Bouli Lanners
Philippe "Bouli" Lanners (born 1965) is a Belgian filmmaker, actor, and painter whose road-movie sensibility has made him a familiar figure in francophone cinema. Born in Moresnet-Chapelle and a one-year student at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Liège, he painted and took odd jobs through his twenties before breaking through as a performer on the sketch-comedy series Les Snuls in 1989. His feature debut as director, Eldorado (2008) — a road movie pairing a car dealer with the addict who burglarises his house — was selected for the Cannes Directors' Fortnight and won the Europa Cinemas Label. The Giants (2011) won five Magritte Awards including Best Film and Best Director. He shot Nobody Has to Know (2021) on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland, casting himself as a Belgian farmhand left with amnesia after a stroke.