Belgium

Belgium provides backdrops for almost every kind of storytelling, from the seaside promenades of Ostend to the picturesque charms of Bruges, from the gritty industrial port of Ghent to the splendours of Antwerp.

One perennial complaint has been the lack of bigger studio facilities, but Wallimage, the Wallonian economic fund, and broadcaster RTBF have set up a partnership to make Média Rives studios in Liege accessible to international producers.

Meanwhile, locals talk up the Lites facility in Vilvoorde near Brussels as one of the most advanced water stages in the world. Netflix/BBC UK’s Luther: The Fallen Sun made use of the facility, as did ZDF’s epic eco-drama The Swarm and French hit The Count Of Monte Cristo. More recently, Polish Netflix series Heweliusz, about the 1993 maritime ferry disaster in the Baltic Sea, shot at Lites.

There is also an increasing focus on virtual production. AED Virtual Production Studio has attracted projects including French action thriller The Night Drags On, directed by Michiel Blanchart.

Inevitably, some continue to grumble about the patchy Belgian weather. But as the meteorologists explain, Belgium has a “temperate maritime climate characterised by moderate temperatures, prevailing southerly to westerly winds, abundant cloud cover and frequent precipitation”. Meaning it is not somewhere to make summer sun-driven movies.

Wallimage continues to back a wide range of international projects. It recently announced support for Spanish period horror Upiro from director Oscar Martin and for Belgium-Iceland animation Ploey 2: The Legend Of The Winds, directed by Gunnar Karlsson and Freek Quartier.

Language and cultural reasons mean the Wallonians have strong connections with France: recent projects to receive support from Wallimage include Eric Barbier’s comedy Justin Le Juste.

Other recent productions to have shot in Belgium include Paramount+ crime series MobLand, starring Tom Hardy, which visited Antwerp. The city also attracted US heist movie Now You See Me 3, starring Jesse Eisenberg, and Channel 4/Starz thriller series The Couple Next Door.

UK detective show Bookish, created by Mark Gatiss, made through UK production company Eagle Eye and co-produced by Flemish outfit Happy Duck Films, shot in different locations across Belgium in 2024, including Ghent and Namur. And parts of the longrunning UK series Professor T, starring Ben Miller as a University of Cambridge criminologist, also filmed in Belgium (the series is inspired by a Belgian drama of the same name).

High-end TV series This Is Not A Murder Mystery, produced by Panenka and directed by Hans Herbots, shot all over Flanders. Meanwhile, the main location for Canadian director Clement Virgo’s feature Steal Away was Lozerkasteel.

Belgian crews are flexible, experienced and multilingual (most speak Flemish, French and English). Thanks to the production boom of recent years, they have experience working on international co-productions of different sizes. The country also offers high-end post-production facilities and servicing companies including Babel Central (which provides subtitling services), beDIGITAL (for VFX), Galaxy Studios, Flow and The Pack.

International filmmakers are expected to hire local crews and heads of department, but crews in Belgium are flexible and ready to work weekends if needed. Wages might be slightly more expensive than elsewhere, but the technicians are more experienced.

One issue the Cypriot director/producer Stelios Kammitsis highlights is potential pressure on top technicians when several productions are shooting at once. 

You can get from one side of Belgium to the other in roughly the time it takes to travel across Los Angeles. The compact country is at the heart of Europe and has excellent local and international transport infrastructure. It is about 30 miles from Brussels to Antwerp.

European status

Belgium is a member of the European Union and a participant in the Schengen Agreement. Its currency is the euro.

This is a compact, easily accessible country in the heart of Europe with excellent local and international travel infrastructure. Brussels and Antwerp are within an hour’s reach of each other, separated by 34 miles. London, Paris and Berlin are easily accessible by air and rail, and there are direct flights between New York and Brussels.

Contact: Noël Magis, managing director, Screen Brussels: nmagis@ screen.brussels; Virginie Nouvelle, general manager, Wallimage: vno@wallimage.be; Katrien De Hauwere, Film Commission Screen Flanders kdehauwere@vaf.be