Danes gain on neighbors
Von Trier helped kick off slew of homegrown titles
For years, Danish pics languished at home and abroad until filmmaker Lars von Trier, his company Zentropa and the Dogma movement he pioneered kicked off the recent wave of talent. Along came a whole generation of filmmakers who made a name internationally -- Thomas Vinterberg, Lone Scherfig, Susanne Bier, Anders Thomas Jensen and Per Fly, to name a few. But that's only part of the story.
Homegrown Danish box office successes like "Dancer in the Dark," "Italian for Beginners" and "The Celebration" traveled the world, reaching between 2.5 million and 4.5 million admissions outside Denmark. According to Copenhagen-based Trust Film Sales, Danish film has its strongest foothold in Europe, with Benelux, Germany and Hungary being the busiest markets today.
Last year, Danish pics boasted a record 33% market share in the home market, a figure that only France can compete with in Europe. Current local box office hits, like Jensen's "Adam's Apples," Claus Bjerre's comedy "Father of Four," Jonas Elmer's comedy "Nynne" and Fly's award-winning drama "Manslaughter," have sold between 350,000 and 500,000 tickets to date, out of Denmark's 5.4 million inhabitants.
Several factors have contributed to the Danish success story:
- In a region where state financing of local pics is essential, Denmark's government has given high priority to the film sector. Danish features with state subsidies received an average $1 million of government cash last year, while the same figure in Sweden was $350,000.
- von Trier's impact continues: Although his latest film "Manderlay" hasn't been a major success in any of the more than 50 territories it has been sold to, von Trier is still paving the way for the new generation of Danes, not least by inspiring and/or provoking everyone in the business.
- The National Film School of Denmark is another factor driving local filmmaking. Danish Per Nielsen, former feature film consultant in both Denmark and Sweden, says the cooperation between the film school, Danish television and the Danish Film Institute has been significant in the past decade, giving students the opportunity to make subsidized TV dramas and short films.
Former film students tend to keep in touch and get involved in each other's projects. In fact, Danes see film as a collective art form, while Swedish filmmakers mostly keep to themselves.
Says Anna Anthony, producer of Swedish Memfis Film: "I'm generalizing now, but I think Danes have more self-confidence than other Scandinavians. While Swedes excuse themselves, Danes speak loudly of their projects before even starting."
Nielsen agrees, saying that "there is more hubris in Denmark."
Perhaps self-confidence was what the Danes really introduced when they brashly presented the Dogma manifesto at Cannes in 1998.
Says Peter Aalbaek Jensen, CEO of Zentropa Prods. and a major player behind the rise of Danish films: "We have no oil, like Norway does. We have no natural resources whatsoever in Denmark. So we had to be innovative. We had to go for the film business."
In the past decade, film has proved to be a lucrative business for Aalbaek Jensen and his Danish colleagues, particularly at home. By Scandinavian standards, Denmark shows impressive results on the international market too.
Local success "Adam's Apples" has been sold by Nordisk Film Sales to some 15 countries so far, including Germany, Brazil and Thailand.
With a vibrant current production climate, Danes are still waiting to break out of the arthouse ghetto. The chance could come with several upbeat pics in the hopper, such as debutant Pernille Fischer Christensen's love story "A Soap," screening in competition in Berlin, von Trier's Danish-language comedy "The Boss of It All" and Scherfig's comedy-drama "Erik Nietzsche -- the Early Years."
