Generation B, produced by Production Company De Mensen, is the first Flemish series to be selected for the Fantastic Fest, the biggest and most influential genre festival in the US. The Canvas-series follows in the footsteps of Flemish success films like Bullhead and Waste Land. Evrim Ersoy, head of programming at Fantastic Fest, personally took the initiative for the selection: “It was the funniest, most subversive thing I’d seen for a very long time.”

Fantastic Fest Austin

Fantastic Fest is up for its 11thedition, starting 21st‘til 28thSeptember in Austin, Texas. It is the biggest and most influential genre festival in North America and is proclaimed by Variety to be one of the “10 Festivals We Love”, next to internationally renowned festivals like Cannes and Toronto. 

Creators Joost Vandecasteele and Pieter Van Hees are pleasantly surprised:

 Joost Vandecasteele: “Generation B had the ambition from the start to be fantastic in every sense of the word. To say something relevant about the now via an exaggerated situation and fierce humour. And that’s why we’re very happy with another international selection, to prove that quirky fiction about Brussels can find an audience and recognition across borders.”

 Pieter Van Hees: “I was already happy to hear that we had struck a nerve with Generation B back here judging from the massive reactions we received, but that there are also Americans now who think the series is relevant is completely amazing. The entire who’s who from alternative America follows Fantastic Fest, so I’m curious how they will react to characters with ‘I love Molembeek’- T-shirts.”

Generation B was showcased before at BANFF (Canada), at BIFAN (South Korea) and at the International Film Festival in Rotterdam. But Fantastic Fest is for lovers of the fantastic genre a true icon, and so the icing on the cake.

At Production Company De Mensen they’re very pleased as well. Head of Scripted Pieter Van Huyck: “ First of all, this is an amazing recognition for the creativity and work of Pieter, Joost and the entire team. But we also see this as an important next step for the growth of Flemish fiction. It shows that we, together with Canvas and Mediafonds, not only produce less evident and more extreme series in Flanders, but that these are also discovered and liked across borders. Obviously, a series like Generation B only attracts an enthusiastic, but limited audience on our home market, but it seems there are more people around the world who are interested in stories like this. So it is important that we discover ways to reach them. This is what makes investing in projects by authors so fun and worthwhile.”

It marks the second selection in Austin for Pieter Van Hees. In 2014, his feature film Waste Land already impressed the American audience. Bullhead by Michaël Roskam won three awards in 2011 at Film Fest.