Danish Cinema / Cultural Impact

Film series, seminars and informal director meetings are some of the initiatives being launched at European film festivals in 2012 to bring Europeans closer to Danish films and their creators.

The initiatives take place at major film festivals such as the ones in Berlin, Gothenburg and Thessaloniki. But also in new EU member states like Romania which boasts one of the most dynamic festivals in Eastern Europe, in the scenic countryside of Transylvania, festival audiences are invited to see world premieres of Danish films and to meet with the filmmakers.

Read more about Danish films at European festivals at www.dfi.dk/eu2012

A special Blu-ray edition of twenty films is available through Danish diplomatic missions for local film communities to arrange screenings of films, both films from recent years and a handful of classics.

The films have been selected by the Danish Film Institute and comprise four series in the following categories: feature films, documentaries, children's films and classics:

/ Feature films
1. Antichrist (Lars von Trier, 2009)
2. A Family (Pernille Fischer Christensen, 2010)
3. Submarino (Thomas Vinterberg, 2010)
4. Valhalla Rising (Nicolas Winding Refn, 2010)
5. In a Better World (Susanne Bier, 2010)
 
/ Documentaries
1. Into Eternity (Michael Madsen, 2009)
2. Out of Love (Birgitte Stærmose, 2009)
3. Armadillo (Janus Metz, 2010)
4. The Good Life (Eva Mulvad, 2010)
5. The President (Christoffer Guldbrandsen, 2011)
 
/ Films for children
1. We Shall Overcome (Niels Arden Oplev, 2006)
2. The Substitute (Ole Bornedal, 2007)
3. Fighter (Natasha Arthy, 2007)
4. Karla and Jonas (Charlotte Sachs Bostrup, 2010)
5. The Great Bear (Esben Toft Jacobsen, 2011)
 
/ Classics
1. Hunger (Henning Carlsen, 1966)
2. A Sunday in Hell (Jørgen Leth, 1977)
3. Babette's Feast (Gabriel Axel, 1987)
4. Waltzing Regitze (Kaspar Rostrup, 1989)
5. Europa (Lars von Trier, 1991)

Read more about the twenty highlights on Blu-ray at www.dfi.dk/eu2012

Several hundred Belgian school children are to be invited to make their own film when FILM-Y, the Danish Film Institute's mobile film studio, lands in the Bozar art centre in Brussels in February 2012.

Here the children are invited to explore the creative and technical processes of film-making. A green Morris Minor equipped with a back projection is the main prop in a car chase story that they act in, direct, shoot and edit. A visit to FILM-Y is a unique hands-on experience that gives the children an understanding of the medium from within.

Read more on FILM-Y at www.dfi.dk/eu2012

Denmark's two leading festivals, CPH PIX and CPH:DOX, are hosting talent meetings in spring 2012. Danish film is not an island. A lively exchange across national borders already exists and will intensify during the Danish EU Presidency.

The Copenhagen film festival CPH PIX, running 12-29 April, is inviting 20 European film talents to meetings with their Danish colleagues and other industry professionals. The purpose is to nurture dialogue and to strengthen the European film networks.

The talent meetings organized by CPH:DOX, which will also take place in Denmark, focus on new creative forms of collaboration. In a special edition of the festival's cross-cultural workshop DOX:LAB, six European directors will meet and, in pairs, develop a film project.

Read more about the European talent meetings at www.dfi.dk/eu2012