147 films at Copenhagen’s biggest European showcase

by Annika Pham

17/09/2007 - For the fifth edition of the Copenhagen International Film Festival, Artistic Director Jacob Neiiendam has put together a thrilling cocktail of 147 European films screening in 11 venues across the Danish capital.

Julian Schnabel will open the event on September 20 with his film The Diving Bell and the Butterfly [trailer], ahead of its theatrical distribution through Scanbox, and Kenneth Branagh’s Sleuth [trailer] starring Jude Law will be the closing film on September 29.

Eleven films competing for the Golden Swan Awards will be presented by the filmmakers or/and cast, including Iceland’s Children [trailer] by Ragnar Bragason (Øst for Paradis Distribution in Denmark), the UK’s Hallam Foe [trailer] by David Mackenzie (Nordisk Film), Norway’s Mirush [trailer] by Marius Holst (Sunrise Film Distribution), and Belgium’s Irina Palm [trailer, film focus] by Sam Garbanski (no theatrical distribution in Denmark yet).

By presenting the latest European films by country (France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Turkey, Israel, Iceland), national favourites (Iceland’s Jar City [trailer] and Sweden’s Mind the Gap [trailer], for example), master filmmakers (André Téchiné with Les témoins [trailer], John Boorman with The Tiger’s Tail) or genre (romantic films, chillers), the festival has found various hooks to entice local audiences into the cinemas.

The art of scriptwriting will be widely discussed by some of the biggest European names such as the UK’s David Hare, France’s Jean-Claude Carriere, Irish director-screenwriter Jim Sheridan and Denmark’s Kim Fupz Aakeson (A Soap [trailer, film focus]), Kim Leona (Inheritance) and Rasmus Heisterberg (King’s Game).

Business will be held in parallel at the 3rd Copenhagen Screenings (September 21-22), co-organised by the Danish Film Institute, Nordisk Film International Sales and Trust Film Sales, and the established producers San Fu Maltha from the Netherlands (Black Book [trailer]) and Ivan Mactaggart from the UK (Irresistible) will discuss the challenges of co-producing European films on September 23.