The Resilience of Danish Cinema and Its Global Stars

By the ULTIMATE Copenhagen Editorial Team

From Nordisk Film to Dogme 95

Ole Olsen founded Nordisk Film in Copenhagen in 1906, and it is still making films today. In the silent era Danish cinema was among the most admired in the world: Asta Nielsen became a star with The Abyss (1910), and Carl Th. Dreyer went on to make some of the greatest films ever shot, from The Passion of Joan of Arc to Ordet, which won the Golden Lion in Venice in 1955.

In 1995 Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg launched Dogme 95, a set of strict rules for hand-held, natural film-making. Vinterberg’s Festen won the Jury Prize at Cannes in 1998, and von Trier’s Dancer in the Dark took the Palme d’Or in 2000. Since then Danish films have won the Oscar again and again, and Danish crime drama has conquered television.

Must-watch films

To understand Danish cinema, start with these.

• Ordet (1955): Carl Th. Dreyer’s luminous tale of faith on a Jutland farm, winner of the Golden Lion.
• Babette’s Feast (1987): Gabriel Axel’s story of a French cook and one unforgettable dinner, the first Danish film to win the Oscar.
• Pelle the Conqueror (1987): Bille August’s epic, winner of the Palme d’Or and the Oscar.
• Festen (The Celebration, 1998): Thomas Vinterberg’s Dogme film about a family birthday that goes badly wrong.
• Another Round (2020): Vinterberg again, with Mads Mikkelsen, winner of the Oscar for best international film.

The stars

Denmark has given the screen stars from the silent era to the streaming age.

• Asta Nielsen (1881–1972): the first great star of European silent cinema.
• Jean Hersholt (1886–1956): born in Copenhagen, a Hollywood actor remembered in the Academy’s Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
• Anna Karina (1940–2019): born in Denmark, the face of the French New Wave.
• Mads Mikkelsen: best actor at Cannes for The Hunt, and a Bond villain in Casino Royale.
• Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Connie Nielsen and Sidse Babett Knudsen: from Game of Thrones and Gladiator to Borgen.

Where to watch in Copenhagen

In Copenhagen, Cinemateket, the Danish Film Institute’s cinema in Gothersgade, shows Danish and world classics, and Nordisk Film’s studios in Valby are still at work. Every spring the CPH:DOX festival brings the year’s best documentaries to the city. Our page Copenhagen on film tells the story of the city on screen.

Our advice: catch a Dreyer at Cinemateket, then have dinner in the old town.

Cinemateket →   Nordisk Film studios →   Copenhagen on film →

Hidden on the silver screen: international productions filmed in Denmark

Copenhagen’s harbours and old streets have played themselves, and other cities, on screen.

• The Danish Girl (2015), Copenhagen: Tom Hooper filmed at Nyhavn, among the yellow row houses of Nyboder and at the Royal Theatre, with Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander.
• The Bridge (2011–2018): the Danish-Swedish crime series that begins on the Øresund Bridge between Copenhagen and Malmö.

Copenhagen on film →

Danes in Hollywood

Danish directors and actors work all over the world. Susanne Bier won the Oscar for In a Better World and directed The Night Manager for television, Nicolas Winding Refn made Drive, and Mads Mikkelsen has played Hannibal Lecter and a Bond villain.

Questions and answers