The festival will open with Joann Sfar’s film and dedicate a sidebar to the late French actor and singer.

CPH PIX, the event created by the merger of the Copenhagen International Film Festival and Night Film Festival, has unveiled a 180-strong programme of films for its next edition.

The festival, which runs 15- 25 April, will open with Joann Sfar’s Gainsbourg (Vie Héroïque), about the life of the late French actor/singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg, and will also dedicated a special section and concert to him.

The 11-day film and concert programme was launched last night (March 17) at the Danish gala première of Nicolas Winding Refn’s viking epic Valhalla Rising at Copenhagen’s Grand Theatre.

The festival’s first feature competition, the new Talent Grand Prix, will screen 13 films from across the world and offers a prize of $69,000 (€50,000).

Nordic entries include Danish director Kaspar Munk’s Hold Me Tight (Hold Om Mig); Finnish director Zaida Bergroth’s Last Cowboy Standing (Skavabölen Pojat); Norwegian director Margreth Olin’s The Angel (Engelen), and Swedish directors Anders Edström and CW Winter’s The Anchorage.

The Old Maestros series contains two films by German director Werner Herzog, so far unreleased in Denmark: My Son, My Son, What Have You Done? and Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, his Abel Ferrara remake.

Among CPH PIX guests are Oscar-winning editor Bob Mrawski (The Hurt Locker), and directors Atom Egoyan, Samuel Moaz, Tomas Arslan, Stephan Aubier-Vincent Patar.