Since Copenhagen Film Fund was established in 2013 the fund has worked on bringing an international film production to Copenhagen. Their efforts seem to have finally paid off as the Oscar-winning director Tom Hooper will be shooting his feature film "The Danish Girl," about one of the world's first known gender reassignment surgeries, in the Danish capital later this month.
Inspired by true events
"The Danish Girl" is a love story inspired by the lives of artists Einar and Gerda Wegener. Their marriage and work is put to the test when Einar begins his journey towards becoming one of the world's first transgender women. The story of Lili Elbe's transformation is based on David Ebershoff's novel "The Danish Girl."
The film is directed by Oscar- and BAFTA-awarded director Tom Hooper, who is also the man behind "Les Misérables" and "The King's Speech." The latter won four Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor and a total of seven BAFTAs including Best Film and Leading Actor.
The two leading roles are played by British actor Eddie Redmayne, who recently won an Oscar for his performance as astrophysicist Stephen Hawking in "The Theory of Everything," and Swedish actress Alicia Vikander, known for "A Royal Affair" and "Anna Karenina." Furthermore, the cast consists of Matthias Schoenaerts ("The Drop"), Ben Whishaw ("Skyfall"), and Amber Heard ("The Rum Diary").
The production is currently shooting in England and will be moving to Copenhagen at the end of March for a ten-day shoot.
Financed by Copenhagen Film Fund
Copenhagen Film Fund has supported the production with DKK 6m (EUR 0.81m). Thomas Gammeltoft, CEO of Copenhagen Film Fund, states:
"'The Danish Girl' is an amazing film project, and the fund is very happy that the movie is now being partly shot on location in inner Copenhagen where Einar Wegener lived. Ever since Copenhagen Film Fund was established, we have worked very hard to bring an international production to Copenhagen. And since we established the fund, and even long before, we have talked about 'The Danish Girl.'"
About Copenhagen Film Fund
Copenhagen Film Fund (CPHFF) was established in 2013 by The Producers' Guild and is a collaboration between a number of counties in Copenhagen, Region Hovedstaden and various players from the Danish movie industry. The purpose of the fund is to strengthen the position of the capital as an attractive city for film and TV production and thus create growth in the film industry. The fund has a budget of DKK 35m going through 2015.
So far CPHFF has invested in productions such as "Barnaby" episode no. 100, "The Team" (currently shown on Danish television), "The Bridge III" and "Wallander" (both in production.)
See more at cphfilmfund.com/en