In a statement to the Danish press agency Ritzau Henrik Bo Nielsen, CEO of the Danish Film Institute, calls Lars von Trier's statements at the press conference in Cannes yesterday "offensive" and "foolish".
"I am pleased that he has made an apology. And now it's up to von Trier to find his own way out of the predicament that he has put himself in," Henrik Bo Nielsen says to Ritzau.
Henrik Bo Nielsen emphasizes that Lars von Trier's remarks about nazism and the following controversy won't have any effect on DFI's future decisions on whether or not to grant support to films by von Trier, however grave the current situation may seem.
"It's my conviction that the film industry is populated by professionals who are quite capable of distinguishing between what a director says and the quality of his projects," Henrik Bo Nielsen adds.
"It is unfortunate that great cinema should drown in such controversy totally irrelevant to the film itself. But there's nothing new in the fact that great artists make stupid remarks," Henrik Bo Nielsen says to Ritzau.