Bert Hemelinck

Source: Caviar

Bert Hemelinck

Need to know: Powerhouse production outfit Caviar was formed in 2005 following the merger of two Flemish companies: Roses Are Blue and Pix In Motion. Since then, it has opened offices in London, Los Angeles, Paris and Amsterdam alongside its base in Brussels, from where offshoot Beluga Tree also operates. Last year, the company received a best picture Oscar nomination for Sound Of Metal. This year, it is in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard with War Pony, co-­directed by Riley Keough and Gina Gammell, and in the Midnight Screenings strand with Rebel from Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah. Caviar makes music videos and commercials as well as feature films and TV dramas. It has a foot both in the US, where credits include Marielle Heller’s The Diary Of A Teenage Girl and Chloé Zhao’s The Rider, and in Europe, where it had success in the Netherlands with Second World War drama The Forgotten Battle, which it co-produced with Dutch outfit Levitate Film.

Key personnel: Bert Hamelinck, managing director; Mathias Coppens, managing partner; Michael Sagol, managing partner.

Incoming: Netflix-backed horror film Noise, directed by Steffen Geypens and due to shoot this summer. The company’s TV slate include Bad Sisters, its first series with Apple TV+ starring Claes Bang, Eve Hewson and Anne-Marie Duff.

Bert Hamelinck says: “I like that there are subsidies in Europe but I also like having to fund your film [in the US] based on cast, people believing in your story and distributors selling it afterwards. It’s your duty to make something exceptional. But you can do that as well in Europe as in the US.”

Contact: nina.hamelinck@caviar.tv