Lukas Dhont’s new film COWARD has been selected for the competition at the 79th edition of the Cannes International Film Festival. Dhont thus makes history as the first Flemish director to have been selected with three feature films in the official selection.
His debut film ‘Girl’ was screened in the ‘Un Certain Regard’ section in 2018 and awarded the Caméra d’Or. With ‘Close’, he made it into the competition in 2022, where the film was awarded the Grand Prix. Furthermore, ‘Close’ was nominated for an Academy Award in the ‘Best International Feature Film’ category in 2023.
COWARD tells the story of Pierre, a young Belgian soldier, wants to prove himself on the battlefield during the First World War. Behind the frontlines, he meets Francis, who is asked to find a way to boost morale.
The film was written by Lukas Dhont and Angelo Tijssens, and produced by Michiel Dhont.
COWARD is a production by the Reunion, Lumen, Topkapi Films & Versus (Opus) in co-production with Cine+ OCS, France 2 Cinéma, VTM, RTBF, Proximus, BeTV & Orange. The film was produced in association with The Common Humanity Art Trust and Portobello Productions. The film was made with the support of the Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF) of the Flemish Government, the Screen Flanders economic fund, Screen Brussels, the Wallonia-Brussels Federation (FWB), Wallimage, CNC, PICTANOVO Hauts-de-France, Sacem, the Netherlands Film Fund, the Netherlands Film Production Incentive and EURIMAGES, and with the help of the Tax Shelter Measure of the Belgian Federal Government, Casa Kafka & Lumière Invest.
In the Benelux, the film is distributed by Lumière and in France by Diaphana Distribution.
International sales are done by The Match Factory.