The Film That Lit My Fuse: ‘Another Round’ Director Thomas Vinterberg

The Film That Lit My Fuse is a Deadline video series that aims to provide an antidote to headlines about industry uncertainty by swinging the conversation back to the creative ambitions, formative influences, and inspirations of some of today’s great screen artists.

Every installment asks the same five questions. Today’s subject responding about inspirations, obstacles and the future outlook is Danish filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg, whose latest, Another Round, is shortlisted for the Best International Feature Oscar.

An avowed shy kid, Vinterberg first came to global acclaim with 1998’s Festen (The Celebration) which won the Cannes Film Festival’s Jury Prize. He makes reference to that experience in the video above — Martin Scorsese, who was Cannes jury president that year, was one of his heroes. Talking with Scorcese, Vinterberg thought about his own career, “Wow, this might get serious.”

The director of 2012’s acclaimed and Oscar-nominated The Hunt — on which he first collaborated with Another Round star Mads Mikkelsen — Vinterberg also cites The Godfather movies and Ingmar Bergman’s 1982 Fanny and Alexander among his great inspirations. He recounts above that he told Bergman he “stole” a scene from Fanny and Alexander for Festen, only to have the Swedish master reply that he himself had taken it from The Leopard.

Vinterberg’s family recently suffered a tragic loss, but he remains optimistic about the future. He fully believes folks will return to cinemas worldwide when the pandemic eases and says, “I’m looking forward to run into the streets and enjoy the springtime of Copenhagen” — doing so would be a lovely dovetail to the final scenes of Another Round.

Check out the video above.