Gilles Coulier

Coulier studied Audiovisual Arts at the Sint-Lukas Brussels University College of Art and Design. His short film ‘Iceland’ was selected for the 2010 Cannes Film Festival in the Cinefondation section, and won the ‘Flemish Film Fund’ Wildcard in 2010 for Best Fiction Short and the Sabam Prize for Best Belgian Short at the FIFIB Brussels. ‘Paroles’, his other short, was nominated for several International Film Festivals and was the Jury Prize Winner at the International Short Film Festival of Leuven in 2010, and his professional short ‘Mont Blanc’ was selected for the 2013 Cannes Film Festival in the Official Short Film Competition.

He joined the writers room of Bevergem (The Natives) in 2012 with Bart Vanneste, Wannes Cappelle and Dries Heyneman and directed the series in 2014. In 2015, Gilles co-wrote and directed his first feature film, ‘Cargo’ with an international premiere at the San Sebastian Film Festival and a national premiere at The Ostend Film Festival. Cargo was nominated for over 20 festivals with highlights at the BFI London Film Festival, Göteborg Film Festival and the prize for ‘Best Screenplay’ at the Thessaloniki Film Festival. In 2017 Cargo was nominated for Les Magrittes du Cinema for Best Flemish Film.

In 2018 the series ‘De Dag’ (‘The Day’) aired. Coulier directed 8 out of 12 episodes, written by Jonas Geirnaert and Julie Mahieu. De Dag was sold to over 32 countries and claimed to be ‘The best Belgian TV-serie’. De Dag won several festivals, such as Best European Series on Festival de La Fiction Télé La Rochelle.

In 2018 Gilles Coulier was awarded the Jo Röpke Award and the prestigious Cultural Award of the Royal University of Leuven for his work.