EXCLUSIVE: Leading Flemish producer Dries Phlypo, whose latest feature is Anke Blondé’s Berlin Competition film Dust, has taken sole control of his production company A Private View and is expanding into exhibition.
Phlypo has run A Private View together with screenwriter/producer Jean-Claude van Rijckeghem for many years. Van Rijckeghem Is stepping down to concentrate on writing. His previous writing credits include the 2008 hit, Moscow Belgium.
Dust, sold by Level K, is the first Flemish film to screen in the Berlin Competition since Hugo Claus’ Friday in 1981.
The Belgian-UK-Greek-Polish coproduction is scripted by Angelo Tijssens, best known for his work with Lukas Dhont. It follows two high-flying white-collar businessmen over 24 hours as their fraudulent schemes are brutally exposed. It is co-produced by Poland’s Shipsboy, Greece’s Heretic and UK outfit Bêtes Sauvages. Kinepolis is releasing the film in Belgium on February 25.
Phlypo is now taking over the historic Sphinx arthouse cinema in Ghent and plans to renovate the five-screen site, which garners around 127,000 admissions annually. He is optimistic that he can expand that audience.
”I see arthouse cinema struggling in Belgium [but] if I look at the Netherlands, I see arthouse is doing well,” he observed.
The premises will begin renovations in early 2027 for around 18 months, during which Phlypo and a core Sphinx team wil run a two -screen pop up cinema.
On the production side, A Private View is now in advanced development on Oh Lovely Belgium, a comedy about the division of Belgium to be directed by Oscar nominee Stijn Coninx from a script by Coninx and van Rijckeghem.
Shooting is expected to begin in September. The company is also preparing Domien Huyghe’s drama Amari, whose 2023 film Sea Sparkle screened in the Berlinale. Amari is due to shoot in early 2027.
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