Denmark's Filmbyen to sell off three empty properties

Danish producer and Zentropa Entertainments head Peter Aalbæk Jensen’s dream of creating a Danish Hollywood in the Copenhagen suburb of Hvidovre has scaled back.

In the 1990s Zentropa, Nimbus Film and other production companies moved into Filmbyen (Film City) on the former military area, but today only a few of them - including Zentropa, Regner Grasten Film, Græsted Film, Wise Guy, adding TrustNordisk International Sales - are left.

Aalbæk Jensen confirmed to ScreenDaily that he has accordingly decided to sell three of the empty properties and to strengthen efforts to find tenants from other business than film for the unused parts of Filmbyen, which is privately owned by Heaven Ltd, of which he is a partner.

“We had hoped to see most of the Danish film industry out here, but there is too much grudge and envy in the business, so we have had to skip that idea,” he explained. “Rather have some healthy and happy firms in other trades around us than grumpy film companies which are behind with the rent anyway.”

His attempt to rent the available buildings are backed by the municipality of Hvidovre, which is about to launch a new regional plan for the one-time military camp to meet “the long term risk that the area will change character to appear deserted and less attractive.”

According to Aalbæk Jensen, the Best Actor award for Mads Mikkelsen in Cannes for Thomas Vinterberg’s The Hunt concluded Zentropa’s best stretch so far, with an Oscar for Susanne Bier’s In a Better World, European Film Awards for Bier and Lars von Trier (Melancholia), Berlinale prizes for Nikolaj Arcel’s A Royal Affair.

Valued at $4.6 million in the last public assessment, Filmbyen houses Zentropa’s main company, Zentropa Entertainments, as well as specialised production arms Real and Rambuk, Klippegaarden (post production facilities) and EF Rental Property.