Residents of Ostend and fans form a guard of honor for Arno

Every year, the Ostend Film Festival puts exceptional talent in the spotlight with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Actress Sien Eggers already received an award and the Dutch brothers Alex and Marc van Warmerdam are also still being awarded.

National Heritage

Sunday evening it was Arno Hintjens’ turn. The Ostend singer was the master of the very first edition of the film festival in 2007 and received the first star in the Walk of Fame on the Zeedijk. The singer has been making music for half a century and songs such as “O la la la c’est magnifique” and “Les yeux de ma mère” have since become national heritage.

Emotional moment

The city of Ostend had called on its residents and fans of Arno to form a guard of honor at Kinepolis Ostend for the tribute to the singer. A lot of people showed up there on Sunday afternoon. A crowd of fans gathered on the red carpet to receive Arno to the tunes of his music. Arno received his award in Kinepolis and that immediately caused an emotional moment. “Merci, Merci, no war, nous sommes quand même tous des Européen”, Arno said to loud applause from his fans. “And long live the mussels”, he still laughed. This was followed by a standing ovation from the entire hall. After the award ceremony, the short film La vie de Roger was shown, in which Arno played the leading role.