Why Flemish Docs Are Making a Splash at Canneseries

At Canneseries, fiction and non-fiction projects hail from all corners of the globe. And, as Flanders features a strong TV drama industry, so it is the case with non-fiction and documentary series. 

For more than three decades, Luc Gommers has been at the heart of Flanders’ major public broadcaster, VRT. After starting his journey first in the archives, then as a sport and news producer, he found his home at Canvas, VRT’s second main channel focusing on culture, in-depth news, arthouse films, occasionally sports, and non-fiction. 

As head of documentary and commissioning editor at VRT Canvas, Gommers buys, commissions, produces and co-produces standalone documentaries and documentary series alike. And in this process, he is a key figure in bringing singular Flemish proposals to the channel and beyond. 

Ahead of Cannesseries, where “The Deal with Iran” and “A Woman was Killed,” two VRT-backed documentary series will be presented to international audiences, Variety spoke with Gommers on the state of documentary in Flanders, and what it means to be a part of that ecosystem. 

Before we started, you mentioned that the primetime window on VRT Canvas is dedicated to non-fiction works, from Monday to Thursday.

Exactly, and that means that at VRT Canvas, we buy the best documentaries that are available on the market, but we also produce documentaries in-house at VRT Studios, and we commission both standalone projects and documentary series from external producers. Last but not least, as it’s also a big part of our work: we collaborate with auteurs and arthouse documentary filmmakers, and each year we have a significant amount of films coming from independent Flemish companies and producers, which are also backed by the Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF). They bring a whole range of projects and singular visions to the mix, and we’ve always maintained a strong connection with this type of documentary beyond TV production. 

This has been the way VRT Canvas has worked for a long time, as we were always keen on pushing the envelope on non-fiction and documentary projects. What has evolved is our focus and the kind of projects we showcase, depending on the times and what is happening in the world around us.

What is the state of documentary production in Flanders and beyond?

From our point of view, what we see is that the means used to make and produce documentaries are evolving as well with the times. Today, you can work very quickly and very efficiently with small means, a lighter setting, and that has also an impact on the topics you can tackle. 

For example, we recently commissioned the docu series “Basisschool Balder” (“Elementary School Balder” by directors Evy De Ceur, Ciska Snauwaert and Sarah D’Haeyer, produced by de chinezen) a particularly realistic and often poignant portrayal of running a Brussels school, and all the difficulties it implies. The trio spent months within the school, and thanks to modern-day technology, they were able to become almost invisible and craft these four episodes from such a unique point of view. 

On the other hand, we also continue to produce traditional documentary series, such as “En nu is ze dood” (“A Woman was Killed”, written by Nahid Shaikh, Phara de Aguirre, Sofie Hanegreefs and produced by De Mensen). But for these projects, we look for something that is beyond a simple take on the subject, or a classic true crime series. “A Woman was Killed” brings femicide center stage, in a very unique and striking way, and that’s what appealed to us.

Being part of Belgium, we also co-produce with the French-speaking public broadcaster RTBF [which shares the same building in Brussels] to bring to Belgian audiences topics of national interest through documentary form.

What are you looking for in 2026, when you select your projects? 

The key word is relevance. People think they may know a subject, but we are very interested in projects that shine another light on something that is “known” by the public, or approach a rather urgent theme but with a slightly different angle. What’s also important to us is impact. The projects we push forward must have appeal, and be able to capture our broad audience and make them care about a specific subject, theme or problem that’s rooted into our society. 

When we discuss with both internal and external partners or coproducers, we always look for the most effective ways to approach a topic. But the stories that work best on Canvas are the ones who make a problem understandable to our audience, without telling them how they should react, or think about this specific issue. We offer a theme, different ways to look at it, and push the envelope on a topic we think is relevant today. 

This year, VRT has two documentary series in the Canneseries line-up, which are “Deal with Iran” and “A Woman was Killed” How did you board those two projects? 

“A Woman was Killed” was pitched by our own journalist Phara de Aguirre, who lost her niece to a femicide. Her connection with the theme, along with the one Nahid Shaikh had in yet another way, made them really able to approach the subject with a unique perspective, along with having the trust of victims’ families. 

“The Deal with Iran”, on the other hand, comes from Diplodokus, a small indie production house, and what appealed to us was the way it depicted the Olivier Vandecasteele affair without having him appear at all in the series. Instead, it shifted the focus on how Belgium dealt with Iran, and the controversy around this deal. Diplodokus and their team managed to tell this story in a very gripping way, beyond simple news and diving very deep into the topic.

 Your two Canneseries selected projects have aired on VRT Canvas, but they’re also available on your streaming platform VRT MAX. How does your audience consume your content today? 

Linear TV still plays a big role for documentaries on our network, but we see that the younger the audience, the more likely they are to watch out content online. Yet to make the shows known to both the press and the public, linear TV is still a key aspect of our promotion. 

After so many years in this industry, how do you feel about documentary as a medium?

With these projects, and the many more that came before, such as “Godvergeten” [a 2023 Belgian four-part documentary series that explored decades of sexual abuse by Catholic priests and clergy in Flanders, told through the testimonies of survivors and their families], I feel like documentary is more relevant than ever. As a public broadcaster, and in these times riddled by fake news and AI-generated content, it’s part of our mission to push forward documentaries that show our audience what the world truly is, and paint the truest picture of our times. It’s something that documentaries can do, that goes beyond news, and that creates trust with our viewers as well.