Their name is unfamiliar to ordinary people. Neither headliners nor award-winning filmmakers, they belong to this invisible but crucial caste that forms the PR (pronounced in English: “pi-ar”), THE public relations – or public relations agents. It is different within the cinema community and, particularly, in the shadow of the suites of Cannes palaces. Over the last twenty-five years, they have each acquired international recognition.
A tandem of strategists
From Christian De Schutter, the French specialist magazine Full screen recently wrote – excuse me – that he “revolutionized the way of promoting cinema and series” during his twenty years within Flanders Image, the promotional body of the Flemish Audiovisual Fund (VAF) – of which he was director until the end of 2023. “It is said of him that he has a lot to do with the nominations of Rundskop [de Michael Roskam] and of Broken Circle Breakdown [de Felix van Groeningen] at the Oscars, or the Cannes successes of Girl And Close [de Lukas Dhont]”.
The inside story of Lukas Dhont’s 2023 Oscar campaign
Barbara Van Lombeek, international press officer, is supporting no less than ten films at Cannes this year – including an Indian film in Competition – with her associates at PR Factory. She knows the Oscars: she accompanied them Broken Circle Breakdown in 2013 and Close in 2023. She also contributed to the (unsuccessful) campaigns for the Oscar nomination ofA world by Laura Wandel in 2021-2022, andAugur of Baloji this year. It was requested at the end of last year by the producers of The teachers’ room by İlker Çatak, German film nominated for an Oscar in the category of best foreign film.
Who is Barbara Van Lombeek, this shadowy woman on the red carpets?
It was on this occasion that the idea of FYC Academy emerged. “It was the end of December, I was finishing decorating my Christmas tree, explains the press officer. The Germans called me for help. The film was well positioned but they needed a boost to find themselves among the five finalists. The window was very short: one month before the nominations. I called Christian to suggest we do it together.”
The rescue operation is successful: The teachers’ room is found in the short list, “which, in itself, is already a victory” comments Christian De Schutter. After several associations de facto on awards campaigns, the tandem of “strategists” concludes that there is expertise to be put forward, especially at a time when the Oscars, among others, have evolved considerably.
Like an election campaign
A price campaign “requires a precise mix of promotion, high-profile interviews and personal interactions” notes the argument of FYC Academy. “We can compare this to an electoral campaign” summarizes Christian De Schutter. Last year, Lukas Dhont confirmed the analogy with such a marathon, the whole art of shaking the right hands and generating desire and word of mouth for his work. And if the Grail – the statuette – is not necessarily upon arrival, these contacts can prove decisive for the rest of a career.
FYC is the acronym for For Your Campaign. Academy plays on the double meaning of the word in English: what is commonly nicknamed “Oscars” are officially the Academy Awards, the American Cinema Academy Award. “There is also the idea of learning linked to the academy” specifies Barbara Van Lombeek: teaching filmmakers to adopt the right speech, the right attitude in public events or dealings with the press, even to choose the right wardrobe. Communication on a film or its author is not necessarily the same on both sides of the Atlantic. “In the case of’Augurin Europe, the emphasis was placed on the aesthetic universe of the film while in the United States, the journey and origins of Baloji were meaningful” comments the press officer.
“A film is a storytelling”a story that begins with its presentation at an international festival: it is no coincidence that the baptism of FYC Academy shortly preceded the Cannes Film Festival, the launching pad for a number of “Oscar” films, as evidenced by the examples of the films cited.
The moment is particularly opportune according to the two partners: “The composition of the Oscar Academy has been renewed in recent years. It is rejuvenated and has opened up more and more to foreign and European talents.” There is therefore a card to play for European talents. The Oscar is not an end in itself, but “all these campaigns are a little intertwined and follow one another in a pocket handkerchief”. Hence the need to design a global strategy, which is what Barbara Van Lombeek and Christian De Schutter propose.
Barbara Van Lombeek: the Stakhanovist
It is to James Cameron that Barbara Van Lombeek owes her career as a press secretary. Following the success of Titanic, the 20th Century studio is opening an office in Brussels and is looking for a marketing manager. With a degree in Germanic philosophy and a master’s degree in European political science from the London School of Economics, she was bored in her first job in a financial clearing company. Precisely, when she was studying in London, this film buff dreamed of passing the Fox offices in Soho in the mode of “Maybe someday…”
She is learning the tricks of the trade. The job allowed him to chaperone Nicole Kidman at the Cannes Film Festival in 2001 for the promotion of red Mill by Baz Luhrmann. The successive crises of the 2000s have not yet passed this way. Fox reserves a room for him at the Martinez (”whose price per night was equivalent to half of my monthly salary”) and the film’s gala evening goes down in Cannes history (one million euros, 800 people, three tents decorated with Swarovski crystals, elephants, etc.). But the Brussels resident soon felt a need for independence that the relay role of a major American. The following year, she set up on her own.
She climbs all the steps, from Brussels to Cannes, via the festivals of Berlin, Venice or San Sebastian (her “pet”). Without forgetting those of her hometown: she works, among others, for the Brussels Short Film Festival and the Anima Festival. In 2010, she joined forces with her counterparts Marie-France Dupagne and Gudrun Burie to found The PR Factory, an agency which has established itself at international festivals. This mother regularly says she wants to slow down. But this Stakhanovite just as regularly announces a new project or a shower of films at festivals. Normal: producers exchange good addresses.
Christian De Schutter: the inventive
Brutally thanked by a terse email last December, Christian De Schutter sparked a rare and remarkable mobilization of international professionals. “All of Europe is jealous of his workboasted an open letter signed by more than 180 personalities from around the world. The loss of such an expert leaves a big void in the Flemish cultural landscape, which will suffer the consequences for a long time to come!” Fortunately for the producers and directors, this former journalist (among others for the specialized magazine Screen International) still works as a strategist via his company named with his sense of the bon mot Hype Park.
Rarely discreet in a sector conducive to egos (last year, he politely refused to allow us to devote a portrait to him on the occasion of the appointment of Close at the Oscars: no question of pulling the cover for him), this Antwerp resident may have suffered from the lack of his qualities: entirely devoted to the promotion of the films for which he is responsible, he is naturally hard-working and demanding, firstly with himself but also with his teams. How many times have we received a press release from him sent in the early hours, following a prize won on the other side of the world?
Inventive, this former press officer of the Ghent Film Festival knows how to generate buzz. We remember how, around fifteen years ago, he highlighted a generation of Flemish animated film producers and directors at a European event. He had the idea of making them wear a yellow jersey, an unmistakable analogy with the “Flandriens” of cycling legend.
