With a hefty 215,052 admissions in its opening week, crime-drama The Purity Of Vengeance has achieved the best ever opening for a Danish film at its home box office. Zentropa and Christoffer Boe's fourth installment in the Department Q-thriller franchise stars Nikolaj Lie Kaas and Fares Fares as chief detective Carl…

Rikke Ennis, CEO of leading Scandinavian banner TrustNordisk and an executive at Danish production powerhouse Zentropa, has decided to leave her post to start her own company which will work on development, financing and packaging, mainly focusing on TV series but also on features.

Susan Wendt, Director of Internationa…

Genre market Frontières Platform (May 12-13), the co-presentation between the Fantasia International Film Festival and Cannes’ Marché du Film, will this year feature projects from Denis Côté, Ben Wheatley and Can Evrenol. The Frontières Buyers Showcase (Sunday May 13 at 4pm in Palais K) will feature 6 films, with produ…

Music Box Films has struck a deal with Scandi sales dynamo TrustNordisk for U.S. rights to Pernille Fischer Christensen's Berlin biopic Becoming Astrid. The well-received drama charts the early years of renowned children's author Astrid Lindgren, who went on to write the best-selling Pippi Longstocking stories. The…

A harrowing single-take drama set on the day of the 2011 Norway attacks in Oslo and at a summer camp on the island of Utoya, Erik Poppe’s U – July 22 has concluded further sales after its premiere in the Berlin Film Festival competition. From the director of The King’s Choice, this sadly timely story was embraced by…

Ian McKellen, Gabriel Byrne and Connie Nielsen are set to star in Hamlet Revenant, directed by Ken McMullen. Mikkel Boe Følsgaard, Lambert Wilson, Dominique Pinon and Lex Shrapnel also join the cast for the title, which TrustNordisk is shopping to buyers along the Croisette.

Story is an adaptation of Shakespeare's icon…

Former Fidélité Films CFO/COO Guillaume Lirondière has joined Paris-based finance, production and distribution outfit Backup Media (Still Alice) as COO. The exec will spearhead production and finance at Backup with founding partners Jean-Baptiste Babin, David Atlan Jackson and Joël Thibout. Backup is entering a new…

Well Go USA has set a June 3 U.S. release for Na Hong-jin's Korean box office smash The Wailing. The thriller is an Official Selection here in Cannes and screens out of competition on Wednesday. Fox International Productions and Ivanhoe Pictures co-produced and co-financed the pic, which debuted in Korea on Friday. It…

Swedish director Hannes Holm’s A Man Called Ove enjoyed a record opening weekend in its home country in late December, with about 240M admissions. It went on to hold the top box office slot for several weeks in January and has grossed nearly $20M in the market where Star Wars: The Force Awakens has taken a total of…

Danish director Thomas Vinterberg drew applause and laughs here today talking up The Commune, his period drama which is loosely based on his own childhood experiences growing up as part of a collective in 1970s Copenhagen (see trailer above, beware some nudity). In a press conference, he covered everything from his…

Directed by Stanley Tucci, Final Portrait will begin principal photography on February 15. Joining Geoffrey Rush and Armie Hammer are Tucci’s Big Night co-star Tony Shalhoub, and French actresses Sylvie Testud and Clémence Poésy. The story centers on the relationship between artist Alberto Giacomettii and American…

With this Sundance Selects acquisition, North American moviegoers are poised to fully discover a series of films that has been thrilling audiences in Denmark over the past year. The distributor has picked up rights to hot Danish titles The Keeper Of Lost Causes and The Absent One, as well as the forthcoming A Conspirac…