The thriving Danish film industry could be in for an unpleasant shock when the new rightwing government's financial policy comes into action next year.

While state financial support remains unchanged for 2002, support from the Danish Film Institute is expected to be cut by up to 20% from 2003.

The new legislation has awarded $43.5m (DKR375.9m) to the film department for 2002 (compared to 2001's $42.4m), but this 2.5% increase is simply in line with inflation.

The reason that the budget could plummet from 2003 to 2005, is that in 1998 the then Social-Democratic government increased support for the film industry for a four-year period.

This period runs out at the end of 2002, which means that, in real terms, the actual support for film production will fall from 2002's $23.8m (DKR206.1m) to $19.1m (DKR164.9m) in 2003.