When announcing your appointment as CEO last December, the board of the DFI said you got the job because of your experience with the funding system and your clear vision for the development of Danish cinema. What is your vision?

Claus Ladegaard: I would say that there are three main issues that need to be tackled.

  • Firstly, we need to increase the cultural impact of Danish cinema. Danish films should address issues that are relevant to the audience, engage the audience with stories that are important to them. 
  • Secondly in the years to come, we should try to adapt to the digital transformation that is taking place, by supporting the development of the whole business from certain formats and ways to tell stories to new formats and ways to tell stories. It’s quite simple to say but difficult to do because it takes guts to abandon old models and invent new ones.
  • Thirdly we need to improve diversity in terms of gender, ethnicity, social and geographical background. This agenda has been coming from different parts of society and in a way, we were too late to take it seriously. We’ve discussed from an equality point of view, not from a quality point of view. We have to expand the whole idea and say that the reason why we need more women, more different social and ethnic backgrounds, is because we want to increase the quality of the films, and we have to figure out how.

The budget for film in Denmark remains basically the same for the next 5 years (DKK560m or €75m) but the bar has been raised by the government who wants Danish films to have bigger ambitions both commercially (29% market share) and artistically (8-10 features/10-12 documentaries at major festivals a year). Can this be achieved and how?
CL: We had asked for more funding as Danish films are currently under-financed, but we didn’t get it. It’s a pity, but we will work with what we have, and make our utmost to achieve the goals. These are ambitious goals, but not new goals. We’ve always tried to target the biggest festivals in the world and a high market share for Danish films.

I think we are in a transition period when it comes to feature film in Denmark. A new generation of directors is emerging, with the likes of Gustav Møller, Christian Tafdrup, who will make a difference at the box office in the coming years. We are on the right track. But right now, to achieve a 29% market share, we have to clearly differentiate our funding and increase our individual support to big budget films. This means that we will have to sharpen our views on applications, and increase the discussions with producers on how to reach the audience.

Are you saying that it wasn’t done enough in the past?
CL: We had the tendency to fund films with more or less the same amount, therefore creating way too many films with the same budget-around €2.5m-€3m. What we’ve improved in the last few years is help to create quality low budget films. We have to keep those, try to fast track the green-lighting of second films from talented emerging directing, re-evaluate the number of mid-budget films, and increase the number of big budget films. In parallel, to improve the market share of Danish films, we will increase our development funding. Writers should also be looked over, as creative keepers of feature films.

Still, it will be a real challenge to reach all the new goals without more funding…
CL: Definitely, but the advantage of the new Agreement is that we have a greater flexibility on how we spend our money. This is very important. In the previous Agreement, we were locked in a system where we had to use a certain amount of money for a certain amount of films in a certain way, across our schemes. This meant that we had an imbalance with too many good projects in one scheme, and not enough in another one, without the ability to shift the funding.

There is the risk of creating formula films, when you try to create commercial films…
CL: Of course, but when you look at the Department Q film series, these are audience-driven high-quality films. We will continue to fund film series like these, that have cultural value, and at the same time, identify quality films that have high artistic value.

I guess defining the target audiences and how to reach them will be even more of a priority for the DFI, and the Agreement also stipulates that you have to support greater promotional innovation and engagement with the audience…
CL: Together with the industry, we are in the middle of discussing audience, positioning and marketing of a film at a much earlier stage (during development and production). Film marketing is traditionally product-oriented, one-way communication, with the creation of tag lines, posters, trailers etc. In the future, two-way communication, engaging with the audience via social media and digital tools, will be as important to create awareness.

You’ve been lobbying for a greater flexibility across platforms. You must be pleased that more fragile films are now allowed to go faster on digital platforms…
CL: Yes, it’s essential today to have a more flexible windowing structure. The majority of films should still open first in cinemas, but those that are not expected to sell more than 10,000 tickets at the B.O. should have a 6-8 week window between cinema and other platforms.

At the same time, as revenue streams and business models are changing, we need to support the second window, Transactional VOD, a market which is gradually replacing the DVD.

The new Agreement says that at least 10 Danish films a year should reach over 1m viewers across all platforms - cinemas, VOD, TV - after a 36-month period. How can this be implemented if we can’t get audience data from the major streaming services?
CL: I think we could find alternative ways, through our own surveys, asking people what they’ve seen and where. But I’m also confident that we at some point, will reach an agreement with American platforms for them to give us their viewing numbers.

Supporting new talents remains a priority. This is another victory and an endorsement from the government of your long-term strategy to nurture new talent…
CL: Yes. I’m very glad that there still is an obligation to have a talent scheme, and New Danish Screen is a big success. We won’t however be able to run it the same way, together with DR and TV2 Denmark, so we’ll have to change the scheme and think of other distribution routes. On the other hand, producers will be able to ask for broadcasters’ involvement in other ways.

Will you continue to oversee the Public Service Fund [for TV dramas and documentaries on commercial channels] that has backed high-end dramas such as TV2’s Greyzone, Warrior or A Fortunate Man?
CL: We still don’t know. Through the Media Agreement, the Public Service Fund has doubled [from DKK35m a year in 2018 to DKK 68.8m in 2019 and up to DKK 100.6m in 2023] which is very positive. Naturally, we would like it to stay within the DFI as with the flexible support schemes, we can fund projects for multiple platforms and with bigger budgets, such as Bille August’s A Fortunate Man, which is doing fantastic at the Danish B.O. and will be launched on TV2 in the New Year as a mini-series. The whole idea of co-financing a project for multiple platforms - film and TV - is the way forward.

Although the first half of 2018 was tough for Danish films, with a 17% market share, the downward admission trend seems to have been halted. What are your predictions for the end of year results?
CL: Right now, our market share is at 26% and still climbing. Actually, this half year is perhaps the best ever, thanks to a slate of audience-pulling films, starting with Christoffer Boe’s The Purity of Vengeance [more than 670,000 admissions]. We have high expectations for the end of year results, with other promising films such as Paprika Steen’s That Time of Year and Kasper Torsting’s In Love and War.