As we near the April 9 start of CPH PIX – one of the main cinema events in Copenhagen’s calendar (along with CPH:DOX) – it is with a heavy heart that we bid farewell to the festival’s program organiser Thure Munkholm, who has passed at the age of 36. Thure’s passion for cinema was infectious and his contribution to Danish cinema immeasurable. He was a champion of films that dared to be diverse and divisive and push at the medium’s limits. This year will sadly be the last to carry the signature of his eclectic, dynamic taste. Be certain to check out the festival’s program at cphpix.dk and book early as the festival is extremely popular.
It’s another big week for general releases, especially as the Easter break means the multiplexes will be full of family fare. Aardman is releasing its big screen adventure Shaun the Sheep Movie (F for får); Disney is following up on its live-action Cinderella with the musical Into The Woods, a live-action medley of several Brothers Grimm fairytales; and Dreamworks is pinning its hopes on the animation Home, a fish-out-of-water story about an alien who lands on Earth in an attempt to avoid capture by fellow aliens.
For the grown-ups, there’s civil rights biopic Selma, which charts Martin Luther King’s fight to secure equal voting rights for African Americans, and Canadian director David Cronenberg’s Maps of The Stars, a satirical indictment of tinseltown and its incestuous, nepotistic mechanisms. The film is reviewed this week.
Elsewhere, Cinemateket offers more in the way of Canadian filmmakers and incest with a season of new Canadian cinema that runs until April 1 – including Captive by celebrated filmmaker Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter).
On Sunday there’s the bimonthly Danish film with English subtitles – and this week’s is Festen. Thomas Vinterberg’s now legendary Dogma film concerns the celebrations of a bourgeois family cut short when a history of sexual abuse is revealed. The film starts at 14.15 and an extra 40kr will get you coffee and a pastry. For a full Cinematek program visit dfi.dk/Filmhuset.
