Jaco Van Dormael

Jaco Van Dormael (born 9 February 1957) is a Belgian film director, screenwriter and playwright.

His films especially focus on a respectful and sympathetic portrayal of people with mental and physical disabilities.

Belgium, on 9 February 1957 to a Belgian couple.

Van Dormael was raised in Germany until age seven, when his family returned to Belgium.

At his birth, he had nearly been strangled by the umbilical cord and received an insufficient supply of oxygen.

It was feared that he might end up mentally impaired.

This trauma may partly account for the recurring themes in his films, which explore the worlds of people with mental and physical disabilities.

He delighted in working with children and for a while pursued a career as a circus clown.

He became a producer of children's entertainment with the Theatre de Galafronie, Theatre Isocele and Theatre de la Guimbarde.

After developing an interest in filmmaking, he enrolled at the INSAS in Brussels and later the Louis Lumière College in Paris.

As a children's entertainer, childhood and innocence would become strong themes throughout his work.

In the 1980s, Van Dormael directed a number of short films.

While he was a student at the INSAS, he wrote and directed the children's story Maedeli la brèche.

Van Dormael's brother, Pierre composed the soundtrack for the film; since their first collaboration in 1980, he has composed the music to all his brother's films.

Toto le héros propelled Van Dormael into the international spotlight as both a writer and director.

Van Dormael spent his childhood travelling around Europe, before going on to study filmmaking at the INSAS in Brussels, where he wrote and directed his first short film, Maedeli la brèche (1981), which received the Honorary Foreign Film Award at the Student Academy Awards.

The short film received the Honorary Foreign Film Award at the 1981 Student Academy Awards presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The following year Van Dormael directed Stade 81, a documentary short film about the Paralympic Games.

He later directed the short films Les voisins (1981), L'imitateur (1982), Sortie de secours (1983), and De boot (1985).

His most famous short of the period is È pericoloso sporgersi (1984) which won the Grand Prix in international competition at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival.

In 1985, two Belgian producers read a version of the script, and over the next five years they raised about $3.5 million, a huge amount for a Belgian production, all in public money from Belgium, the European Community and state television in France and Germany.

Van Dormael's feature debut, Toto le héros (1991), won the Caméra d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

Van Dormael made his feature-length debut in 1991 with Toto le héros (Toto the hero), a tale about a man who believes his life was "stolen" from him when he was switched at birth, told in a complex mosaic of flashbacks and dream sequences, sometimes with almost a stream of consciousness effect.

Toto le héros was ten years in the making as Van Dormael rewrote the script at least eight times.

Van Dormael premiered Toto le héros at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Camera d'Or.

The film was released to the public later that year.

Reviewing the film, The New York Times called him "a bright new talent to celebrate".

It won five Joseph Plateau Awards, the César Award for Best Foreign Film, four European Film Awards, the André Cavens Award, and received a BAFTA nomination.

In 1995, Van Dormael participated in the 1995 project Lumière et compagnie (Lumière and Company).

This work is an anthology of very short works (on average 50–60 seconds) contributed by international film directors in which each used the original Auguste and Louis Lumière's motion picture camera to make his film.

The Kiss is the 52-second film made by director Jaco Van Dormael featuring actor Pascal Duquenne.

At the same time, Van Dormael was at work writing his next major work.

He wanted to make a more linear film than Toto le héros, one which explored the world through the eyes of a man with Down syndrome.

Van Dormael's next film, Le huitieme jour (The Eighth Day), accomplishes this with the chance meeting and friendship between Georges, played by Pascal Duquenne, and Harry, an unhappy divorced businessman portrayed by Daniel Auteuil.

Van Dormael's interest in people with mental and physical disabilities stems from an interest in their "talent for life, for loving life, that we often lack."

He sought to explore the concept of two worlds (that of Georges and that of Harry) existing simultaneously and yet separately.

Five years later, Le huitième jour (1996) played at Cannes, where his two leading actors, Daniel Auteuil and Pascal Duquenne, were jointly awarded the prize for Best Actor.

Le huitième jour premiered at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Palme d'Or.

His third feature film, Mr. Nobody (2009), won six Magritte Awards, including Best Film and Best Director.

Jaco Van Dormael was born in Ixelles.