cities, regions and countries. How do you measure that impact?
KOEN: It is becoming an increasingly important factor why investing in the film industry and creating a healthy and welcoming environment is a smart thing to do. VAF has also been asked by our government to manage the day to day operations of Screen Flanders, an economical fund targeting international co-production in our region. We see that this definitely delivers a nice and increasing leverage effect for investments in Flemish cities and film industry supply companies. And it stimulates those companies to continue investing in excellent facilities and offering topnotch post production services.
TFV: This year the film CLOSE joins the other seven Belgian films that have been nominated for Oscars. Naturally I am sure you support your own film at the Academy, but as there are so many international films participating this year, what and why do you think more and more international films are reaching the Academy Awards in various categories than ever before?
KOEN: Because of the pandemic and the ever increasing presence of streamers, also the USA and the film producing community have become more and more aware of the whole creative world outside of the USA. And international audiences (including USA) have discovered and developed a healthy interest and curiosity in films and tv-series not coming from their own territory. Obviously successes like Nordic Noir, La Casa de Papel, Squid Game and also some of our own Flemish high end tv-shows like The Twelve, Tabula Rasa, Two Summers or films like Girl, Broken Circle Breakdown or Bullhead have generated this interest for another type of movie and series than US blockbusters or series.
TFV: Can you explain how your budget is determined and how the fund’s success is measured by the government who controls and submits your budget to the film Commission annually? And is that on par with other European Film Commissions?
KOEN: We negotiate a service level agreement with the Flemish Government (Ministry of Culture and Media). That SLA determines our vision and mission, stipulates our main objectives and KPI’s we need to accomplish and gives us a financial outline how and where to spend the money. We are governed by a board of 11 directors, 7 of them are appointed by the political parties and 4 of them are independent, with a proven track record in the industry. Also within the 7 politically nominated directors, political parties look for representatives with knowledge on the audiovisual industry. We have 2 government commissioners present at all board meetings, without voting rights, but controlling whether we respect the general outlines of our SLA. And we have an annual hearing in Flemish Parliament at the Commission of Culture and Media where we present the results of the previous year. Although this looks like a heavy involvement from politics, in reality this should definitely not be exaggerated. We have an excellent understanding and constant dialogue with our ministries, there is a high level of trust in our know-how and expertise, and the results (eg. this year in Cannes and very regular Oscar nominations) show that we strive for excellence and that’s recognized by them by granting us a big autonomy.
Unfortunately compared to other European Film Commissions we have a budget which is not even 50% of what eg. our Scandinavian colleagues get from their governments and that remains a nice challenge for the next SLA negotiations.
TFV: Does having a film nominated for the Academy Awards and ultimately potentially winning an Oscar along with many other film accolades it received over the year, have a positive effect on the budget for the new year so that you can continue the successes of the past?
KOEN: No. Since we have service level agreements for a period of 4 years this doesn’t effect the budget in any way. We will definitely try to redeem this with the upcoming SLA agreement negotiations, but for the remaining period of 3 years (until end of 2025) this has no immediate consequences.
TFV: What are some of the major changes and challenges you have observed over the last years.
KOEN: The increasing impact of the streamers on the international eco system has an important influence on our eco-system. Independent production companies increasingly want to work with them, but are (since coming from a smaller region) not necessarily well equipped to defend their intellectual property rights in the best way possible.
The increasing demand for content (mainly series) has put a lot of pressure on our region, since we are recognized as a talent pool for very reasonable prices. This creates brain-drain and huge pressure on directors and key creative and technical people, both regarding availability and cost of valuable crew members.
Film makers will need to think more and more about how to reach their audiences. Since Covid, consumers think twice before returning to cinema and a good film is just not good enough anymore, it needs to be special or creating an event – a must see.
Last but not least, although we understand the confidentiality and economical sensitivity of viewing numbers on international VOD-platforms, European Film Commissions need access to these numbers, since our politicians want to have an insight as well in order to benchmark if the public money we provide is well spent. I am convinced we will find a way to bridge this gap in order to facilitate continued collaboration.
TFV: And lastly, any prediction on the Oscars?
KOEN: Always risky business, but you cannot expect me to say anything other than, “Lukas Dhont will bring back the first Oscar to Flanders for Close.” And should it not happen this time around, it will only be a matter of time before he does with his third or fourth film.