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Oto’s Planet, a 28-minute interactive VR story directed by Gwenael François, won the Chf 10,000 top prize in the Immersive Experiences competition at the 30th edition of the Geneva International Film Festival which closed on November 9.

The French, Canadian and Luxembourg co-production follows the quiet lives of Oto and Skippy on a tiny planet. Sales and distribution are being handled by Paris-based immersive specialist Astrea

The Immersive Experiences strand was open to VR, augmented reality (Ar) and mixed reality (Mr) work. It forms a cornerstone of the festival’s tradition of showcasing artists working in digital arts.

The festival...

Oto’s Planet, a 28-minute interactive VR story directed by Gwenael François, won the Chf 10,000 top prize in the Immersive Experiences competition at this month’s Geneva Digital Market (Gdm) which closed on November 7.

The French, Canadian and Luxembourg co-production follows the quiet lives of Oto and Skippy on a tiny planet. Sales and distribution are being handled by Paris-based immersive specialist Astrea

The Immersive Experiences strand was open to VR, augmented reality (Ar) and mixed reality (Mr) work. It forms a cornerstone of the festival’s tradition of showcasing artists working in digital arts.The Gdm, the industry...

Writing and directing a series is a rite of passage for any celebrated European filmmaker — so why shouldn’t Oscar winner Thomas Vinterberg follow in the footsteps of Ingmar Bergman and Rainer Werner Fassbinder? The Danish director, who won the Best International Feature Film Oscar for “Another Round” in 2021, was in Toronto to promote his new series, “Families Like Ours,” which first premiered in Venice alongside Alfonso Cuarón’s “Disclaimer” and Joe Wright’s “M. Son of the Century.” He spoke to IndieWire about his seven-episode television show, which finds Denmark in a state of environmental collapse, flooded by rising water levels as its citizens panic toward a way out. Denmark, like everywhere else, has been hit by storm surges in recent years, so this series is all too prescient in its imagining of a widespread catastrophe that would push its people out.

Vinterberg first made an arthouse splash with...

How does a natural disaster bring about change? Some will find new purpose while others see their lives drastically shift in “Families Like Ours.” The series follows random people as a forced evacuation takes place. Acclaimed director Thomas Vinterberg helms all seven episodes. The “Another Round” and “Far from the Madding Crowd” filmmaker co-wrote ‘Ours’ with Bo Hr. Hansen.

Continue reading ‘Families Like Ours’ Trailer: A Natural Disaster Causes Chaos In Thomas Vinterberg’s New Series at The Playlist.

Oscar-nominated “Another Round” director Thomas Vinterberg is making his TV drama directorial debut.

The filmmaker helms Studiocanal and Zentropa-produced series “Families Like Ours,” which is set in a not-too-distant future where climate change has forced evacuations. Vinterberg co-wrote the series with Bo Hr. Hansen, and reunited with his “Another Round” producers Sisse Graum Jørgensen and Kasper Dissing for the show.

The official synopsis for the Denmark-set series reads: “The rising water levels can no longer be ignored and the country needs to be evacuated. As people disperse in all directions, they must bid farewell to what they love, what they know, and who they are. Slowly but steadily, everything is different. All property becomes worthless, all fortunes change, and luck favours only a few. Those who can afford it travel to affluent countries while the less well-off depend on government-funded relocation to more challenging destinations. Families, friends, and loved ones are separated.

Copenhagen-based TrustNordisk has just picked up international rights to the Danish drama “Home” by actor-turned director Marijana Jankovic (“The House that Jack Built”).

For her debut feature after 2019’s multi-awarded short film “Maja,” a best short winner at Tribeca, Jankovic has assembled an impressive A-list international cast.

This includes Dejan Cukic (“Snabba Cash”), Nada Sargin (“The Mould”), Zlatko Buric (“Triangle of Sadness”), Claes Bang (“The Square”), Jesper Christensen, Trine Dyrholm (“The Girl With the Needle”) and Lene Maria Christensen (“Unruly”).

Based on a script co-penned by Jankovic with the seasoned Bo Hr. Hansen, behind Thomas Vinterberg’s upcoming series “Families like Ours,” a hit at MipTV, and Babak Vakili (“Outlaw”), the story is inspired by the director’s own experience, and feelings of and reflections on uprootedness.

Aged six, she moved from Montenegro to Denmark with her parents, but feeling homesick, she returned to her grandmother’s care. A year later,...

In his moving Oscar acceptance speech, Thomas Vinterberg said that “Another Round,” the Academy Award 2021 international feature winner, celebrates not just drinking alcohol but life and awakening to life.

Billed as an epic family drama, “Families Like Ours ” – his first TV drama series and one of the big market launches at MipTV, sold by Studiocanal – looks set to ask what life is worth living for.

Its logline kind of answers that question: “Countries disappear, love remains.” If the emotionally engrossing early stretches are anything to go by, that is both embodied in Laura (Amaryllis August), who is in love for the first time with fellow high-school student Elías (Albert Rudbeck Lindhardt); and in family love, represented at first remove by Laura’s relationships with her divorced parents.

The country which perishes is Denmark in a not-too-distant future. That scenario rings nightmarishly realistic, especially since the “storm of the century” hit Denmark in October,...

‘Love Island’ Heads To Israel

Israel has become the latest destination to embrace Love Island, with ITV Studios-backed Armoza Formats set to produce a local version for new Keshet streamer Free TV. Filming will take place in May for a summer air date, as Israel becomes the 26th territory to commission a version following the announcement of Malta and Albania last week. Avi Armoza’s ITV Studios-backed The Four creator Armoza Formats is producing the local version. The company, which was acquired by ITV Studios in 2019, pivoted earlier this year to become ITV Studios’ production arm in Israel and has already produced two local versions of Come Dine with Me for Kan 11 along with the likes of The 1 Club and The Chase. The show will air on Free TV, Keshet and Rge’s streamer that is set to launch early next year. “Since establishing Armoza Productions and producing hits...

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Families Like Ours, the debut TV drama from Thomas Vinterberg, has begun principal photography as well as formally announcing its cast, with several stars of his Oscar and BAFTA winning feature Another Round set to appear.

Nikolaj Lie Kaas (Brothers, The Killing, Riders of Justice) Paprika Steen (Festen, Open Hearts, The First Lady), Helene Reingaard Neumann (Another Round, Kursk, Borgen), Magnus Millang (Another Round, Kursk, The Commune), Esben Smed (Follow The Money, Held for Ransom, The Kindness of Strangers), Amaryllis April August in her acting debut, Albert Rudbek Lindhardt (Another Round, Riders of Justice), Thomas Bo Larsen (Another Round, The Hunt, Festen), Asta August (Burn All My Letters, The Pact, A Song for Martin) and David Dencik (No Time To Die, Chernobyl, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) will star in the six-part series, from Zentropa and which StudioCanal is co-producing and distributing.

Exclusive: Another Round creator Thomas Vinterberg’s debut TV project has set cast and commenced principal photography.

Canal+ and TV2 Denmark’s six-parter, which first emerged two years ago and reunites Vinterberg with Lars Von Trier’s Another Round producer Zentropa and co-producer/distributor Studiocanal, is shooting on location in Copenhagen, Sweden, the Czech Republic, France and Romania.

Leading the cast are a number of Another Round actors and established Scandinavian talent including Nikolaj Lie Kaas (The Killing), Paprika Steen (The First Lady), Helene Reingaard Neumann (Borgen), Magnus Millang (Another Round), Esben Smed (The Kindness of Strangers), Amaryllis April August in her acting debut, Albert Rudbek Lindhardt (Another Round), Thomas Bo Larsen ( The Hunt), Asta August (The Pact) and David Dencik (Chernobyl).

The dystopian show follows Laura and takes place in summertime Denmark, where everything seems normal but is about to be disrupted. After a flood slowly takes over the land,...

Studiocanal has boarded Another Round creator Thomas Vinterberg’s Families Like Ours, his first TV drama.

Canal+/TV2 Denmark’s show reunites the Danish director with Lars Von Trier’s production company Zentropa, while Studiocanal distributed Mads Mikkelsen-starring Academy Award-winner Another Round.

Studiocanal will co-produce and distribute Families Like Ours, which takes place in summertime Denmark where everything seems normal but is about to be disrupted. After a flood slowly takes over the country, the country is gradually evacuated. Laura is a high school student in love for the first time and on the brink of graduating, when news of the evacuation breaks, a reality that will forever change the course of her life and force her to choose between her divorced parents.

Vinterberg said: “Studiocanal is a great collaborator and I look forward to proceeding on this journey together with our esteemed partners.”

Darkness: Those Who Kill’s Bo Hr. Hansen...

Studiocanal has boarded Thomas Vinterberg’s TV debut ‘Families Like Ours’ as a co-producer and distributor.

Varety first broke the news last April that Oscar-winning Danish director Vinterberg (“Another Round”) was re-teaming with Danish production outfit Zentropa on his first television drama.

Studiocanal previously distributed “Another Round” in the U.K.

“I have worked with Studiocanal in the past and greatly enjoyed the process,” said Vinterberg. “They are a great collaborator and I look forward to proceeding on this journey together with Studiocanal and Canal Plus as our esteemed partners.”

Producers Sisse Graum Jørgensen and Kasper Dissing added: “We are delighted to be teaming forces with Studiocanal and Canal Plus on ‘Families Like Ours’ – the first TV-series by Thomas Vinterberg. We have had the opportunity to work together previously and are very excited to expand our collaboration. It is wonderful to have partners who, like us, value artistic integrity and strive to nurture it.

Oscar-nominated Danish filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg is set to make his television drama debut with six-part family saga “Families Like Ours.” (Via Variety.) The Dane’s profile skyrocketed recently after he nabbed a surprise Oscar nomination for Best Director for his latest film “Another Round,” which is also nominated for Best International Feature at this year’s Academy Awards. “Families Like Ours” will continue Vinterberg’s collaboration with “Another Round” producer Zentropa, the Danish company founded by Lars Von Trier and producer Peter Aalbæk Jensen.

“Families Like Ours” has been commissioned by Danish broadcaster TV2 and will be supported by Danish Public Service funds. In addition to directing, Vinterberg will co-write the script with Bo Hr. Hansen, co-writer of his first feature “The Biggest Heroes.”

According to Variety:

“‘Families Like Ours’ takes place in summertime Denmark where everything seems normal, but is about to be disrupted by a natural catastrophe. After...

Oscar-nominated Danish director Thomas Vinterberg, whose latest movie “Another Round” is nominated for a pair of Oscars and just won a BAFTA award, is re-teaming with Danish production outfit Zentropa on his TV drama debut, “Families Like Ours.”

The thought-provoking drama series has already been commissioned by Danish broadcaster TV2. A family saga, the six-part series will be directed by Vinterberg, who will also co-write the script with Bo Hr. Hansen, with whom Vinterberg wrote his debut feature film, “The Biggest Heroes.”

“Families Like Ours” takes place in summertime Denmark where everything seems normal, but is about to be disrupted by a natural catastrophe. After a flood slowly takes over the country, Denmark is gradually evacuated. People must bid farewell to what they love, what they know, and to who they are. In the coming years, Danes disperse in all directions: only houses, schools and empty streets are left.

Those...

The Frederiksberg-born director’s new project, commissioned by TV2, is set in a near-future Denmark. Thomas Vinterberg’s new feature Another Round was selected for the 2020 Cannes label and is set to screen in Toronto and San Sebastian later this year. The Danish director, however, is already preparing a new project, his first television endeavour. The series, a six-episode family saga, commissioned by public broadcaster TV2, has been in development for a year and will be entitled Families Like Ours. The six episodes, all of them set to be directed by Vinterberg, will be co-written with Bo Hr. Hansen, who already worked with the helmer on the script of his 1996 comedy road movie, The Biggest Heroes. The drama, set in a near-future Denmark when the state is gradually evacuated, will explore the question “If we are forced to leave our country, then what happens?”. The creative team described the series...

Zentropa producing show for TV2; TrustNordisk handles sales.

Thomas Vinterberg is planning to direct his first TV series, Families Like Ours, for TV2 Danmark.

Zentropa will produce the six-episode family saga, which has already been in development for a year. Sisse Graum Jørgensen, who has produced Vinterberg’s The Hunt, The Commune and Another Round, will produce alongside Kasper Dissing, who also produced Another Round.

Vinterberg will direct all six episodes and co-write the series with Bo hr. Hansen, who also co-wrote Vinterberg’s 1996 feature The Biggest Heroes.

The shoot is planned for late 2021 or early 2022. TrustNordisk is handling international sales on the series.

Queen Of Hearts star Trine Dyrholm plays woman who enlists in the army during World War One.

TF1 Studio has launched sales on Danish director Henrik Ruben Genz’s World War One drama Erna At War at the virtual Cannes market.

Top Danish actress Trine Dyrholm (Queen Of Hearts) stars as a mother whose mentally-challenged son is drafted into the army and sent to fight on the border between Denmark and Germany. In a bid to keep him safe, she disguises herself as a man, enrols and heads to the frontline.

The sales arm of French commercial TV giant TF1...

Published in 2015, Ane Riel’s novel Resin found itself the winner of four major Scandinavian literary awards on its way to international bestseller status. It’s no wonder then that it would be optioned as a film so soon afterwards by fellow Danes Daniel Borgman (director) and Bo Hr. Hansen (screenwriter). A dark thriller centered upon a close-knit family of hermits, the story unfolds as though of two worlds: theirs and ours. Jens (Peter Plaugborg) and Maria (Sofie Gråbøl) created this division intentionally as an irrational fear born from some unknown source of paranoia takes hold. Untrusting of the world that bore them, they decide to fake their daughter’s death as a means to sever their societal ties and protect young Liv (Vivelill Søgaard Holm) from its corruption.

The opening scene therefore epitomizes this duality as Jens screams Liv’s name from the water. He’s inconsolably distraught with...

Dyrholm recently won awards for her role in Sundance 2019 title ‘Queen Of Hearts’.

Danish star Trine Dyrholm will follow her award-winning role in Sundance award winner Queen Of Hearts by headlining the cast of Henrik Ruben Genz’s Erna At War.

She will play a powerful woman who tries to save her mentally disabled son during the First World War. The film is set in 1918, on the borderland between Germany and Denmark, where her son is mistakenly enrolled for the Prussian Army. She disguises herself as a man to join his regiment and keep her son safe.

The cast will...

Danish box office hit has sold to over 150 countries incl. UK and Ireland.

LevelK has struck a North American deal with Uncorked Entertainment for family animation The Incredible Story Of The Giant Pear, which opens Berlinale’s Generation Kplus section today (Feb 16).

LevelK has now sold the film to more than 150 countries, including recent deals to the UK and Ireland (Kaleidoscope), Turkey (FilmArti) and Portugal (Films4you).

The film, a hit at the Danish box office with more than 230,000 admissions, won two prizes at Denmark’s Robert awards for Best Children’s Film and Best Adapted Script. It also has a market screening in Berlin on Saturday 16.

Philip Einstein Lipski, Jørgen Lerdam and Amalie Næsby direct; Thomas Heinesen and Trine Heidegaard produce for Nordisk Film Production. The script is written by Bo Hr. Hansen based on the Danish children’s book by Jakob Martin Strid. Backers are the Danish Film Institute, Nftvf, the [link=co...

Film i Vast launches title at Cannes slate presentation.

Christoffer Boe, who won the Cannes’ Camera d’Or in 2003 with Reconstruction, will direct Zentropa’s fourth and final instalment in the Jussi Adler-Olsen’s Department Q thriller series.

The Purity Of Vengeance starts shooting in December and will again star Nikolai Lie Kass and Fares Fares as the mismatched detectives.

Nikolai Arcel, Bo Hr. Hansen and Mikkel Norgaard wrote the script. Nordisk will release theatrically in autumn 2018 and TrustNordisk handles sales.

The previous three films in the series – starting with The Keeper Of Lost Causes [pictured] – have been record-setting hits in Denmark. Producer Louise Vesth of Zentropa said, “there have been 2.2m million tickets sold for these films in Denmark, I hope the fourth one will be an ever greater success.”

The story centres on the discovery of a series of corpses connected to an old women’s institution that carried out medical experiments.

Boe, speaking...

The Killing’s Soren Malling leads the adaptation of Jens Blendstrup’s best-selling novel.

Terribly Happy director Henrik Ruben Genz starts shooting his next film Gud Taler Ud (literal translation:’God Speaks Out’) next week in Risskov, Denmark (a suburb of Aarhus).

The film is an adaptation of the 2004 best-selling novel by Jens Blendstrup, the story of a strong-willed patriarch whose family may revolt against him. Bo Hr. Hansen adapted the script.

Soren Malling from The Killing, Borgen and A War plays the protagonist - a psychologist with three sons who are ready to rebel against him - and Swedish singer Lisa Nilsson plays his wife. The cast also includes Marcus Gert, Jesper Asholt, Jacob Kvols and Maria Erwolter.

Signe Leick Jensen and Morten Kaufmann are producing for Toolbox Film, in co-production with Deluca Film and with production funding from the Danish Film Institute. It is produced in partnership with TV 2 and the West Danish Film Fund...

Exclusive: Animation veterans Phillip Lipsky and Jorgen Lerdam co-direct the adaptation of popular children’s book.

LevelK has boarded 2D animation The Incredible Story Of The Giant Pear.

Phillip Lipsky (Ronal The Barbarian) and Jørgen Lerdam (Little Brother, Big Trouble: A Christmas Adventure) direct.

Bo hr. Hansen has adapted the script from Jakob Martin Strid’s children’s book of the same name, which has sold more than 100,000 copies and has been published in eight languages.

The story is about a cat named Mitcho and an elephant named Sebastian, living in the idyllic village of Solby, who go on a great journey to find the missing mayor and uncover the titular giant fruit.

The film is in production now for Nordisk and Danish animation powerhouse A Film. Thomas Heinesen and Trine Heidegaard produce and Henrik Zein & Malene Ehlers serve as executive producers.

Backers for the $3.4m project include the Danish Film Institute, Nftvf and Dr...