The 28 Best Danish Films of All Time

Austere black-and-white classics meet Dogme provocations, Oscar winners and cult comedies Danes still quote at dinner parties. Small country, outsized filmography.

1. 1
   The Hunt

   Vinterberg's 2012 drama with Mads Mikkelsen as a teacher whose life is destroyed by a false accusation.
   1000pts
2. 2
   Italian for Beginners

   Lone Scherfig's 1999 Dogme comedy about lonely people finding each other in an evening Italian class.
   733pts
3. 3
   Ordet

   Carl Theodor Dreyer's 1955 drama of faith and doubt on a Jutland farm, winner of the Golden Lion in Venice.
   732pts
4. 4
   Pelle the Conqueror

   Bille August's 1987 drama of a Swedish boy and his father as farm labourers, winner of the Palme d'Or and an Oscar.
   732pts
5. 5
   Gertrud

   Dreyer's austere 1964 final film about a woman who refuses to compromise in love.
   639pts
6. 6
   Festen

   Thomas Vinterberg's 1998 Dogme 95 debut, in which a birthday dinner speech exposes a family's secrets.
   639pts
7. 7
   Land of Mine

   Martin Zandvliet's 2015 drama about German teenage POWs forced to clear mines from Danish beaches.
   639pts
8. 8
   The Guilty

   Gustav Moller's 2018 single-location thriller played entirely from an emergency dispatcher's desk.
   523pts
9. 9
   Another Round

   Vinterberg's 2020 Oscar winner about four teachers testing a theory on constant low-level drinking.
   523pts
10. 10
    In a Better World

    Susanne Bier's 2010 drama about two boys and revenge, winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
    523pts
11. 11
    After the Wedding

    Bier's Oscar-nominated 2006 drama in which an aid worker returns from India and learns a family secret.
    523pts
12. 12
    A Royal Affair

    Nikolaj Arcel's 2012 period drama about Queen Caroline Mathilde and the royal physician Struensee.
    523pts
13. 13
    Nightwatch

    Ole Bornedal's 1994 thriller about a law student working nights in a morgue during a killing spree.
    523pts
14. 14
    The Olsen Gang in Jutland

    The 1971 Olsen-banden comedy that takes Egon Olsen's hapless crew out of Copenhagen and into rural Jutland, an early hit of Denmark's best-loved film series.
    523pts
15. 15
    Day of Wrath

    Dreyer's 1943 witch-hunt drama about a pastor's young wife in 17th-century Denmark, made under the German occupation.
    0pts
16. 16
    Breaking the Waves

    Lars von Trier's 1996 Grand Prix winner, with Emily Watson as a devout woman on Scotland's coast.
    0pts
17. 17
    Babette's Feast

    Gabriel Axel's 1987 tale of a French cook's lavish dinner for a pious Jutland village, Denmark's first Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
    0pts
18. 18
    Dancer in the Dark

    Von Trier's 2000 musical tragedy starring Bjork, winner of the Palme d'Or.
    0pts
19. 19
    The Idiots

    Von Trier's provocative 1998 Dogme 95 film about a commune whose members pretend to be mentally disabled.
    0pts
20. 20
    Dogville

    Von Trier's 2003 chalk-outline parable with Nicole Kidman as a fugitive in a small Rocky Mountain town.
    0pts
21. 21
    Melancholia

    Von Trier's 2011 apocalyptic drama about two sisters as a rogue planet approaches Earth.
    0pts
22. 22
    Pusher

    Nicolas Winding Refn's raw 1996 debut, following a Copenhagen drug dealer through one disastrous week.
    0pts
23. 23
    Flickering Lights

    Anders Thomas Jensen's 1999 cult crime comedy about four gangsters who hide out in a rural restaurant.
    0pts
24. 24
    Adam's Apples

    Jensen's 2005 pitch-black comedy of a neo-Nazi paroled to a church run by an unstoppably optimistic priest.
    0pts
25. 25
    Flee

    Jonas Poher Rasmussen's 2021 animated documentary about an Afghan refugee's secret past, nominated for three Oscars.
    0pts
26. 26
    Twist and Shout

    Bille August's 1984 coming-of-age drama about two teenage friends in 1960s Denmark.
    0pts
27. 27
    Flame & Citron

    Ole Christian Madsen's 2008 thriller about two real Danish resistance assassins during the occupation.
    0pts
28. 28
    Open Hearts

    Bier's 2002 Dogme drama of a couple torn apart by an accident, starring Mads Mikkelsen.
    0pts

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