Vlissingen 2024: The FILM BY THE SEA Festival Starts Today

Today marks the start of the 26th Film By The Sea film festival, held in the harbor city of Vlissingen (or Flushing as some English-speakers call it), which is in the Southwest of the Netherlands. It is one of the largest Dutch festivals with over a hundred films being shown and more than 40,000 tickets sold each year. It features a mix of local and international films, with a heavy slant towards literary adaptations. The festival is a remarkably glossy affair, with red carpets and glamour, and it often features a number of interesting world premières.

This year, one of its world premierès is a bit of all: A Beautiful Imperfection is a sumptuous Dutch international co-production, and an adaptation of Arthur Japin's acclaimed novel In Lucia's Eyes. In it, we follow Casanova's first lover, a young Italian woman who covers her disfigured face behind a veil after having survived smallpox. Other book adaptations include Marco D' Amore's Caracas (based on Ermanno Rea's novel Napoli Ferrovia) and Thea Hvistendahl's Norwegian zombie drama Handling the Undead, reviewed here (based on John Ajvide Lindqvist's book of the same name). That last one is also part of the festival's zombie night, which also contains a zombie walk through Vlissingen.

That's not the only genre-related event at the festival: Film By The Sea features a midnight program, and there is a great selection of science fiction, horror and animation available. Playing this year among others are Strange Darling and Check out the festival's programme here and have a look at the festival trailer below.