The young Fleming Wannes Destoop was among the prize winners at the Cannes Film Festival, getting the Jury Prize in the Short Film category.   

Destoop won the award for his “Swimsuit 46” (Badpakje 46 / Maillot de bain 46), a short film about a chubby twelve-year-old girl who has difficulty making her way in life. Only in the local swimming pool where she is training for a competition does she feel at home. But when she needs new swimming goggles things don’t quite go according to plan.

“Swimsuit 46” was Destoops’s final project at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (KASK) in Ghent. He follows his colleague and fellow Fleming Jonas Geirnaert, who likewise won the Jury Prize at Cannes in 2004 with the short film “Flatlife”, which was also his final project.

Other Belgians were even more in the spotlight at Cannes. Having won the Palme d’Or twice, this time the well-known Dardenne brothers won the Grand Prix for their film “The Kid with a Bike” (Le Gamin au vélo). This makes them the cineastes with the most awards in the history of the festival.