Felix Van Groeningen

Felix van Groeningen in July 2016 at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival

Felix Van Groeningen (born November 1, 1977 in Gent , Flanders ) is a Belgian film director and screenwriter .

Life

Felix Van Groeningen studied Visual Arts at the Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten (KASK) in Ghent. After graduating in 2000, he made several short films and was also active as an actor and author in the theater.

In 2004 he made his feature film debut with Steve + Sky . The international breakthrough followed in 2009 with Die Beschissenheit der Dinge , which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and was also released in Germany. His next film, The Broken Circle , won the Panorama Audience Award at the 2013 Berlinale . The plot is based on the play of the same name by Johan Heldenbergh , who also plays the male lead in the film. Café Belgica premiered in Sundance in 2016 and was released in German cinemas in June of that year. With Beautiful Boy , van Groeningen made his next film in English for the first time. Based on the memories of David and Nic Sheff, the film tells a family drama about years of struggle against the son's addiction. Timothée Chalamet was nominated for the Golden Globe 2019 for his role .