Four Film And TV Grants In One Year For Copenhagen Film Fund

The animation film is produced by France’s Sacrebleu Productions in co-production with Danish animation specialist Nørlum ApS from Viborg that has set up a base in Copenhagen. So far it is the only feature film that has received support from CFF, alongside three TV dramas: the Danish supernatural series Heartless, the European crime series The Team written by Peter Thorsboe and Mai Brostrøm, and episode 100 of the UK series Midsomer Murders in which the investigations of John Barnaby (Neil Dudgeon) take him to the Danish capital.

“What we’ve experienced over the past year is that feature films have difficulty getting financing,” notes Gammeltoft who now tries to get on board at an earlier stage of production to help foreign producers raise local money and to secure projects as early as possible.

Financed by contributions from eight Copenhagen municipalities, the Capital Region and a number of players in the local industry, the CFF has a budget of € 4.7 million up to 2016 and each grant cannot exceed 50% of a project’s full budget. Its prime purpose is to invest in international film and TV productions of high artistic merit with Danish co-producers, or Danish projects with substantial international financing and distribution in place.

Tough competition from other European regional film funds makes the task of hunting for foreign coin challenging, especially as Copenhagen is perceived as an expensive city, has finite investment money and no tax incentive. But Gammeltoft fights back at every level. “We have done a survey that shows that Denmark is not more expensive than Germany, the UK and France - although the Czech Republic and Hungary remain competitive. The key is to use the Danish model and work with tight crews, making deals with local businesses. In terms of budget, it seems like there is a political will in Denmark to look at this issue. Tax incentives are not for today but we’re optimistic for 2016 when we will hopefully have a bigger budget to work with”.

Gammeltoft feels the wealth of hot Danish talents and storytellers are perhaps the biggest selling point for Copenhagen and its region. His ambition is to sign up a major international feature project – similar to the TV series The Team - that would make great use of local talents, create growth in the local economy and in which he could invest up to one million euros.

Another objective to find an initiative such as the Directors Fortnight’s ‘Nordic Factory’ in Cannes that allowed foreign talents and crews to come to Copenhagen for a short period to collaborate with their Danish counterparts. “This project was just right and we are looking at other similar projects that can help promote as well as develop our talents” he said.