Belgian Project "6TM" Wins Ji.hlava's New Visions Award

Karim Akalay's project "6TM" has won the New Visions Award for the most promising European project at the Ji.hlava Documentary Film Festival, in the Czech Republic. The prize carries a cash award of 7,000 US dollars for the winner, according to the festival's industry awards page.

The award was one of 13 winners named at the Ji.hlava Industry Awards 2026, as Modern Times Review reported at the end of October. The festival was marking its 30th edition. The New Visions prize is aimed at projects still in development, the stage where a film exists as a script, a pitch and a plan rather than footage.

The film is set during a scorching summer at Cité Modèle, the largest housing estate in Brussels. Akalay told Variety that he was born on the estate, and the film's title is a bit of wordplay. In French, "6T" sounds like "cité," the word for housing estate, and the "m" stands for "modèle."

The project is described as a Belgian family comedy in three chapters, rooted in magic realism and the resilience of a community. It follows three stories that run into one another within a single family. Two kids chase a magic key to stop their friend, who uses a wheelchair, from being pushed out when the lifts break down. A teenage girl gathers a team of misfits for a football tournament. A mother rallies her neighbours to find out who stole the rain.

"6TM" is still in development. Filming is planned for July 2027. It is produced by Walid Bekhti and Hanoulia Salamé for Centre Vidéo de Bruxelles. Post-production support came from UPP and Soundsquare, the festival's industry partners for the award.

Awards like this one are a early stop on a long road. Development prizes give a project money, attention and a list of people to call, and the next step is usually a financing round, a co-producer, or a sales agent who takes the film to buyers at festivals such as Berlin's European Film Market. Nothing about a July 2027 shoot is fixed until the money is in place.

For Brussels, the news is simple to read. A story set on one of the city's best-known housing estates, told by a man who grew up there, has now been recognised by a major documentary festival in Central Europe. The next thing to watch is the financing.