Felix van Groeningen
Van Groeningen at theKarlovy Vary International Film Festival in July 2016.
Born	(1977-11-01)1 November 1977 (age 47) Ghent, Belgium
Nationality	Belgian
Alma mater	Royal Academy of Fine Arts (KASK)
Occupation	Filmmaker
Years active	2000–present
Partner	Charlotte Vandermeersch
Children	1

Felix van Groeningen (Dutch:[ˈfeːlɪksfɑŋˈɣrunɪŋə(n)]; born 1 November 1977) is a Belgianfilm director andscreenwriter. He is known forThe Broken Circle Breakdown (2012) andBelgica (2016), with the former being nominated forBest Foreign Language Film at the86th Academy Awards. He made his English-language debut with thebiographicaldramaBeautiful Boy (2018) and was awarded with theCannes Film Festival Jury Prize forThe Eight Mountains (2022).

Van Groeningen was born inGhent. His parents werehippies who led a very liberal lifestyle. He has an older brother, Seppe. After his parents' divorce, they lived in the same house, but each with a new partner.^[1] His father started a live music club 'The Charlatan' when he was twelve-years-old, which became the inspiration for his filmBelgica.^[2] He studied at theRoyal Academy of Fine Arts (KASK) and graduated in 2000 with a Masters of Audiovisual Arts, his masters thesis was the short film50CC.^[3][4] He and Belgian actressCharlotte Vandermeersch have a son, Rufus, who was born in 2018.^[5]

After graduating from college, van Groeningen directed several short films, and written and directed several stage plays.^[6] He embarked on a long-term collaboration with Dirk Impens, originally his professor at KASK,^[6] who produced all five of Van Groeningen's feature films from 2004 to 2016 under his production company Menuet. Impens announced he was closing down Menuet in July 2017.^[7]

Van Groeningen made hisdirectorial debut withSteve + Sky (2004), which depicts a romance between a drug dealer and a prostitute, and starredTitus De Voogdt andDelfine Bafort in the titular roles. Van Groeningen later said the film "was about realizing that you're not invincible or immortal" after having an epiphany at age 23 when his father died due to complications with a liver transplant and he lost a close friend to cancer.^[8] His second feature,With Friends Like These (Dutch:Dagen zonder lief) (2007), was a comedy which tells the story of a struggling group of twenty-year-olds whose lives get thrown into limbo when their friend returns from New York.

His third feature film,The Misfortunates (Dutch:De Helaasheid der Dingen) (2009), was a film adaptation the 2006 semi-autobiographical novel of the same name byDimitri Verhulst.^[9] The film follows the life of the thirteen-year-old protagonist, Gunther, who is raised by a family of alcoholics and misfits as he grows up and dreams of being a writer.^[10] The film premiered atCannes Film Festival in theDirector's Fortnight section and won the Prix Art et Essai.^[11] The film was a box office success in Belgium with 454,435 admissions to cinemas, and was the most watched Flemish film that year in Belgium.^[12] The film was selected as the Belgian entry forBest Foreign Language Film at the82nd Academy Awards.^[13]

His fourth feature film,The Broken Circle Breakdown (2012), starredJohan Heldenbergh andVeerle Baetens as Didier and Elise, a bohemian couple that loses their daughter to cancer.^[6] It is an adaptation of a stage play originally written and directed by Heldenbergh. The film was a critical and commercial success, and became the most watched Flemish film in Belgium of the year.^[12][14] The film was selected as the Belgian entry forBest Foreign Language Film at the86th Academy Awards,^[15][16] and was on the nominated shortlist.^[17] He was invited to become a member ofAcademy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2014.^[18]

His fifth feature film,Belgica (2016), follows the lives of two brothers who start a nightclub but quickly gets swept up in hedonistic pursuits. The film was based upon two real-life brothers who bought 'The Charlatan', a music club owned by his father, in 2000 and managed it for seven years.^[2] The film premiered atSundance Film Festival where he won the Best Director prize in the World Cinema Dramatic section.^[19] The film received mixed reviews from critics but was praised for the soundtrack created by the Flemish bandSoulwax, who had previously collaborated with Van Groeningen onSteve + Sky.^[20]

Van Groeningen made his English-language debut with the filmBeautiful Boy (2018), which he directed and co-wrote, and which starsSteve Carell andTimothée Chalamet.^[5]

• Felix van Groeningen atIMDb

• Belgian film directors
• Flemish film people
• 1977 births
• Living people
• 21st-century Belgian screenwriters
• Belgian film producers
• Belgian male screenwriters

• CS1 German-language sources (de)
• CS1 Dutch-language sources (nl)
• Articles with short description
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• Use dmy dates from August 2018
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