27/03/2015 - “Artistically it's a strong year for Danish cinema,” said festival director Jacob Neiiendam, who opens and closes the 8-22 April programme with films by local directors

This year’s CPH PIX-Copenhagen International Film Festival will both open and close with Danish directors, but their films were not made in Denmark: Jeppe Rønde's Bridgend [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] was shot in Wales, while Thomas Vinterberg's Far from the Madding Crowd [+see also:
trailer
making of
film profile] is the director’s first American movie.

Three Danish feature debuts in the main competition for the New Talent Grand PIX Award have foreign connections: Rønde’s Bridgend; Anna Sofie Hartmann's Limbo [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], which was filmed in Denmark, but as a German production; and Thomas Jakobsen's thriller The Unraveling, which is a US production.

“Artistically it's a strong year for Danish cinema. The three titles show a diversity and nerve that we have been missing in our fiction films, and they are just the tip of the iceberg. This year, we've been flooded with films produced outside the standard support system – and they are good films,” said festival director Jacob Neiiendam.

Bridgend is also competing for the €15,000 Nordisk Film Prize, while ten European first-time directors are vying for the €10,000 New Talent Grand PIX. A total of 130 features and 420 screenings and special events have been programmed for the seventh edition of the festival, which is set to unspool between 8 and 22 April. 

Among the international entries for the Audience Award are Hungarian director Kornél Mundruczó’s White God [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Kornél Mundruczó
film profile], Italian director Alice Rohrwacher’s The Wonders [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alice Rohrwacher
interview: Tiziana Soudani
film profile], French filmmaker Olivier Assayas’ Clouds of Sils Maria [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Charles Gillibert
interview: Olivier Assayas
film profile], German director Fatih Akin’s The Cut [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Fatih Akin
interview: Tahar Rahim
film profile], UK director Peter Strickland’s The Duke of Burgundy [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and Icelandic filmmaker Dagur Kári’s Virgin Mountain [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile].

French director Marco Ferreri's The Grande Bouffe and Blow-Out (1973) will spearhead the festival’s On Location series, unspooling in a restaurant, which will serve up a voluminous all-night menu inspired by the film. Meanwhile, South Korean director Kim Ki-duk’s The Isle (2000) will screen to audiences sitting in small boats in the city’s canals, who just need to ring a bell for South Korean treats.

US composer and electronic musician Robert Rich will stage an eight-hour performance of his Sleep Concerts in the vaults of a former church. Lastly, the festival’s annual retrospective is dedicated to “the decadent and daring” French director Bertrand Bonello, whose entire filmography will be on show at the Cinemateket in Copenhagen’s Film House.