{"id":34324,"date":"2026-08-25T12:32:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T12:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/34324\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T12:32:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T12:32:12","slug":"oscars-belgium-picks-lukas-dhonts-coward-for-international-film-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/34324\/","title":{"rendered":"Oscars: Belgium Picks Lukas Dhont’s Coward for International Film Race"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tLukas Dhont<\/a>\u2019s \u201cCoward,\u201d which won the best actor prize at Cannes for Emmanuel Macchia and Valentin Campagne, will represent Belgium in the international feature film race at the 99th Academy Awards.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe selection marks the third time Belgium has submitted a film by Dhont to the Oscars. His 2018 debut \u201cGirl\u201d \u2013 which won Cannes\u2019 Cam\u00e9ra d\u2019Or for best first feature as well as the Queer Palm \u2014 was Belgium\u2019s submission, but failed to make the final nomination cut; while \u201cClose\u201d \u2013 which won Cannes\u2019 Grand Prize in 2022 \u2014 was nominated for best international feature at the Oscars, ultimately losing to \u201cAll Quiet on the Western Front.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSet on the Belgian front during World War I, \u201cCoward\u201d follows Pierre, a young soldier who arrives in 1916 determined to prove himself in battle, and Francis, who stages theatrical performances behind the lines to keep up the troops\u2019 morale. As the violence intensifies, the two men search for ways to escape the brutality surrounding them, if only briefly.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe movie was lauded at Cannes where it was bought by Mubi for a number of major territories, including the U.S., U.K., Spain, Italy and Latin America.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI am truly honored that we get to represent Belgium at the Oscars this year with \u2018Coward.\u2019 We look forward to sharing our film with the world and with Belgian audiences,\u201d said Dhont, who has become one of Belgium\u2019s most internationally acclaimed filmmakers.\u201d\u2018Coward\u2019 celebrates togetherness in broken times, connection in a fragmented world. We hope that \u2018Coward,\u2019 which above all celebrates the power of the heart, will offer a moment of tenderness and comfort,\u201d Dhont added.<\/p>\n

\n\tDhont once again collaborated on \u201cCoward\u201d with several members of his longtime creative team, including co-writer Angelo Tijssens and cinematographer Frank Van den Eeden, among others. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe film was produced by Michiel Dhont for The Reunion, in co-production with Versus in Belgium, Juliette Schrameck at Lumen in France and Topkapi Films in the Netherlands. The Match Factory handles international sales.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film will continue its festival run in the coming weeks, notably at Toronto, San Sebastian and BFI London Film Festival. Diaphana will release it in France on Nov. 18, while Mubi is set to release it in North America in December.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lukas Dhont\u2019s \u201cCoward,\u201d which won the best actor prize at Cannes for Emmanuel Macchia and Valentin Campagne, will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,18550,18540],"class_list":["post-34324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-belgium","tag-belgium","tag-international-feature-oscar","tag-lukas-dhont"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/117156167160292718","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}