Denmark – Grand Teatret (Copenhagen)

Grand Teatret has six screens in a beautiful red brick building in typical Art Noveau fashion –just in the center of Copenhagen. The cinema – dubbed The Royal Theatre of Cinema back in the day – has been up and running since 1913. Apart from working with film screenings, the cinema also buys Danish rights for some 20 films per year through its distribution arm, Camera Film. The core programming for both companies consists of high end arthouse, upmarket dramas, documentaries and everything we can lay our hands on from Hayao Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli. The cinema hosts a number of festivals and also organizes events, debates, special screenings and even the occasional art exhibition in the cinema café. As for most art house cinemas the main audience is the so called ‘grey gold’ – the older generation with time and money on their hands, but of course Grand Teatret also caters to the younger generation(s) – not just through programming, but also through blogs and social media appearance. You can follow and interact with the virtual cinema on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr. It’s great fun – and fun is actually a very important aspect of running an attractive cinema also when you are showing serious, artsy films. If you’re committed yourself, the audience senses it. They have a sixth sense. If you thrive on enthusiasm, they sense it, too. And if you make cynical and calculated choices, they will punish you for it.

Kim Foss, Director
www.grandteatret.dk