Kate Voet is a Belgian film director and screenwriter from Brussels, having studied English literature and linguistics, theater studies and film directing at the University of Amsterdam, LUCA School of Arts in Brussels and The New School in New York City. With her film projects in development, she participated in several workshops and markets such as Torino Film Lab, the Venice Gap Financing Market and IDFA Doclab Forum.
After her short films Les Homards Immortels and The Tears of Things toured festivals around the world, she wrote and directed A Long Goodbye together with Victor Maes — an interactive VR film which lets you step into the shoes of Ida, a 72-year-old pianist living with dementia. A Long Goodbye had its world premiere in competition at the 82nd Venice Film Festival, where the film was awarded a prestigious lion (Venice Immersive Achievement Prize). A Long Goodbye went on to screen at Film Fest Gent, Thessaloniki Film Festival, IDFA, FIPADOC, Clermont Ferrand and SXSW, and will continue to travel around the world in 2026. She is now working on various projects in development, among which two fiction feature films.
Victor Maes graduated from LUCA School of Arts Brussels’ film program in 2015, and took courses in advanced cinematography at the Global Cinematography Institute in Los Angeles.
He’s been working as a camera assistant on feature films and commercials (Close, Girl, Holly, De Patrick, Nobody has to Know, The Wolf, the fox and the Leopard) since 2016. As a cinematographer he works on various film projects, alternating between fiction and documentary as well as commercials ones. ‘Ever since, I have been flying,’ the documentary by Swiss-Turkish filmmaker Aylin Gökmen which he shot, premiered at Locarno and Toronto in 2023.
Furthermore, he’s interested in exploring new technology, like VR and games, as well as revisiting analogue film. Originally he graduated as a director with a short animation film, which led to ‘A Long Goodbye’, the animated, interactive VR experience about Ida, an elderly pianist living with dementia, which he co-wrote and co-directed with Kate Voet. ‘A Long Goodbye’ premiered at the 82nd Venice Film Festival where it was awarded with a lion for the Venice Immersive Achievement Prize. So far the project has continued to travel to Film Fest Gent, Thessaloniki Film Festival, IDFA, Clermont Ferrand, FIPADOC and SXSW among other festivals, winning several more awards.
CAST Elizabeth Counsell, Richard Wells, Marlies Heuer, Derek de Lint
COMPOSER Joep Beving
CG SUPERVISOR Gael Chaize
ART DIRECTOR Daniel Balage
DIGITAL ART STUDIO Velvet Flare
LEAD DEVELOPER Frederik Smolders for Polygoat
SOUND DESIGNERS Niels van der Leest & Lars Tesselaar for Game Audio Squad
ADDITIONAL 2D ANIMATIONS Mathieu Jadin, Tom Lemmens, Pieter Vanluffelen
ADDITIONAL DESIGN & CODING Victor Maes
PRODUCERS An Oost, Emmy Oost
CO-PRODUCERS Donato Rotunno, Richard Valk
A CO-PRODUCTION BY Cassette for timescapes, Tarantula, Valk productions
SUPPORTED BY Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF), Film Fund Luxembourg, Netherlands Film Fund, Creative Europe MEDIA of the European Union, Tax Shelter of the Belgian Federal Government, written with the support of the New Media Fund of PICTANOVO with the support of the Hauts-de-France Region and the Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée, deAuteurs