The Ensor Awards The festival was founded in 2007 and in 2010 organized the first Flemish Film Awards. In 2012, the awards were renamed the
Ensor Awards. These awards were given out by an annually changing jury at the festival up until 2017. In 2018, the Ostend Film Festival spun off the Ensors as a separate organization. It now has over 2000 voting members in the Flemish film industry and votes for the Ensor awards each year, operating similar to the 'academy' of the Oscars in the United States the COOP!-competition, to award Belgium-Netherlands co-productions, and the SOON!-competition, to recognize new directors first or second films. The is also an audience award voted on by attendees. The festival also has a short film competition and the Belgian Film Critics Association (UFK) present their UFK Press Awards at the festival. ==References==