Last week, the Danish Ministry of Culture and a broad majority in the local parliament reached an agreement to earmark €12 million to offset the impact of the coronavirus on the country’s audiovisual industry.

In detail, the funds, collected through the local TV licence fee revenue surplus, will be distributed as follows: €8.7 million will be handed out to strengthen the national broadcaster’s public-service offerings, including an upcoming effort to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the Danish-Greenlandic connection; €2.3 million will be earmarked for the Danish Film Institute, the country’s audiovisual agency, to cover additional costs generated by the health crisis and to ensure the funding of an undiminished number of Danish films in the coming years; €400,000 will be awarded to two regional film funds, namely the West Danish Film Fund and FilmFyn; and finally, €700,000 will be invested to compensate for the losses incurred by film and TV outfits on productions made without Danish Film Institute funding.

Talking about the new provisions, the CEO of the Danish Film Institute, Claus Ladegaard, said: “We are delighted about the additional millions for Danish film. It now looks like the industry will emerge reasonably unscathed from the health crisis. Productions that were forced to shut down in the spring have been completed with supplementary funding from the Danish Film Institute. And thanks to the additional allocation, we will not have to cut funding for upcoming film projects. At the moment, audiences are eager to see local films at the cinema, testifying to the demand for stories told through the lens of Danish filmmakers.”