Actress Annick Van Couwenberghe recently, she participated in episodes of Move On, on air on Vtm Go, and tv series Dertigers, which aired on VRT1 and VRTMAX and whose online version has received millions of views.
Actress Annick Van Couwenberghe has pursued several projects. She starred in the hit TV series Vloglab #Stories and Billie vs. Benjamin. More recently, she participated in episodes of Move On, on air on Vtm Go, and tv series Dertigers, which aired on VRT1 and VRTMAX and whose online version has received millions of views.
You have a film writing project. Could you tell us about it?
Yes, it’s the first feature film I’ve written together with my co-scriptwriter Trees Goethals. It’s a feel good movie with a touch of Christmas. I believe good Christmas-movies are hard to find in our culture. Although there is a big market outthere for it, during the holiday-season a lot of hallmark-movies are screened, but there are not a lot of European christmas-movies which I think is a shame. I grew up in a family where Christmas always was a big deal. And I remember the warmth of the December month, something I always looked forward to as a child. And I try to bring that warmth into our home every year with decorations and music. I see people all around me enjoying the warm fuzzy feeling of the holiday season and we wanted to melt that into a movie that would fit perfectly into that atmosphere.
How did you come up with the idea for the film?
The storyline is indeed an original idea from my part and the idea started growing during Covid. A lot of people still remember how isolated we were and how releaved we were when we were finally free again to meet our friends and family. That Christmas and New Year we couldn’t celebrate with our loved ones and I missed that so hard. During that time I realised how hard people need warmth and fuzziness in their homes and I wanted to make a movie that provides that and that makes you escape coldness, loneliness whenever you need that, even if it’s only for a couple of hours.
Do you think the film would be better suited for theaters or streaming?
That’s a difficult question ! On the one hand, it’s a family movie, not an action movie, and it definitely fits into the coziness of your own home. So it’s definitely suited for streaming. But on the other hand, I remember going to the cinema theaters as a kid together with my parents and that was always a special treat. Enjoy the movie together with the audience in the theatre, hear them react to or laugh with the same things you do, that’s also special. And during the holiday season, going to the movies is very popular and what better movie to go watch than a Christmas movie, right ? So, can I not choose between theatres and streaming, haha !
What film or literary work inspired you to write it?
Well, as a child I watch “White Christmas” about a hundred times, but the movie that really inspired me was “The Holiday”. In that movie, the aspect of Christmas is implemented in the storyline but the settings of the movie are not always the traditional settings you expect for a christmas movie. That’s also the case in our movie. We try to stay away from the traditional clichés. You can have some, but not too many to stay innovative, I think. And of course the performances of Cameron Diaz, Jude Law, Kate Winslet and Jack Black are so timelessly good ! I hope we can find an equal great cast for our movie.
Have you found any interested producers yet?
We are finishing our pitch deck this summer and I’ve translated the script from Dutch to English, so we’re going to start pitching after the summer and we want to be fully prepared. The script was originally written in Dutch, but we had an interesting talk with a producer from India, just for advice, and he convinced us that our script had international potential so I started translating to keep all our options open. It would be great to have the movie made local, but if we can go outside the borders, why not.
The third season of Dertigers will air in September. Can you give us a sneak peek? Tell us about your character .
Yes, you can already stream it on VrtMax, but in September it will air on National Tv (VRT). It’s actually the third season with the cast I’m in. The first three seasons were with a different cast. Of course I can’t reveal Agnes’s storyline in this season yet, not everybody has streamed it (it came on VrtMax 2 weeks ago). I can only say that she will definitely put some spice into the series, haha. I recommend everybody to re-watch the former season on Vrtmax, to refresh the storyline before diving into the new season. The series will bring the content the audience loves about “Dertigers”: snappy conversations, drama with a touch of comedy, relatable situations, misunderstandings and conflicts brought by characters that might live next door to you. Everyone knows an “Agnes” in their neighbourhood for instance, right ? Everyone knows a conflicting couple or friends who were not supposed to fall in love. That’s why the Belgian audience loves this series so much and I’m grateful that I’ve been a part of this great series !
You have a film writing project. Could you tell us about it?
Yes, it’s the first feature film I’ve written together with my co-scriptwriter Trees Goethals. It’s a feel good movie with a touch of Christmas. I believe good Christmas-movies are hard to find in our culture. Although there is a big market outthere for it, during the holiday-season a lot of hallmark-movies are screened, but there are not a lot of European christmas-movies which I think is a shame. I grew up in a family where Christmas always was a big deal. And I remember the warmth of the December month, something I always looked forward to as a child. And I try to bring that warmth into our home every year with decorations and music. I see people all around me enjoying the warm fuzzy feeling of the holiday season and we wanted to melt that into a movie that would fit perfectly into that atmosphere.
How did you come up with the idea for the film?
The storyline is indeed an original idea from my part and the idea started growing during Covid. A lot of people still remember how isolated we were and how releaved we were when we were finally free again to meet our friends and family. That Christmas and New Year we couldn’t celebrate with our loved ones and I missed that so hard. During that time I realised how hard people need warmth and fuzziness in their homes and I wanted to make a movie that provides that and that makes you escape coldness, loneliness whenever you need that, even if it’s only for a couple of hours.
Do you think the film would be better suited for theaters or streaming?
That’s a difficult question ! On the one hand, it’s a family movie, not an action movie, and it definitely fits into the coziness of your own home. So it’s definitely suited for streaming. But on the other hand, I remember going to the cinema theaters as a kid together with my parents and that was always a special treat. Enjoy the movie together with the audience in the theatre, hear them react to or laugh with the same things you do, that’s also special. And during the holiday season, going to the movies is very popular and what better movie to go watch than a Christmas movie, right ? So, can I not choose between theatres and streaming, haha !
What film or literary work inspired you to write it?
Well, as a child I watch “White Christmas” about a hundred times, but the movie that really inspired me was “The Holiday”. In that movie, the aspect of Christmas is implemented in the storyline but the settings of the movie are not always the traditional settings you expect for a christmas movie. That’s also the case in our movie. We try to stay away from the traditional clichés. You can have some, but not too many to stay innovative, I think. And of course the performances of Cameron Diaz, Jude Law, Kate Winslet and Jack Black are so timelessly good ! I hope we can find an equal great cast for our movie.
Have you found any interested producers yet?
We are finishing our pitch deck this summer and I’ve translated the script from Dutch to English, so we’re going to start pitching after the summer and we want to be fully prepared. The script was originally written in Dutch, but we had an interesting talk with a producer from India, just for advice, and he convinced us that our script had international potential so I started translating to keep all our options open. It would be great to have the movie made local, but if we can go outside the borders, why not.
The third season of Dertigers will air in September. Can you give us a sneak peek? Tell us about your character .
Yes, you can already stream it on VrtMax, but in September it will air on National Tv (VRT). It’s actually the third season with the cast I’m in. The first three seasons were with a different cast. Of course I can’t reveal Agnes’s storyline in this season yet, not everybody has streamed it (it came on VrtMax 2 weeks ago). I can only say that she will definitely put some spice into the series, haha. I recommend everybody to re-watch the former season on Vrtmax, to refresh the storyline before diving into the new season. The series will bring the content the audience loves about “Dertigers”: snappy conversations, drama with a touch of comedy, relatable situations, misunderstandings and conflicts brought by characters that might live next door to you. Everyone knows an “Agnes” in their neighbourhood for instance, right ? Everyone knows a conflicting couple or friends who were not supposed to fall in love. That’s why the Belgian audience loves this series so much and I’m grateful that I’ve been a part of this great series !
You have a film writing project. Could you tell us about it?
Yes, it’s the first feature film I’ve written together with my co-scriptwriter Trees Goethals. It’s a feel good movie with a touch of Christmas. I believe good Christmas-movies are hard to find in our culture. Although there is a big market outthere for it, during the holiday-season a lot of hallmark-movies are screened, but there are not a lot of European christmas-movies which I think is a shame. I grew up in a family where Christmas always was a big deal. And I remember the warmth of the December month, something I always looked forward to as a child. And I try to bring that warmth into our home every year with decorations and music. I see people all around me enjoying the warm fuzzy feeling of the holiday season and we wanted to melt that into a movie that would fit perfectly into that atmosphere.
How did you come up with the idea for the film?
The storyline is indeed an original idea from my part and the idea started growing during Covid. A lot of people still remember how isolated we were and how releaved we were when we were finally free again to meet our friends and family. That Christmas and New Year we couldn’t celebrate with our loved ones and I missed that so hard. During that time I realised how hard people need warmth and fuzziness in their homes and I wanted to make a movie that provides that and that makes you escape coldness, loneliness whenever you need that, even if it’s only for a couple of hours.
Do you think the film would be better suited for theaters or streaming?
That’s a difficult question ! On the one hand, it’s a family movie, not an action movie, and it definitely fits into the coziness of your own home. So it’s definitely suited for streaming. But on the other hand, I remember going to the cinema theaters as a kid together with my parents and that was always a special treat. Enjoy the movie together with the audience in the theatre, hear them react to or laugh with the same things you do, that’s also special. And during the holiday season, going to the movies is very popular and what better movie to go watch than a Christmas movie, right ? So, can I not choose between theatres and streaming, haha !
What film or literary work inspired you to write it?
Well, as a child I watch “White Christmas” about a hundred times, but the movie that really inspired me was “The Holiday”. In that movie, the aspect of Christmas is implemented in the storyline but the settings of the movie are not always the traditional settings you expect for a christmas movie. That’s also the case in our movie. We try to stay away from the traditional clichés. You can have some, but not too many to stay innovative, I think. And of course the performances of Cameron Diaz, Jude Law, Kate Winslet and Jack Black are so timelessly good ! I hope we can find an equal great cast for our movie.
Have you found any interested producers yet?
We are finishing our pitch deck this summer and I’ve translated the script from Dutch to English, so we’re going to start pitching after the summer and we want to be fully prepared. The script was originally written in Dutch, but we had an interesting talk with a producer from India, just for advice, and he convinced us that our script had international potential so I started translating to keep all our options open. It would be great to have the movie made local, but if we can go outside the borders, why not.
The third season of Dertigers will air in September. Can you give us a sneak peek? Tell us about your character .
Yes, you can already stream it on VrtMax, but in September it will air on National Tv (VRT). It’s actually the third season with the cast I’m in. The first three seasons were with a different cast. Of course I can’t reveal Agnes’s storyline in this season yet, not everybody has streamed it (it came on VrtMax 2 weeks ago). I can only say that she will definitely put some spice into the series, haha. I recommend everybody to re-watch the former season on Vrtmax, to refresh the storyline before diving into the new season. The series will bring the content the audience loves about “Dertigers”: snappy conversations, drama with a touch of comedy, relatable situations, misunderstandings and conflicts brought by characters that might live next door to you. Everyone knows an “Agnes” in their neighbourhood for instance, right ? Everyone knows a conflicting couple or friends who were not supposed to fall in love. That’s why the Belgian audience loves this series so much and I’m grateful that I’ve been a part of this great series !
