Empire | |
---|---|
Directed by | Frederikke Aspöck |
Written by | Anna Neye |
Produced by |
|
Starring |
|
Cinematography | Linda Wassberg |
Edited by | Martin Schade |
Music by | Rasmus Bille Bahncke |
Production companies |
|
Release date |
|
Running time | 93 minutes |
Country | Denmark |
Language | Danish |
Empire (Danish : Viften) is a 2023 absurdist period drama film directed by Frederikke Aspöck from a screenplay by Anna Neye. It stars Neye and Sara Fanta Traore.
The film had its world premiere on 29 January 2023 at the 2023 Gothenburg Film Festival. It won the 2023 Nordic Council Film Prize.
In the Danish West Indies in 1848, Anna Elizabeth Heegaard, a wealthy "free colored" woman, maintains a close friendship with Petrine, her housekeeper who is enslaved. Meanwhile, rumors of a slave rebellion begin to circulate.
The idea of the film was conceived during Neye's trip to Saint Croix in 2015, where she filmed a documentary about the history of black Danes. [1] [2] In January 2021, the project received €144,700 funding from the Nordisk Film & TV Fond. [3]
The principal photography took place in Canary Islands in May and June 2021. [2]
Empire had its world premiere on 29 January 2023 at the Gothenburg Film Festival, competing for the Dragon Awards. [4] REinvent acquired the film's international sales shortly after the world premiere. [5]
The film was released in Danish theatres on 20 April 2023. [6] Netflix acquired its distribution rights, releasing it on 23 October 2023. [7]
Award | Date | Category | Recipient | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Gothenburg Film Festival | 4 February 2023 | Dragon Award | Empire | Nominated | [8] |
Nordic Council Film Prize | 1 November 2023 | Nordic Council Film Prize | Won | [9] | |
Robert Awards | 3 February 2024 | Best Danish Film | Nina Leidersdorff, Frederikke Aspöck, and Anna Neye | Nominated | [10] |
Best Actress in a Leading Role | Anna Neye | Nominated | |||
Best Actress in a Supporting Role | Sara Fanta Traore | Nominated | |||
Best Original Screenplay | Anna Neye | Nominated | |||
Best Cinematography | Linda Wassberg | Nominated | |||
Best Costume Design | Charlotte Moe | Nominated | |||
Bodil Awards | 16 March 2024 | Best Danish Film | Empire | Nominated | [11] |
Best Actress in a Supporting Role | Sara Fanta Traore | Nominated | |||
TV 2 Talent Prize | Nominated | ||||
Best Screenplay | Anna Neye | Nominated |
Nordisk Film A/S is a Danish entertainment company and a subsidiary of Egmont Group. The multimedia entertainment company is also involved in television production, cinemas, computer games and advertising.
Göteborg Film Festival (GFF), formerly Göteborg International Film Festival (GIFF), known in English as the Gothenburg Film Festival, formerly Gothenburg International Film Festival, is an annual film festival in Gothenburg, Sweden and the largest film event in Scandinavia. When it was launched on February 8, 1979, it showed 17 films on 3 screens and had 3,000 visitors.
Zahra Amir Ebrahimi, known professionally as Zar Amir Ebrahimi, is an Iranian-French actress, producer and director. She rose to international prominence for her performance as journalist Arezoo Rahimi in the crime thriller Holy Spider (2022), for which she won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress and Robert Award for Best Actress.
Anne Louise Hassing is a Danish actress. Hassing won the Bodil Award for Best Actress for her debut film role in Pain of Love (1992) and the Bodil Award for Best Supporting Actress in The Idiots (1998). She is also known for her featured roles in the popular television series Krøniken (2004-2007) and Seaside Hotel (2013-2024).
The Bodil Award for Best Danish Film is one of the categories for the Bodil Awards presented annually by the Danish Film Critics Association. It was created in 1948 and is one of the oldest film prizes in Europe. The jury can decide not to give out the award if no deserving films are submitted. This has occurred once, in 1974. More than one film also can receive the award in a single year, as occurred in 1955.
The Nordic Council Film Prize is an annual film prize administered by the Nordic Council. The Nordisk Film & TV Fond is the funding body that administers the prize.
Gaffa is a free Nordic music magazine with local editions in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Gaffa is Denmark's largest and oldest music magazine. It has been published since 1983 and has 320,000 print readers and 750,000 online readers each month.
The Bodil Award for Best Cinematographer is one of the special awards at the annual Danish Bodil Awards presented by the Danish Film Critics Association. First awarded in 2006, the Danish Film Critics Association has rewarded cinematographer from as early as 1949.
Ali Abbasi is an Iranian-Danish filmmaker. He is known for his films Shelley (2016), Border (2018), Holy Spider (2022), and The Apprentice (2024). Abbasi also directed the last two episodes of the first season of the series The Last of Us. He has received various accolades, including an Un Certain Regard award, four Robert Awards, and a German Film Award, in addition to nominations for seven European Film Awards, a Goya Award, and two Guldbagge Awards.
Thin Blue Line is a Swedish police procedural drama television series created by Anagram Sweden which premiered in Sweden on 17 January 2021. A second season was aired in 2022, with a third season announced for 2024.
Speak No Evil is a 2022 psychological horror thriller film directed by Christian Tafdrup from a screenplay he co-wrote with his brother Mads. It is produced by Jacob Jarek and is distributed by Nordisk Film. Filming took place in Denmark, the Netherlands, and Italy, and most of the film is shot in English, with some scenes in Danish and Dutch. The film centers on Bjørn and Louise, a Danish couple who are invited by Patrick and Karin, a Dutch couple, to their country house for a weekend holiday; the hosts soon begin to test the limits of their guests as a tense situation escalates.
The 40th Robert Awards ceremony, presented by Danish Film Academy on 4 February 2023, to honour the best in Danish film and television of 2022. The ceremony took place at the Tivoli Hotel & Congress Centre in Copenhagen, Denmark and was hosted by actor and comedian Frederik Cilius.
Apolonia, Apolonia is a 2022 documentary film directed by Lea Glob. The film is a coming-of-age story of a girl, who finds her place in the art world, narrated through 13 years. The film produced by Danish Documentary Production, HBO Max Central Europe and Staron Film won the IDFA Award for Best Film at the 35th International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam in international competition in November 2022. It was one of the 15 finalist films in the December shortlists for Best Documentary Feature at the 96th Academy Awards.
Birthday Girl is a 2023 Danish thriller film directed by Michael Noer. The film follows a mother and daughter who grapple with the aftermath of a sexual assault while on a cruise ship.
The 41st Robert Awards ceremony, presented by Danish Film Academy on 3 February 2024, to honour the best in Danish film and television of 2023. It took place at the Tivoli Hotel & Congress Centre in Copenhagen, Denmark and was hosted by actress Lise Baastrup.
The Great Silence is a 2022 drama film directed by Katrine Brocks in her feature directorial debut from a screenplay she wrote with Marianne Lentz. It stars Kristine Kujath Thorp.
Tove's Room is a 2023 biographical drama film directed by Martin Zandvliet. The screenplay was written by Jakob Weis, based on his 2016 play. It stars Paprika Steen as the author Tove Ditlevsen. Steen won the Robert Award and Bodil Award for her portrayal of Ditlevsen.
Frederikke Aspöck is a Danish film director. She is a granddaughter of Godfred Hartmann.
The Missile is a 2024 Finnish-Estonian comedy-drama film written and directed by Miia Tervo. Based on the true story of a Russian missile that crashed at Lake Inari in 1984, the film stars Oona Airola as Niina, an archivist for the local newspaper who has just recently left her abusive husband, and finds new confidence and strength in both her career and her personal life as she becomes increasingly drawn into the newspaper's investigation of the incident.