Director Tom Van Avermaet of Boechout, Antwerp, has won the award for best international short film at the Shorts International Film Festival in Los Angeles with Hearts of Stone.
The main character in this moving drama is Paula, a lonely street performer in a bustling metropolis, played by renowned Swedish actress Noomi Rapace. She entertains passersby as a living statue but secretly yearns for Agatha, a real statue standing nearby. When she arrives at her place of employment one day, she finds that her stone friend has had to make way for an abstract modern sculpture. During a desperate search, she finds Agatha among a pile of discarded classical statues that no longer belong in the sculpture park being redesigned according to modern tastes. As the sun sets, Paula makes frantic attempts to awaken her lonely companion from her stone slumber.
Filming took place in Antwerp: at the Middelheim, at the Museum aan de Stroom (MAS) and at the renovated Handelsbeurs.
Back in January, Hearts of Stone was shown at the Ostend Film Festival. Now that the film is being showcased in Los Angeles, a spot on the long list for the Oscars is a reality and an Oscar nomination could be on the cards. Tom Van Avermaet is over the moon as he invested blood, sweat and tears in the project. In 2013, his short film Death of a Shadow was nominated for the Oscars, but he missed out on the award. Hopefully, this time things will be different.
