In a stark sign of the challenges facing Europe’s independent distribution and exhibition sector, news broke on Tuesday that Belgium‘s oldest distributor Belga Films has been liquidated.
Belgian newspaper Le Soir first reported the news, detailing that the company’s bankruptcy and liquidation had been declared by the commercial court of Walloon Brabant on February 12, but that the ruling had only come to its attention five days later.
The winding down of the distributor also involves the closure of its subsidiary the White Cinema in Brussels in the Docks Bruxsel shopping center. The complex has 950 seats across eight screens and employed 14 full-time staff.
Belga Films launched the ultra-modern, completely white venue, designed by local architect Renaud Dejeneffe, in 2017, with ambitions to bring a new cinema experience to the city’s cinemagoers, but not reckoning on the pandemic three years down the line.
Watch on Deadline
Le Soir quoted CEO Patrick Vandenbosch as saying that Belga Films had been pulled under financially by a collapse in audiences at the White Cinema and the wider Brussels area. He also blamed the city’s Good Move traffic harmonization scheme for making the venue less accessible.
He said cinema attendance in and around Brussels had fallen by 30% since 2019, and 40% over the past decade, suggesting this was among the worst drops in Europe.
As well as Belga Films; the wider Belga Film Group also encompassed development, film funding and production banner Belga Studios; Netherlands-based distribution label Independent Films as well as animation company nWave Studios.
Contacted by Deadline, Vandenbosch confirmed the Belgian media reports, but emphasized that the bankruptcy only concerned Belga Films and its subsidiary the White Cinema.
He said Belga Films’ former sister companies Belga Studios, Independent Films, and nWave were now “completely separate entities with a different shareholding” and remained very much alive and kicking.
“We decided to liquidate the distribution activities of Belga Films including its cinema activities (White Cinema) but this doesn’t affect at all Belga Studios and Independent Films. We have absolutely great perspectives and ambitions with those two activities,” he said.
Vandenbosch said it was business as usual at Belga Studios, which he co-owns 50/50 with Belgian tax shelter and coproduction powerhouse Umedia.
He said the company was pushing on with its ambitious spy-thriller Blake & Mortimer: The Yellow M, first announced on Deadline in 2024, with pre-production due to start in June. Further projects in development included The Book With No Nameand Einstein Enigma.
Vandenbosch added that he had recently created the Pyxis Entertainment Ventures production fund to help bankroll Belga Studios’ projects, capable of financing up to 35% of the budget, with plans to get other projects off the ground.
Vandenbosch said Independent Films was also untouched by the closures.
“I am personally the majority shareholder of Independent films. Our next release this week is Marty Supreme for Benelux. Our ambition is to release 15 movies a year including Dutch comedy franchises,” he told Deadline. Belgian cinema sites show Marty Supreme is already playing on multiple screens across the territory.
Further upcoming titles on the Independent Films slate include Champagne and Paradise.
He noted that the company was also behind the production of four to five Dutch-language movies a year, including the successful franchises De Tatta’s andVerliefd in Curaçao, and these would continue to be part of the slate.
Vandenbosch also emphasized that nWave Studios is completely autonomous, noting its latest credits include French and Benelux theatrical hit Hopper 2, with anticipated animated feature Yugly coming down the line for released in October.
“So, the future looks bright we just need to adapt to the new business model. The industry is globally suffering but the future belongs to those who adapt to new conditions…the most resilient.”
Belga Films was founded in 1937 by Elyse Tobback, who was then joined in the 1950s by brother-in-law, Luc Hemelaer. Vandenbosch, who is Hemelaer’s grandson, has headed the company since 1988.
It is Belgium’s oldest and historically biggest independent film distributor with past acquisitions including The Piano, Twilight, 12 Years a Slave, Lucy, Taken, The Hunger Games, John Wick, La La Land, Paddington and Knives Out.