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Screen Flanders ups support for audiovisual industry to $2.9m during Covid-19

Production of The Swarm was held up by the Covid-19 pandemic

Funding agency Screen Flanders has invested close to €2.5m (US$2.9m) in 15 productions, including a series set among a Flemish family of Turkish-Algerian descent and an international thriller.

Barber Aziz sees the harmony of a family put to the test when the father wants to give up the family barber shop to follow his dream of becoming a musician.

Nuran Karaca (Brothers United) and Yahya Terryn (Pathetique) collaborated on the script for the series, which the latter will also direct. It will be produced by Flemish production company W2 (All of Us).

The cast includes Ali Can Unal, Souad Boukhatem (The Twelve S01), Nabil Mallat (Cool Abdoul, The Day) and Tom Vermeir (Soil, The Twelve S01).

Screen Flanders has also supported The Swarm, production on which began last year after the major international coproduction was delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Swarm is Emmy-winning producer Frank Doelger’s TV adaptation of Frank Schätzing’s environmental thriller novel of the same name.

The list of supported projects announced by the Flemish minister for the economy Hilde Crevits spans five scripted series, two documentary series, an animated series and seven feature films.

As well as Barber Aziz and The Swarm, scripted series Exes, Fair Trade 2: The Road Back and The Twelve and documentary series Draw for Change! and Mobutu will also receive support, along with the second season of The Smurfs.

The Flemish government made an additional investment of €960,000 in the second Screen Flanders call of 2021 to support the region’s audiovisual industry in difficult times.

This enabled a total investment of €2.46m in 15 audiovisual productions. The amounts awarded vary from €40,000 to €350,000 per project.

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