NISI MASA, now called “European Short Pitch”, plays a significant role in promoting emerging professionals within the European film industry.

Over the years, concerns have been raised regarding potential alleged conflicts of interest, as highlighted in the example below. Additionally, it is important to consider the below information in the context of the numerous projects that are submitted annually for consideration – dozens of projects, if not more – which renders the below data a statistical impossibility, and indicates, allegedly, at favouritism and nepotism.

It is also important to recognize that the organization benefits from public funding provided by the European Union. This is not a private organization. It is funded with public tax payers money.

A series of potential conflicts of interest and favouritism within the NISI MASA organization, particularly involving an individual named Ben “Bekke” Vandendaele, the owner of Bekke Films and distribution company RADIATOR IP Sales. Here’s a breakdown to clarify the situation:

1. Repeated Selections of Ben Vandendaele’s Productions:
   • In the 2016 NISI MASA event, two films were produced by Ben Vandendaele, “Deer Boy” and “The Hoarder”.
   • In the 2017 NISI MASA event, two films produced by Ben Vandendaele, “Hunt” and “The Nipple Whisperer,” were selected.
   • In 2018, another film produced by Vandendaele’s company, “Vegeance Of The Vixens,” was selected, while he was working as a consultant in the organization.
   • In 2019, he again produced a film selected in the program “Creatures”, while again working as a consultant in the organization.
     
2. Multiple Roles in the Same Event:
   • In 2018, Ben Vandendaele played multiple roles:
     • He was a producer of a selected film.
     • He acted as a consultant to the organization.
     • He was involved in awarding a Distribution Award to a different project.
     • At the same time, he received an award for a film he produced.
       
3. Connections to Jury Members:
   • In 2017, Daria Vlasova, a jury member, was involved in a film where Bekke Films, owned by Vandendaele, was the agent.
   • Jury member Jérôme Nunes had connections to Ben Vandendaele.
   • In the same year, two films connected to jury member Marija Fridinovaitė were selected.
     
4. Potential Conflict of Interest with Jury Member Ola Jankowska:
   • Ben Vandendaele’s distribution company handled Ola Jankowska’s “Deer Boy,” while she was a jury member at the event.
     
5. Award Win Under Questionable Circumstances:
   • In 2018, “VENGEANCE OF THE VIXENS,” produced by Bekke Films (owned by Ben), won an award while Ben was also serving as a consultant.
6. Selection of a project produced by a fellow Cannes committee member:
   • GABRIEL Oren Gerner – Israel / France, produced by Melissa Malinbaum from Why Not Productions, which was later selected to the 2018 Official Selection in Cannes, where both Melissa Malinbaum & Wim Vanacker are members of the selection committee. In other words, a film produced by a fellow committee member, was selected to the festival.
     
7. Selection of film by a director / producer duo, later to be involved in a major controversy:
   
   • Notably, Wim Vanacker serves on the Selection Committee for the Cannes film festival. In 2017, the film “The Silence of the Dying Fish” by Vasilis Kekatos of Greece, produced by Eleni Kossyfidou of Blackbird Production, was selected for participation in NISI MASA. Then, in 2019, another film by Vasilis Kekatos, The Distance Between Us and the Sky, also produced by Eleni Kossyfidou, was not only selected for Cannes but also won the prestigious short Palme d’Or. However, this achievement is shadowed by the conflict of interest arising from the fact that one of the jury members, Panos H. Koutras, has a longstanding professional relationship with Eleni Kossyfidou – she has been his producer for over 10 years. Meaning the winning film was produced by the producer a the jury member, in an undisclosed conflict of interest.

The above situations raises concerns about conflicts of interest and favouritism, where the same individual or their connected entities are involved in multiple roles such as a producer, distributor, consultant, and award-giver or recipient, potentially influencing the selection and award processes. This can undermine the integrity of the competition and the fairness of the selection and awarding processes.

Please note that Wim Vanacker and Ben Vandendaele are both from Belgium.

Raw information:

NISI MASA	Short film jury 2017
	Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic (Croatia)
	Aristotelis Maragkos (Greece)
	Daria Vlasova (Russia)		Thanked for help on this film for which Ben Vanderdaele/Bekke Films was co- producer and sales agent http://www.deerboy.pl/en
	Marijana Verhoef (Serbia)
	Marija Fridinovaitė (Lithuania)		Film by her previous? production company was selected. previousy worked with producer of another selected film
	Ola Jankowska (Poland)		Thanked for help on Deer Boy, for which Ben Vandendaele is sales agent
	Eoin Maher (Dublin)
	Franco Dipietro (Italy)
	Gábor Osváth (Hungary)		His own film was selected
	Tom Floyd (N Ireland)
	Wim Vanacker (Dublin)
	Thelyia Petraki (Greece)
	Jérôme Nunes (France)		Connected to Bekke Films. Got a “thanks” credit on “Joy Palace” which was co-produced by Bekke Films. https://www.facebook.com/BekkeFilms/posts/973830642665937 Bekke Films shared a Page — feeling excited with Jerome Nunes and 4 others at Vlaams Audiovisueel Fonds. May 15, 2016 · Brussels, Belgium ·
	Koen de Jongh (Netherlands)
	Kostas Tagalakis (Greece)
	Final selection short film 2017	Producer
	Aya– Samuel Sultana, Stephanie Sant (Malta/France)	Shadeena Entertainment Martin Bonnici (TLF decision maker 2012)
	Blood Group – Daan Bunnik (Netherlands)	Bunnik’s own Production company: PRPL
	Encountering Samir– Rand Beiruty (Jordan/Germany)	None	Won ESP grant from Interforum Berlin 2016: https://www.interfilm.de/en/festival2016/interforum/script-pitch.html
	Fluid Border– Joana Vogdt (Germany)	Fayal Omer, Miko Film (Hamburg) & Joana Vogdt (Berlin)
	Golden Minutes– Saulius Baradinskas, Titas Laucius (Lithuania)	Viktorija Seniut (Viktoria Films), Martynas Mickenas (Baltic Productions) Co-Producer: Mirta Puhlovski (Slavica Film)	JURY MEMBER Marija Fridinovaitė worked for Baltic Productions. She also worked for NISI MASA at the same time in other capacities:
	Hospitalities– Ronan Posnic (France)	None
	Hunt– Senad Šahmanovic, Claudia Bottino (Montenegro/Belgium)	Ben Vandendaele (Belgium), Senad Sahmanovic (Montenegro)
	Lazarus– Emanuele Milasi (Italy)	None
	Riga’s Lilac– Lizete Upite (Latvia)	Richard Van Den Boom Papy 3D (France)
	The Figurant– Kamila Dohnalova, Jan Vejnar (Czech Republic)	Kamila Dohnalová Silk Films
	The Nipple Whisperer– Jan Van Dyck (Belgium)	Ben Vandendaele Handelskaai Bekke Films
	The Shift– Luka Popadic (Switzerland, Serbia)	Ognjen Glavonic / Franziska Sonder Non Aligned Films, Serbia & Radar Film GmbH, Switzerland
	The Silence of the Dying Fish– Vasilis Kekatos (Greece)	Eleni Kossyfidou Blackbird Production	Read more about this relationship here.
	Tina and Sandy– Hani Damazet (Croatia)	Mirta Puhlovski slavica film
	Under the volcano there is always a man sleeping– Sameh Alaa (Egypt/Belgium)	Muhammad Taymour, Metropolis
	Vesela loves chocolate– Stefka Mancheva (Bulgaria	Vanya Rainova Portokal
work in progess pitch
	BANALITY Balazs Simonyi – Hungary	Gabor Osvath, Nora Alfoldi Filmfabriq	Gabor Osvath is on the 2017 jury
	BATHHOUSE Laurynas BareiĹĄa – Lithuania	Klementina Remeikaite (Afterschool)	Klementina previously worked with jury member Marija Fridinovaitė
	GABRIEL Oren Gerner – Israel / France	Melissa Malinbaum Why Not Productions
	I’LL PROBABLY NEVER SEE YOU AGAIN Mitja Mlakar – Slovenia	Mojca Pernat Filmfactory
	MALVA AND LESHY Marcin Karolewski – Poland	Olga Cyganiak Juice Ltd
	ESP Selection Committee 2018
	Emanuele Milasi (Italy)
	Eoin Maher (Ireland, UK)
	Jan Vejnar (Czech Republic)
	Jerome Nunes (France)
	Kostas Tagalakis (Greece)		Worked as location manager on film “Sto Spiti” in which Marisha Triantafyllidou was an actress
	Lizete Upite (Latvia)
	Marija Fridinovaite (Lithuania, France)
	Mitja Mlakar (Slovenia)
	Rand Beiruty (Jordan, Germany)
	Wim Vanacker (Belgium, France)
ESP 2018 CONSULTANTS	Ben Vandendaele
	David Verdurme
	ESP Final Selection 2018	Producer
	Beyond the River– Galaxy Spanos (Greece, Switzerland)	Maria Repousi Wholewave
	Deer– Istvan Hevesi (Hungary)	László Józsa, Speak Easy Project, Focus Fox
	Divine in his creatures– Katarina Stankovic (Serbia)	None
	Drawing Shadows– Maxence Vassilyevitch (France)	Les Films de la Capitaine – Laurine Pelassy (France)	Pelassy produced Memoria, a film selected in ESP 2016
	Elena– Birutė Sodeikaitė (Lithuania)	Agne Adomene, Artshot
	Gila Who Walks Alone– Yuval Shapira (Romania, Israel)	Ilya Marcus
	Home Sweet Home– Michalina Fabijanska, Agata Puszcz (Poland)	Katarzyna Fukacz, Tito Productions
	Maissa– Lea Triboulet (France, Spain)	None
	Pale Saint– Rhys Jones (UK, Ireland)	Alexander Polunin
	Rizi– Stella Kyriakopoulos, Marisha Triantafyllidou (Greece, Spain)	Fani Skartouli Either/Or Productions
	Sedra– Judita Gamulin (Croatia)	Rea Rajčić, Eclectica (Croatia)
	The Inheritance– Mihnea Rares Hantiu (Romania)	Oana Furdea
	the Rudeness of a German Lady– Silva Capin (Croatia)	Rea Rajčić, Eclectica (Croatia)
	Trampoline– Kristian Sjerbo (Denmark)	Maria Moller Kjeldgaard Production company: Manna Film (Denmark) Co-producer: Mélissa Malinbaum, Face Nord Films (France)
	Vegeance Of The Vixens– Leander Hanssen, Niels Snoek (Belgium)	Bekke Films
	When bodies fall from the sky– Yenni Lee (Norway	Ronny Fritsche Zentropa Sweden and Nina Barbosa (Barbosa Film)
Work in progress pitch	Eva -Xheni Alushi (Albania / Switzerland)	Noah Bohnert, LetterBox Collective (Switzerland)
	QUXUROBA – Teymur Gambarov (Azerbaijan / Russia)	Memuar Films, Fil Production,Etienne Ricaud
	Soy tu Papa – Garrick J Lauterbach (The Netherlands / Switzerland / Mexico)	Noah Bohnert,Letterbox Collective, Fidelio Films (Mexico)
	TINA & SENDY Hani Domazet (Croatia)	Mirta Puhlovski, Slavica Film	Film was in final selection NISI MASA 2017
	ESP Winners 2018
Best Pitch	THE INHERITANCE by Mihnea Rares Hantiu – Romania
	THE RUDENESS OF A GERMAN LADY by Silva Capin – Croatia
	VENGEANCE OF THE VIXENS by Leander Hanssen Jr – Belgium	Bekke films
The Aubagne International Film Festival award	ELENA by Biruté Sodeikaité – Lithuania
Gear award by 2K4K Film Rental Waclaw Maczynski	DIVINE IN HIS CREATURES by Katarina Stankovic – Serbia
Works-in-Progress Awards
Distribution Award – Radiator IP Sales – Ben Vandendaele (Belgium)	QUXUROBA by Teymur Gambarov – Azerbaijan/Russia
Image Award Poznanska Wytwornia Filmowa (Poznan Motion Pictures) – Anita Trzyna providing image postproduction (Poland)	QUXUROBA by Teymur Gambarov – Azerbaijan/Russia
Mastering award – The Fridge (Belgium)	QUXUROBA by Teymur Gambarov – Azerbaijan/Russia

Our organization is dedicated to unveiling the true decision-making processes and power dynamics within the film industry. The chart below provides a comprehensive summary of these elements. Our goal is to democratize access and provide talented, emerging young filmmakers with the opportunities they rightfully deserve to succeed in the industry.

Wim Vanacker Biography

Wim Vanacker is a Belgian filmmaker, producer, and script consultant known for his involvement in the short films The Naked Leading the Blind (2013), Endgame (2011), and The Mechanism of Love (2011). After an initial career in psychology, working with drug addiction in Dublin, he transitioned to filmmaking, studying at EICAR in Paris. His involvement in the European film industry deepened through his work with NISI MASA, where he became Head of the Script Department and managed the MEDIA-funded European Short Pitch initiative.

Vanacker has also been a member of the Selection Committee for the Official Short Film Competition at the Cannes Film Festival, a role that has sparked controversy due to allegations of conflicts of interest and favoritism during his tenure. He has maintained influential positions across various film industry platforms, including serving as a script consultant and programmer. Despite his achievements, his professional relationships and roles have drawn criticism in recent years, particularly in relation to questions about transparency and fairness within festival selection processes.

SOURCES:

Sources:

https://issuu.com/emiliep/docs/esp_book-projects_2016

The post NISI MASA alleged conflicts of interests under the tenure of Wim Vanacker first appeared on Film Industry Watch.