LABEL EUROPA CINEMAS
Valéry Carnoy’s La Danse des Renards/Wild Foxes
May 22 2025: Belgian director Valéry Carnoy’s La Danse des Renards/Wild Foxes, a Belgian/French co-production, has won the Europa Cinemas Label as Best European film in the Quinzaine des Cinéastes section, it was announced today by a jury of four exhibitors from the Network. 2025 marks the twenty second time the Label has been awarded in Cannes.
La Danse des Renards/Wild Foxes will now receive the support of the Europa Cinemas Network, with additional promotion and incentives for exhibitors to extend the film’s run on screen.
The jury issued the following statement: “Valéry Carnoy’s debut feature is a bitter sweet and touching drama about a young male boxer in a sports oriented boarding school. He has a serious accident, and suffers mentally as well as physically. His confidence is shattered, his position as leader crumbles, and he has to totally reassess his whole approach to life. It is a sports film but without the usual predictable clichés. La Danse des Renards/Wild Foxes tackles the burning issue of young male friendship and fragility. The whole ensemble cast is exceptionally strong, and really gives the film power and believability.”
Sold internationally by The Party Film Sales, the film is a Hélicotronc (Belgium) production, co-produced with Les Films du Poisson (France). The producers are Julie Esparbes and Inès Daïen Dasi.
The screenplay is by the director Valéry Carnoy, with photography by Arnaud Guez, sound by Charlie Cabocel, François Aubinet, Thibaud Rie and Mathieu Cox, production design by Yasmina Chavanne, editing by Suzana Pedro, and music by Pierre Desprats.
The cast includes Samuel Kircher (Camille), Fayçal Anaflous (Matteo), Jef Jacobs (LPF), Anna Heckel (Yas), Jean-Baptiste Durand (Bogdan), Hassane Alili (Nasserdine), and Salahdine El Garchi (Coreb).
At a sports boarding school, talented young boxer Camille narrowly survives a fatal accident, saved by his best friend Matteo. After a swift recovery, an inexplicable pain gradually takes hold of him, threatening his dreams of greatness and his relationship with the team. In the ring and in a man's world, there’s no room for weakness.
Valéry Carnoy is a young Belgian director trained at INSAS. His graduation film, My Planet, won Best Film at PÖFF. In 2021, his second short film Titan, also won more than thirty awards and was selected in a hundred international festivals.
The Cannes Europa Cinemas Label Jury this year comprised of Marie Boudon (Cinéma le Méliès, Montreuil, France); Ditte Daugbjerg Christensen (Øst for Paradis, Aarhus, Denmark); Caro Raedts (Cinema ZED, Leuven, Belgium) and Piotr Szczyszyk (Kino Palacowe, Poznań, Poland).
The Label is also awarded in Berlin, Venice, Karlovy Vary, and at Locarno. Recipients of the Label honoured at Cannes in the past include: The Other Way Around, Un Beau Matin/One Fine Morning, A Chiara, Alice et le Maire, Mustang, 12:08 East of Bucharest, La Pivellina, Le Quattro Volte, The Repentant, The Selfish Giant, Les Combattants and Mercenaire.
Europa Cinemas in 2024:
39 countries / 799 cities / 3146 screens
Europa Cinemas is supported by Creative Europe/MEDIA, Programme of the European Union (Brussels), CNC (France), Eurimages (Council of Europe, Strasbourg),
Institut Français (Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Culture, France)