Stijn Coninx fell into the magic potion pot when he was a kid …
This standard expression is not from yesterday and it is being used very often, whether it is relevant or not. However, it is totally relevant when it comes to describing the life and career of an artist of great stature, and Stijn Coninx undoubtedly can be considered as such in our Belgian audiovisual landscape.
His Lordship Stijn Coninx, the maker of the mythical movie Daens, was born on February 21,1957, in Neerpelt and grew up since childhood in the world of pictures. Being the son of a photographer who was a great fan of Chaplin and Keaton, Stijn Coninx quickly came to like “lively images” and so he started – and completed – studies as a film director at the RITS school in Brussels. In the eighties, the artist fulfilled three great projects of his. The first one, his end of studies film Servais , is a documentary in which the director is making the spectator acquainted in an adult and successful way with… read more
Stijn Coninx fell into the magic potion pot when he was a kid …
This standard expression is not from yesterday and it is being used very often, whether it is relevant or not. However, it is totally relevant when it comes to describing the life and career of an artist of great stature, and Stijn Coninx undoubtedly can be considered as such in our Belgian audiovisual landscape.
His Lordship Stijn Coninx, the maker of the mythical movie Daens, was born on February 21,1957, in Neerpelt and grew up since childhood in the world of pictures. Being the son of a photographer who was a great fan of Chaplin and Keaton, Stijn Coninx quickly came to like “lively images” and so he started – and completed – studies as a film director at the RITS school in Brussels. In the eighties, the artist fulfilled three great projects of his. The first one, his end of studies film Servais , is a documentary in which the director is making the spectator acquainted in an adult and successful way with Raoul Servais, the unchallenged master of animation film in Belgium. In 1982, he directed a short film called Surfing and he became “first assistant” of several well-known filmmakers. He also shot a lot of commercials in the eighties and in 1987 he directed Hector, a comedy film with Urbanus and Sylvia Millecam as leading actor and actress.
The nineties made Stijn Coninx even more widely known. At the beginning of the new decennium, he released a movie that became a huge blockbuster and in which Urbanus was once again brilliant in the leading role: Koko Flanel. Two years later, Daens was a decisive turning point in his career as well as a sudden change of style. Besides, Daens was nominated for the Oscars, enjoyed a special mention of the International Jury of the Catholic Film at the Film Festival of Venice and finally won the Gulden Spoor Award at the Festival of Ghent. In 1998, he directed Licht, a film about themes as isolation, forced living together and the development of a relationship between two totally different beings in extremely harsh living conditions. In 2003, Stijn Coninx directed the feature film Verder dan de maan.
In the course of his career, Stijn Coninx – who can boast about a particularly interesting filmography – has won several awards and honours. In the years 2000, projects followed one another in a tearing rush. He directed drama series for television (a.o. De Kavijaks – VTM) as well as the TV-series Het Peulengaleis (VRT) with Bart Peeters and Hugo Matthysen. Recently, Stijn Coninx has been in the spotlight with the release of his documentary about triathlete Marc Herremans, To Walk Again. In 2008, he will shoot Soeur Sourire with Cécile de France as leading actress. For the near future, a musical based on his movie Daens is also in the pipeline. It will be performed in 2008 and Stijn Coninx will be responsible for the artistic supervision thereof.
Stijn Coninx, who has been a member of the board of managers of the Belgian Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers since June 3, 2002, is moreover Professor at the Institut National Supérieur des Arts du Spectacle et Techniques de Diffusion (INSAS) as well as at the RITS-Instituut (Erasmus Hogeschool) in Brussels. —sabam.be
