In 1975, when they began their career in video, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne created Dérives, an organisation to help them produce their documentaries.
In 1977, Dérives was recognised as a Belgian French Community cinematographic and videographic workshop and very quickly began to produce documentaries by other filmmakers. Dérives was also to become the organisation that produced the first works of fiction by the Dardennes (one short film and two feature length).
In 1994, with the aim of separating their “documentaries” and “fictional work” and at the time that they had just started making their third feature film, « La Promesse », the Dardenne brothers founded the society Les Film du Fleuve. The objective of this production house was not only to finance their own fictional work, but also to collaborate with foreign producers and directors on artistically ambitious projects.
In 1999, following the magnificent success of « Rosetta» all over the world, Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne decided to add a new dimension to their activities as producers by increasing their team and setting new objectives.
Today, Les Films du Fleuve is well established on the cinematographic landscape, thanks to not only the films by the Dardenne Brothers but also the quality of projects and directors supported – Teodora Ana Mihai, Jacques Audiard, Mohamed Ben Attia, Farid Bentoumi, Nabil Ben Yadir, Mahmoud Ben Mahmoud, Stijn Coninx, Stéphane Demoustier, Stéphanie Di Giusto, Eugène Green, Cédric Khan, Ken Loach, Ursula Meier, Cristian Mungiu, Pierre Schoeller, Amélie Van Elmbt, Rebecca Zlotowski, …