But festival programmers have also taken the more adventurous step of selecting Alex Stockman's Pulsar for the outdoor screen. This low-key Flemish film about a man (Matthias Schoenaerts) giving way to paranoia in downtown Brussels might seem an odd choice, but its themes of crossed wires and internet intrusion will resonate with the babel of voices around the square, to say nothing of the pulsing stars above. Weather permitting, of course.

Stockman himself is chair of the short film jury. This competition for Belgian shorts is where the other Flemish films can be seen, including Wannes Destoop’s Badpakje 46 and Pieter Dirkx’s Bento Monogatari, both selected this year for the Cannes Film Festival.

Eleven feature films compete in the festival’s main competition, which used to be limited to first and second films but was opened up in 2010 to accommodate more mature work. This wider scope means the inclusion this year of films by veteran directors such as Agustí Villaronga, whose Pa negre (Black Bread) is a tale of evil lingering on after the Spanish civil war. The film proved a favourite in this year’s Goya awards, Spain’s equivalent of the Oscars.

Most of the entries have been at other European film festivals before Brussels, and good things have been said of Una Vita tranquilla (A Quiet Life), directed by Claudio Cupellini. It tells the story of a former Neapolitan gangster whose past comes back to haunt him after a decade living under a new identity in Germany.

There’s also a buzz around Happy Happy by Anne Sewitsky, a Norwegian comedy with a joyful taste for bad behaviour, and Alexander Mindadze’s Innocent Saturday, set in the wake of the Chernobyl disaster.

For something in English, choose Irish film Parked, which stars Colm Meaney as a man who beats rising rents by living in his car. Out of competition there’s also Late Bloomers by Julie Gavras, staring Isabella Rossellini and William Hurt as a couple trying to come to terms with approaching old age (pictured).

Most of the programme is European, but there are also some independent US films thanks to a tie-in with the Sundance Channel. The best is Nights and Weekends, the story of a long-distance relationship from mumblecore darlings Greta Gerwig and Joe Swanberg.

For the first time the festival will screen some of its films at Bozar as well as Flagey. It’s also at Bozar that the main musical event takes place, a concert by moody British band Tindersticks of music written for films by the French director Claire Denis.

22-29 June
Flagey and Bozar
Brussels

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Subtitles vary, check programme listings