The Antwerp short film Daydreamers also wins a prize in Venice after New York: “I didn’t even know we were nominated” | Antwerp

Rewind to the start of this summer. After screenings in Belgium at the Louvain Short Film Festival and the European Youth Film Festival (JEF), the short film ‘Daydreamers’ by Ante Pask (22) from Berchem is crossing the pond to the United States . At the very prestigious Tribeca film festival in New York – co-founded by Robert De Niro – the Antwerp production won the prize for best short film.

“We never thought we would even have a chance of winning a prize”, Antwerp screenwriter Emiel Van Wouwe (27) looks back on the adventure in New York. “After the premiere at the festival, the whole team went home, but I decided to stay around a bit to play the tourist. I am cycling through the city when I suddenly receive a phone call from Ante. It turns out that we have won the first prize for the short film and the prize will be awarded at this precise moment.

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Emiel rushes to the awards ceremony on his bike. “Of course I’m wrong about the building,” he laughs. “And I’m hopelessly late.” The film festival team tries to help me, but then the words come, full of pity: ‘It’s a bit now ‘. Host Robert De Niro is on the Tribeca stage that night, but Emiel Van Wouwe is too stupid to make it to the award ceremony in time,” the jolly screenwriter continues with a laugh. “Fortunately, the festival has then sent the award to Ante.”

With so much interest and big prizes, you’d almost forget that ‘Daydreamers’ is just a school assignment. Ante studied at RITCS in Brussels and pitched his idea to screenwriter Emiel before graduating last year. “Ante had a strong idea and I jumped on the bandwagon and wrote the story with her,” says Emiel. “In full confinement, we almost did not see each other during this period. I think she handled and directed the whole production in a wonderful way. The Tribeca Best Picture award is well deserved.

But this week, Emiel herself was honored at the Venetian short film festival ‘Venezia Shorts’, the little brother of the famous Venice International Film Festival. Just like on his bike in New York, he comes completely out of nowhere. “I didn’t even know we had been selected, let alone won the best screenwriter award. Let’s say that communication and promotion are perhaps not our forte,” he continues, laughing.

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Daydreamers tells the story of a father, played by Jurgen Delnaet of, among others, Aanrijding in Moscow, In Vlaamse Velden, Cordon and Marsman, whose vision is rapidly deteriorating and can no longer ride his beloved motorbike with his daughter nine-year-old, played by Flo Martens. “The father is afraid that he will no longer be able to take care of his daughter, but his daughter thinks he is only sad because he cannot sit on his motorbike,” Emiel explains briefly. “In her childish, sometimes naïve way, she subconsciously shows her father that their father-daughter relationship transcends the physical.”

In the meantime, Emiel is working on a new mini-series for the production house Eyeworks and VTM GO. He wants to dive into webseries but dreams of writing his own long player. “I also have a passion project under my own direction. A short film set in the Ferris wheel of the Steenplein in Antwerp which unfolds in frame in the different cabinets and draws a portrait of the city in the meantime.