04/09/2006

Zentropa Group’s international sales arm Trust Film Sales has just appointed Maja Dyekær Giese as the company’s new CEO. She replaces AnnaKarin Wolfsberg, who will continue to work for Trust as a consultant. The rest of the company’s sales team includes senior sales executive Rikke Ennis and sales executives Natja Rosner and Sofie Nyholm.

Giese comes from a position as head of distribution and marketing at the Danish Film Institute and has worked as head of theatrical distribution at Scanbox Entertainment. Commenting on her new position, she said: “Trust Film Sales is partly responsible for the international visibility and success of Danish and Nordic films. My aim is that Trust Film Sales will also be the first choice for producers and distributors in the future. We will aim to position and market all titles most effectively and continuously to work actively to present new talent and develop new markets”. Zentropa CEO Peter Aalbæk added: “I am happy to welcome Maja. Zentropa is ‘revitalizing’ and that means new faces and new blood outside Lars’s films!”

Trust Film Sales is currently representing the Swedish entry in Venice Days, Falkenberg Farewell [+see also:
trailer
film profile], by first time director Jesper Ganslandt, and Lars von Trier’s The Boss of it All, which will open the Copenhagen International Film Festival on September 21 before heading to San Sebastian for its out of competition slot.

In Toronto, the leading Scandinavian sales company will present five other feature films: Susanne Bier’s big domestic hit After The Wedding [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sisse Graum Jørgensen
interview: Susanne Bier
film profile] (seen by 8% of the Danish population) will have its North American premiere as part of the prestigious Gala Presentations; Ole Christian Madsen’s new drama Prague, starring Mads Mikkelsen and produced by Nimbus Film, will screen in the Contemporary World Cinema programme along with UK director Andrea Arnold’s successful debut Red Road [+see also:
trailer
film profile]; Anders Morgenthaler’s controversial adult animated film Princess [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] will be one of the Midnight Madness curiosities; and Thicker Than Water, by upcoming Icelandic filmmaker Árni Ólafur Ásgeirsson, will be launched in the Discovery Programme.