The Danish Film Institute has invited representatives of the Czech Republic, Poland and Croatia to explore possibilities for film production and coproduction in their countries. A seminar on 27 November will provide an opportunity to present the Czech Republic as a location of ever-growing attractiveness for Danish filmmakers.
Denmark has a rich and long experience with shooting in the Czech Republic, where Danish crews have shot movies such as Prague (Prag, 2006) and Flame & Citron (Flammen og Citronen, 2008).
The Czech Republic and Croatia have incentive schemes in place enabling their countries’ producers to become full-fledged coproduction partners while their colleagues in Poland have been benefiting from a system of regional film funds.
“After the introduction of [the Czech] incentives in 2010, the Danish have also become regulars and have been using Czech locations, crews and studios – especially for historical themes,” says Ludmila Claussova, the head of the Czech Film Commission. “I hope our presentation in Copenhagen will arouse the interest of even more producers, who haven’t had an experience shooting here yet.”
The Danish historical drama A Royal Affair (En Kongelige Affære, 2012), nominated for an Academy Award, was made in the Czech Republic in 2011. “We have no tradition of working with big, spectacular historical films in Denmark. We came [to the Czech Republic] to get knowledge we couldn’t find locally in Scandinavia,” said Peter Albaek Jensen, co-founder of the biggest Danish production company, Zentropa, during the filming of A Royal Affair.
Last year, Danish filmmakers spent over 7 million EUR in the Czech Republic on the production of the TV series 1864, the most expensive television production in the country’s history. Meanwhile, two more Danish projects have been shot here in 2014: the fantasy movie The Shamer’s Daughter (Skammerens datter, 2015) and the recently finished historical movie Tordenskiold, whose spend in the Czech Republic reached over 2.5 million EUR.