Danish film company Zentropa is currently in talks with several Chinese production companies about realizing a Sino-Danish movie production. That success is not going unnoticed in the Danish film industry, which sees big opportunities in the booming Chinese movie market.
Thomas Gammeltoft is a movie producer and creative leader at the production company Fine and Mellow. A few years back he produced the movie Chinaman which was co-produced with Chinese. He explains that the Chinese have a soft spot for Danes.
“The Chinese are a peculiar people. They are very patriotic, also in the film industry, and they are skeptic to strangers. However, Denmark has an advantage because generally the Chinese like the Danes. When it comes to the Americans they are more alert, because they expect to be taken advantage of,” said Thomas Gammeltoft to Berlingske.
Historically it is only in recent years that Danish films have proved themselves as a source of export and chairman of the Danish Producers Association, Klaus Hansen, believes that the business could improve its chances in the new big economies such as Brazil, Russia, India and China.
“The film industry is up against restrictions and cultural differences in another way than other industries so naturally it is necessary to prepare entries on new market thoroughly,” Klaus Hansen explains. He would like to see more systematic cooperation between the Danish film industry and the Ministry for Business and Growth when it came to exporting the Danish movies,” he said.
In the Danish film industry there is a long tradition of working together with Nordic and German colleagues, but recently the Danish Film Institute has made a trade agreement with Canada when it comes to the film industry and they are very close to inking a similar agreement with Australia.
The agreements will make access to the oversea film industries easier and the Danish Film Institute has taken the first steps in securing a similar deal with China, said the institute’s head of production and development, Claus Ladegaard.
”We are currently looking into the opportunity of making a trade agreement with China. If we could get to supply them with stories, it would be very interesting for the Danish film industry,” he explained.
Read the full and original article at b.dk
