Movie producer Zentropa and the Danish Film Institute held a meeting last week on Wednesday to discuss a 60,000 kroner expense for the film ‘Antichrist’ that was reportedly spent on wining and dining Thierry Fremaux, the head of the Cannes Film Festival.
The sum might sound like a small one in an industry where millions of dollars are spent and earned in the blink of a camera lens, but the DFI, which partly funded the 61.5 million kroner film with financial support of approximately 8 million kroner, appears to be hell-bent on gaining access to the film’s accounts.
But first it will need the approval of the Zentropa CEO, Peter Aalbaek Jensen, who has defiantly told media that only “God and the taxman” can see the accounts.
Nevertheless, the DFI is undeterred and has revealed it has hired the accountancy firm Deloitte to carry out a full audit of the film’s accounts.
The sum in question was apparently spent on flying Fremaux to Copenhagen and paying a Michelin star chef to prepare a meal at the home of Antichrist’s director Lars von Trier. Zentropa denies this and says that only a small fraction of the amount was spent.
The film went on to make its worldwide premiere in May 2009 at the Cannes Film Festival, where Charlotte Gainsbourg won best actress.
