The Danish Film Institute (DFI) has suspended two of its film consultants, Thomas Danielsson and Gert Duve Skovlund, for publicly rubbishing a new production, Jolly Roger, which they themselves had awarded state funds worth $900,000 (DKR 7.5m).

It all began with an editorial in the Danish newspaper: Information, criticising the consultants for backing the film, which opened recently to negative reviews. In response, Danielsson and Skovlund submitted an open letter to the newspaper, in which they expressed regret at having backed the film and directed uninhibited criticism at the director and the company behind it.

The Danish Film Institute took the incident very seriously, and suspended the consultants, calling their letter a violation of the trust between the film industry, the consultants and the Institute. This swift justice dealt by DFI head Henning Camre has been positively received in the industry, and, among others Erik Crone, head of the new film fund FilmFyn as well as chairman of the advisory counsel for feature films, gave their full support to the decision.

DFI head Henning Camre has now proposed to the board their contracts be terminated at the next meeting of the board on Nov19.