Press release07.08.2004Calm may have reigned in Berlin
and Cannes this year, but the Danish film sector has continued to reap the
benefits of their promotion efforts at international festivals. With two
major tours of Danish cinema, in the USA early this year and in Shanghai
in June, award-winning films such as "Villa Paranoia" and "The Green
Butchers", and the success of "Aftermath" in Karlovy Vary in July, DFI
festival manager Lizette Gram is confident about the remainder of
2004.
Extract of international awards first half
2004
Paprika Steen's feature film debut "Aftermath", released in March, was
selected for competition at Karlovy Vary International Festival, where it
was honoured with the award for Best Actress (Karen-Lise Mynster in
her role as Annette).
Anders Thomas Jensen's second feature, "The Green Butchers" (2003),
with over a quarter million admissions, has enjoyed a prolonged festival
life, bringing home awards in February and March in Oporto and Brussels.
This led up to the top award for Europe's fantasy festivals, the Golden
Méliès, in Amsterdam in April. In June, the film was honoured with a
FIPRESCI Award (International Federation of Film Critics) at Sochi,
Russia.
Erik Clausen's March release of "Villa Paranoia", which has sold over
200,000 tickets in Danish cinemas, won a FIPRESCI Award in Taormina in
June and received a Critics' Award at Palic International Film Festival in
Montenegro in July.
Danish art-house films have also taken their share of festival
accolades: In Sofia in March, Christoffer Boe's Camera d'Or winner
"Reconstruction" (2003) was honoured with the Jury Grand Prix for Best
Film, while Lars Von Trier's "Dogville" (2003) received the Audience Award
for Most Popular Film. Lone Scherfig's "Wilbur Wants To Kill Himself"
(2002) was awarded Best Screenplay at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in
Aspen in March, and won the Grand Prix in Skip City, Japan, later in the
month; "Fear X" (2003), by Nicolas Winding Refn, was recipient of an award
for Best Screenplay in Oporto in February, while Nils Malmros' "Facing the
Truth" (2002) won two awards at the Mar del Plata International Film
Festival in Argentina: the Jury's Special Mention and a FIPRESCI
Award.
Per Fly's "Inheritance", which brought in the highest number of
admissions for Danish films released in 2003, was honoured with Best Actor
(Ulrich Thomsen) at the Nordic Film Festival in Rouen in March. At the
same festival Hans Fabian Wullenweber was awarded the Jury's Special Award
for his second feature "Gemini" (2003).
Much celebrated actor Ulrich Thomsen ("The Celebration") was also
awarded for his role in "Inheritance" at Mexico City's International
Festival of Modern Film, where the award for Best Female Director went to
Linda Wendel for "Baby" (2003).
Awards also went to two up-and-coming Danish directors, Annette K.
Olesen and Natasha Arthy, for their second feature films: Olesen's "In
Your Hands" (2004) received a Silver Dolphin, the Jury's Special Prize at
Festroia in Setúbal, and Arthy's "Old, New, Borrowed and Blue" was
honoured twice: at Mamers in France, where it received Best Feature Film
Award and at Faces of Love, Moscow, where it won the Silver Arrow for Best
Romantic Couple Award (Sidse Babett Knudsen and Björn Kjellman).
The popular children's feature "Someone Like Hodder" (2003), by Henrik
Ruben Genz, which has won top awards in Chicago, London, Poznan and Zlin,
received the Children's Jury 1st Prize at Würzburg in January, while the
youth film "Count to 100" (2004), by Linda Krogsøe Holmberg received Best
Film Award at BUFF International Children & Young People's Film
Festival in Malmø.
For further information
DFI Facts Sheets for the above titles
"Aftermath"www.dfi.dk/dfi/english/featurefilms/11055.htm"Baby"www.dfi.dk/dfi/english/featurefilms/10451.htm"Count
to 100" www.dfi.dk/dfi/english/featurefilms/588.htm"Dogville"
www.dfi.dk/dfi/english/featurefilms/10580.htm"Facing
the Truth" www.dfi.dk/dfi/english/featurefilms/facingthetruth.html"Fear
X" www.dfi.dk/dfi/english/featurefilms/894.htm"Gemini"
www.dfi.dk/dfi/english/featurefilms/10818.htm"The
Green Butchers" www.dfi.dk/dfi/english/featurefilms/13515.htm"In
Your Hands" www.dfi.dk/dfi/english/featurefilms/13907.htm"Inheritance"
www.dfi.dk/dfi/english/featurefilms/10338.htm"Old,
New, Borrowed and Blue" www.dfi.dk/dfi/english/featurefilms/10795.htm"Reconstruction"
www.dfi.dk/dfi/english/featurefilms/11020.htm"Someone
Like Hodder" www.dfi.dk/dfi/english/featurefilms/10136.htm"Villa
Paranoia" www.dfi.dk/dfi/english/featurefilms/10762.htm"Wilbur
Wants To Kill Himself" www.dfi.dk/dfi/english/featurefilms/wilbur.html
Danish Film Institute (DFI)Lizette Gram, +45 2482
3758, lizetteg@dfi.dk Vicki
Synnott, +45 3374 3438, +45 5054 5011, vickis@dfi.dk