The Municipality of Copenhagen’s decision is a blow to the Danish film & TV drama industries, co-production partners and local businesses. Since 2013, the Film Fund has invested around €10m in 36 film and TV drama productions, resulting in an estimated total spend of €40m in the Danish metropolitan area. Its annual investments have also contributed €5.5m-€10m to Denmark’s gross national income and the creation of 108 to 153 full time jobs according to the Fund.

The Copenhagen Film Fund’s CEO Thomas Gammeltoft said: "It is a shame and hard to grasp that the Municipality of Copenhagen chooses to completely abolish its contribution to the Fund, which has so far created growth and employment through investments in films and TV series such as The Danish Girl, The Bridge, Greyzone, The House That Jack Built and many other international productions. Without the Fund’s investments, many of these productions would have placed their film shootings elsewhere, without Danish labour and Danish creative skills”.

Noemi Ferrer Schwenk, Head of International at the Danish Film Institute added: “The Copenhagen Film Fund supported co-productions, that made it possible for Danish producers, cast and crew to be involved with top-notch international projects. This strengthened Danish production companies and contributed to enlarging the Danish film industry’s network and growing its skills. It’s a very short-sighted decision. A real shame,” she told nordicfilmandtvnews.com.

For some observers, the Municipality of Copenhagen’s cutting back is a reaction to the Danish government’s decision to shift its support from the Capital to the regions and to privilege - via the Film Agreement 2019-2023 - the other two main regional film funds, the West Danish Film Fund and FilmFyn.

Before the closure of its investment pool in 2019, the Film Fund still has a few projects in its pipeline:

  • the BBC/HBO period TV drama Gentlemen Jack starring Sofie Gråbøl, Katherine Kelly (Happy Valley), Susanne Jones (Doctor Foster) and Gemma Whelan (Game of Thrones) among others. The series from BAFTA winner writer Sally Wainwright, focuses on Anne Lister, Britain’s first modern lesbian. Filming in Copenhagen starts November 21st.   
  • the Danish TV drama The Investigation from showrunner Tobias Lindholm, about the Kim Wall murder case in Denmark. The TV show produced by Miso Film for TV2 Denmark and C More/TV4 Sweden will start filming in 2019. 

Gammeltoft said that despite the financial cut back from the Municipality of Copenhagen, the Fund will continue to exist and refocus on a national business strategy for the digital visual industry in Denmark through the newly created business alliance Vision Denmark, set up with Nordisk Film, Sybo, Unity, several regional film funds, the Danish Producers Association and the Animation Workshop/VIA University College. “Our goal is to create the right environment to make Denmark a centre of excellence in digital visual production. I’ve been working on this for the last three years, and today our actions are gaining momentum,” noted Gammeltoft.