Since 1966, Danes have punched above their weight when it comes to cinema. The National Film School of Denmark, founded in 1966, has existed on a foundation of knowledge, experience, craftmanship and art.
Tine Fischer, head of the film school since 2021, says, “This is the most important institution in Danish cinema. It has a long list of graduates who has helped to lift Danish film and TV to its unique international position over the past 50 years. That’s partly because it has a close relationship with the industry. Our students make films as soon as they start here – and when they leave. They go directly into the industry.”
The decision of a Danish film school was made in 1964 when a new film law was passed. The law meant that film was now considered an art form in line with classical art forms. The Film Act was a copy of the Swedish Film Act. The Swedes had already a film school, so Denmark should have one too.
The National Film School of Denmark has fostered famous actors and directors like Lars von Trier, Bille August, Susanne Bier and Thomas Vinterberg, just to mention a few. Thomas Vinterberg won the best foreign film Oscar in 1989, 2011 and 2021 respectively. “The four or five tricks that I use when I make films,” he says, “come from my days at the film school.”
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The National Film School of Denmark was located in Store Søndervoldstræde in Christianshavn. There were 15 students, nine instructors, three photographers, and three sound designers.
In 1972, a new Film Act was drawn up and films came directly under the Finance Act for the first time, and the Film Fund became the Danish Film Institute.
Today, the school is the country’s most competitive educational institution with more than 1,000 applicants for just 48 places every two years. According to Fischer, its small size is crucial to its success. “It’s like with elite sports,” she says. “Our students are looked after individually, with many hours of personal dialogue and feedback. They develop according to their own potential, artistic vision and ambitions.”
In 1979, the education was extended from two years to three years after discussions with the school’s students, who were now allowed to stay an extra year.
In 1988, the school comes under the Finance Act and becomes an independent part of the Film Act. As a result, the school is no longer subject to the board of the Danish Film institute but directly under the Ministry of Culture, Director Bille August won the Palme d’Or for ‘Pelle the Conqueror’. In 1989, he won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film for the same film.
In 1998, Copenhagen was awarded Capital of Culture status by the EU, which meant that the EU pays half of the funds the city invests in culture. The Film School used this to convince the Minister of Culture that the art schools should be moved to an old military area on Holmen. And on 1 February 1998, the Theater School, the Royal Danish Academy, and the Rhythmic Music Conservatory moved together with the Film School to Holmen. The Film School, which until now had been spread out like small satellites in different Copenhagen addresses, now got one new address for all the school’s 96 students at Theodor Christensens Plads 1 and went from a school of 700 square meters to one of 4,000 square meters.
Collaboration is another key focus. “How we operate has always been defined by the fact that writing students work very closely with the film makers,” says Fischer. “In the future our students will have to work between sectors, so narratives will be about IP; you create a universe that works across art, theatre, film, TV series and games.”
When Trine Fischer took over the helm of the National Film School of Denmark in the fall 2021, her mission was to reshape and strengthen the school’s education program, away from the academization of the curriculum, which had been rejected by students. Fischer’s restructuring is now concretely shaping up.
The Danish government recently acknowledged additional DKK40m to an already generous financial support for the industry in 2024. Much of the credit for Danish film-making success should go to The National Film School of Denmark, which Hollywood Reporter named as one of the world’s top film schools last year.
For further information, check: https://www.filmskolen.dk/
The National Film School of Denmark, written by Tor Kjolberg