Tina í Dali Wagner, former executive at the National Film School of Denmark and Faroese Film Institute, has died aged 66.
Wagner, who was also known as Tina Sorensen, died on Friday, June 26, after a long battle with brain cancer, according to a message shared by her family.
Wagner was head of postgraduate training at the National Film School of Denmark from 1994 to 2018. Through her role, Wagner organised numerous courses, seminars and workshops for Danish and Nordic filmmakers.
Wagner was appointed the first-ever director of the Faroese Film Institute in 2018, holding the position for six years until late 2023.
She was also CEO of Filmgreb, a Danish firm specialising in professional training and development for the Nordic film and television industry.
Wagner co-created several educational programmes including the Young Nordic Producers Club in Cannes, the Filling the Gap producers’ course, the Polar Bear Writers’ Camp, and the Nordic Talents pitching event and networking summit. She is survived by her husband, Jonas Wagner.
“Tina was deeply passionate about nurturing Nordic film professionals and creating opportunities for both emerging and established talents,” said Noemi Ferrer Schwenk, who ran the Young Nordic Producers Club with Wagner. “She had an enormous heart for those who needed support to take the next step in their careers. Generous, wickedly funny, open-minded, and endlessly tolerant, she was truly one of a kind. She always put the Danish, Faroese, and wider Nordic film community before herself, focusing instead on how to strengthen the film sector.”
“Tina played a defining role in shaping the Faroese film industry into what it is today,” said Faroese producer Jón Hammer of Outlier Projects, who was on the board of the Faroese Film Institute, which hired Wagner as its first director. “Through years of determined work, she helped build and nurture an industry that created opportunities none of us could have imagined before, from award-winning documentaries to our first Nordic Council Film Award recognition.”
“At a time when the film world in the Faroe Islands felt full of change and possibility, she was a big part of why I chose to return home in 2018. Her vision and belief in what could be created here gave me the confidence to leave my position in Denmark, become independent, and play my own small part in what was beginning.
“I believed in that future because she helped make it believable. I would not be where I am today, or have made the films I have made, without my friend Tina, and I know many producers and filmmakers across the Nordics feel the same way.
”She had a rare ability to make ambitious ideas feel possible and to give people the confidence to pursue them and, more often than not, make them real.”
UK executive Claire Willats added: “There really wasn’t anyone quite like Tina, she was the most amazing person, and I cannot believe that she is no longer in this world.”
“One day when I was at Netflix, I got a phone call from Lone Scherfig asking me if I would go to the Faroe Islands to visit the Faroese Film Institute that Tina had built and was running. I took a boat from Iceland to the Faroe Islands where I was met by Tina, and had a crazy few days meeting all the filmmakers, visiting the set of the first Faroese series, and eating the craziest gourmet meal. She just took everything in her stride. I fell in love with Tina there and then, and her lovely husband Jonas. She was so beautiful with a wonderful joy of life. When I spoke to her last, she was full of hope because she thought a doctor had found a way to treat the cancer. In her typical funny style, she said ‘I’m not dead yet’ - I am so sad she has left us. My thoughts are with Jonas and her many friends around the globe.”
A funeral service for Wagner will be held tomorrow (Friday, July 3) at Copenhagen’s Holmens Church, followed by a bicycle procession to Holmens Cemetery and a small memorial gathering.
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