''Close'' is a 2022

coming-of-age Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can ...

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

film directed by

Lukas Dhont Lukas Dhont (born 1991) () is a Belgian film director and screenwriter. He was featured in Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe list in 2019. Early life Dhont was born in Gent (in English Ghent), Belgium. His mother, Hilbe is a fashion teacher at an art ...

, and written by Dhont and Angelo Tijssens, reteaming after their first feature film ''

Girl A girl is a young female human, usually a child or an adolescent. When a girl becomes an adult, she is accurately described as a ''woman''. However, the term ''girl'' is also used for other meanings, including ''young woman'',Dictionary ...

'' (2018). The film stars Eden Dambrine, Gustav de Waele, Emilie Dequenne and

Léa Drucker Léa Drucker (born 23 January 1972) is a French actress. Early life Born in Caen, Normandy, she is the niece of television presenter Michel Drucker, and of ex-president of M6 Jean Drucker. Her father Jacques is a medical doctor, and her mothe ...

. ''Close'' premiered at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...

on 26 May 2022 to critical acclaim and the

Grand Prix Grand Prix ( , meaning ''Grand Prize''; plural Grands Prix), is a name sometimes used for competitions or sport events, alluding to the winner receiving a prize, trophy or honour Grand Prix or grand prix may refer to: Arts and entertainment ...

. The film was released by Diaphana Distribution in France on 1 November 2022 and by Lumière in

Benelux The Benelux Union ( nl, Benelux Unie; french: Union Benelux; lb, Benelux-Unioun), also known as simply Benelux, is a politico-economic union and formal international intergovernmental cooperation of three neighboring states in western Europe: B ...

on 2 November. On 16 September 2022, the film was announced as Belgium's submission for the

Academy Award for Best International Feature Film The Academy Award for Best International Feature Film (known as Best Foreign Language Film prior to 2020) is one of the Academy Awards handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to a ...

at the

95th Academy Awards The 95th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), will honor films released in 2022, and is scheduled to take place at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, California on March 12, 2023. Comed ...

, and made the December shortlist. It also won the award for

Best Foreign Language Film This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

from the

National Board of Review The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures is a non-profit organization of New York City area film enthusiasts. Its awards, which are announced in early December, are considered an early harbinger of the film awards season that culminat ...

Plot

Thirteen year olds Léo and Rémi spend the long summer holidays in innocent intimacy, but come the school year, their close friendship is thrown into disarray as their relationship is noticed and commented on by their contemporaries. In reaction to their sometimes insulting or intrusive comments, Léo attempts to distance himself from Rémi.

Cast

* as Léo * as Rémi *

Émilie Dequenne Émilie Dequenne (, born 29 August 1981) is a Belgian actress. She first gained attention for playing the title character in the film ''Rosetta'' (1999), which earned her the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress. She then went on to star ...

as Sophie *

as Nathalie * Kevin Janssens as Peter * Marc Weiss as Yves * as Charlie * Léon Bataille as Baptiste

Production

On 19 December 2018, it was announced that

was developing a follow-up feature film to his

2018 Cannes Film Festival The 71st annual Cannes Film Festival was held from 8 to 19 May 2018. Australian actress Cate Blanchett acted as President of the Jury. The Japanese film ''Shoplifters'', directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, won the Palme d'Or. Asghar Farhadi's psycho ...

award-winning

directorial debut This is a list of film directorial debuts in chronological order. The films and dates referred to are a director's first commercial cinematic release. Many film makers have directed works which were not commercially released, for example early work ...

''. Co-writer Angelo Tijssens and producer Dirk Impens were attached to re-team with Dhont for the then-untitled film, with Dhont stating that "It's going to be different but also in the style of ''Girl''", and that "At the centre of it is a queer character." In writing the film, Dhont was inspired by psychologist Niobe Way's book ''Deep Secrets'', which documents her study of intimacy among teenage boys. Dhont named the film after "close friendship", a recurring term in the book. There were no further developments until 23 July 2020, when it was announced that Dhont had set up an open casting call for the two male lead roles, set to be played by amateur actors, with casting scheduled to take place at the end of August. In addition, filming was scheduled to start the following summer. The casting call was open to speakers of both French and Flemish, and Dhont decided to film it in French after casting. On 20 October 2020, it was announced that the film would be titled ''Close'' and that international sales agent The Match Factory had joined the project. Dhont's brother Michael Dhont was also attached to produce. On 29 June 2021, the film featured on

Eurimages Eurimages is a cultural support fund of the Council of Europe, established in 1989. Eurimages promotes independent filmmaking by providing financial support to feature-length fiction, animation, and documentary films. In doing so, it encourages c ...

' annual list of co-production financing, with the fund supporting the film with €300,000.

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...

began on 9 July 2021. Alongside the start of production, it was also announced that Emilie Dequenne and

were cast in main roles. Speaking about the film, Dhont said: "Three years after the overwhelming trip of ''Girl'', it's incredibly good to be back on the set, with this hugely talented cast and crew, especially as this story is close to my heart."

Release

''Close'' had its world premiere in competition for the

Palme d'Or The Palme d'Or (; en, Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festival's highest prize was the Grand Prix du Fe ...

at the

on 26 May 2022, where it was later awarded the

. It also played in the Official Competition at the 2022

Sydney Film Festival The Sydney Film Festival is an annual competitive film festival held in Sydney, Australia, usually over 12 days in June. A number of awards are given, the top one being the Sydney Film Prize. the festival's director is Nashen Moodley. Histo ...

, where it also won the Sydney Film Prize. The film was released by Diaphana Distribution in France on 1 November 2022 and by Lumière in

on 2 November. It is set to be released by

A24 A24 is an American independent entertainment company that specializes in film and television production, as well as film distribution. It is based in New York City. A24 was founded in 2012 by Daniel Katz, David Fenkel and John Hodges. Pr ...

in the United States on 27 January 2023, following a limited one-week theatrical run in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

on 2 December 2022. At Cannes, streaming service

Mubi Mubi (; stylized as MUBI; The Auteurs before 2010) is a global curated film streaming platform, production company and film distributor. Mubi produces and theatrically distributes films by emerging and established filmmakers, which are exclusivel ...

acquired distribution rights for the United Kingdom, Ireland, Latin America, Turkey and India.

Reception

Critical reception

On the

review aggregation A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, ''Close'' holds an approval rating of 91% based on 46 reviews from critics, with an average rating of 8.2/10. The website's consensus reads, "So moving for a majority of its runtime that not even a manipulative ending can ruin the experience, ''Close'' is a tender and powerfully acted look at childhood innocence lost." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which uses a weighted average, the film holds a score of 83 out of 100 based on 13 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". In a poll by

IndieWire IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Hollyw ...

of 75 critics at Cannes, ''Close'' was named the best film of the festival. Dhont shared the

with

Claire Denis Claire Denis (; born 21 April 1946) is a French film director and screenwriter. Her feature film ''Beau Travail'' (1999) has been called one of the greatest films of the 1990s, as well as of all time. Other acclaimed works include '' Trouble Ev ...

' '' Stars at Noon''. The film also won the Film Prize in June 2022 at the

Accolades

References

External links

* * {{Navboxes , title = Awards for ''Close'' , list = {{Cannes Film Festival Grand Prix {{National Board of Review Award for Best Foreign Language Film {{Sydney Film Prize 2022 films 2022 drama films 2022 LGBT-related films 2022 multilingual films 2020s Dutch-language films 2020s French films 2020s French-language films Belgian coming-of-age drama films Belgian LGBT-related films Belgian multilingual films Cannes Grand Prix winners Dutch coming-of-age films Dutch drama films Dutch LGBT-related films Dutch multilingual films Films directed by Lukas Dhont French coming-of-age drama films French-language Belgian films French LGBT-related films French multilingual films LGBT-related coming-of-age films LGBT-related drama films