08/02/2008

The Scandinavian major Nordisk Film announced yesterday that it has acquired 50% of Zentropa Folket Aps, headed by the duo Peter Aalbæk Jensen and Lars von Trier.

The goal of the union is to create a “North European film company that will attract the strongest creative talent.” Nordisk, which will inject some fresh capital into Zentropa, intends to support the latter’s international expansion plans. Jensen will keep his position as managing director of Zentropa.

Founded in 1992, Zentropa was until now majority owned by Jensen, von Trier and a group of 110 employees, directors and various creative talents. The company behind the groundbreaking Dogma concept in the mid-1990s is known for supporting original new voices such as Morten Hartz Kaplers (AFR [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) and Omar Sharwagi (Go with Peace Jamil [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Meta Louise Foldager
interview: Omar Shargawi
film profile]), alongside established filmmakers like Susanne Bier and Lukas Moodysson.

However, over the last year or so, anxious to provide its star filmmakers with the means to their ambitions, Zentropa gradually shifted from a Copenhagen-based company into a European operation with branches in Sweden (Trollhättan AB), and Germany (Zentropa International Berlin and Cologne). Holland will be next.

Zentropa’s productions have also had more success internationally that domestically. Last year in particular was pretty tough for Zentropa, which had to end its domestic distribution ambitions (through Trust Distribution) after only five months, due to poor box office results of several films, including Lone Scherfig’s Just Like Home [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

The deal with Nordisk therefore does not come as a surprise, as Nordisk’s distribution arm in Denmark had been handling Zentropa’s films over the last few months, and the two groups’ international sales arms (Trust Film Sales and Nordisk Film International Sales) joined forces mid-January (see news).

Nordisk Film already has stakes in several production companies in Denmark (both A Film and Copenhagen Bombay), Norway (Maipo, Neo Film), Sweden (SS Fladen) and Finland (Solar Films, Matila Röhr MRP Productions).