The 2025 m:brane co-financing forum for youth content, this year featuring an extensive focus on Denmark, was opened by Tine Fischer, CEO of the Danish Film Institute (DFI), and her colleague Kirstine Vinderskov, commissioning editor for youth features at the DFI. They presented their strategy in the making in order to strengthen the country’s long tradition of internationally acclaimed storytelling for children and youth, a tradition that faces some immediate challenges, as we found out.

Cineuropa: One of the illustrations during your presentation was from the 1980s children's classic Rubber Tarzan, beloved across several continents and also rewarded at Berlin, where their youth film section identified the Nordic region as very strong, if not the strongest, from the very start.
Tine Fischer: Exactly. We have a strong self-image when it comes to this strong tradition. We attracted the very best directors, including Nils Malmros and Bille August, for all sorts of reasons – artistic, political and audience-related. We saw them on big screens and also saw some great television. But then, all of a sudden, we've seen all of this slip away, challenged by new types of media. And this is why we're now undertaking a process that started last year, presenting a new and ambitious strategy for children and youth film in a parliamentary enquiry, a vision to bring about change for the better.

What are the biggest challenges you're facing?
TF: Well, if the problem were just that we needed better films, it would have been reasonably easy... But the much bigger problem is the huge decrease in cinema attendance among certain age groups; market numbers are plummeting because of social media and shorter formats. So, it's not just about making artistically strong and creative content, but also about looking at the broader landscape. That's what we're taking on right now.

Have you started to identify any solutions yet?
TF: We have. They're somewhat comparable to what the British Film Institute has been up to, not just investing a lot in the films themselves, but also introducing educational strategies for the school curriculum, encouraging and subsidising the formation of children's film clubs and creating a special talent development programme for youth films. We are looking into similar solutions. Our aim is to reclaim the cinema as the main space for young people where they experience film. And then there's the big game hunt, making the best films and making the best filmmakers want to make movies for children and youth – real flagship features.

And how do you realise a new Rubber Tarzan in 2026?
Kirstine Vinderskov: Since Rubber Tarzan was made, the competition has grown in huge orders of magnitude. The output is enormous, not just in kids' content, but also in content not aimed at kids but which they still consume, and that means that we need to make a great impact. Right now, our system doesn't fit this kind of content, which is the great IP universes and 360-degree thinking. The field is very fragmented: many of the creators are working in relative isolation, and the focus on youth content is pretty non-existent at the film schools. So, people lack the strength and power that their projects need. I think that the DFI is a place where these resources can be accumulated, through competence and support, including money, of course.

You seem fairly optimistic.
KV: As soon as we start talking to people about strengthening youth film, everybody bursts out in unison, with an affirmative, “Yes!” Not least because so many of us are seeing a generation that’s about to spiral into certain habits – habits we'd like to disrupt.

TF: We think we can succeed. If we look at attendance figures for museums, live music and theatre, they're all on an upward trend because they have all reclaimed the relevance of their respective fields, while the cinemas are struggling right now. And we need, and want, to change this.

Your current governmental film agreement runs from 2024-2027, during which time your youth strategy will hopefully emerge. There was a time when the Danish film law was regarded, not least by the Danes themselves, as the best in the world. Does that statement still apply?
TF: We still have the world's best film law, in my opinion, with a deep understanding and protection of the system of selective funding. We don't just support the niche, arthouse films, but also more commercial ones, through a script process that can identify the greatness in commercial movies as well. Denmark firmly supports both types. It's unique, fine-tuned and not like any other territory that I know of.