Felix van Groeningen’s The Misfortunates has been selected by Belgium as its submission for the foreign-language film Oscar.

Based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Dimitri Verhulst, The Misfortunates is a coming of age story about a 13-year-old boy who is exposed to the drunken and loutish ways of his father and three uncles. It stars Kenneth Vandaeden, Johan Heldenbergh, Koen de Graeve, Wouter Hendrickx and Gilda De Bal.

Premiering in the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, the film was produced by Dirk Impens for Menuet, with IDTV on board as a co-producer.

MK2 is handling international sales, with deals already secured in France, Poland, Russia and The Netherlands.