Studiocanal and Zentropa today announce they are set to World Premiere "Families like ours"- the first TV drama series by Academy-Award and BAFTA winning Thomas Vinterberg ("Another Round", "The Hunt") - at The 81st Venice International Film Festival 2024.
Written by Thomas Vinterberg and Bo Hr. Hansen (Darkness: Those Who Kill, The Purity of Vengeance) and produced by "Another Round" producers Sisse Graum Jørgensen and Kasper Dissing, "Families like ours" reunites Vinterberg and Zentropa with Studiocanal who distributed "Another round" in the UK. Studiocanal is co-producer and distributor of the 7-part series which shot on location in Denmark, Sweden, France, Romania, and The Czech Republic.
The series is produced by Zentropa Entertainments for TV 2 Denmark, Studiocanal and CANAL+, co-funded by The Danish Film Institute - Public Service Fund, The European Union and Nordisk Film & TV Fond in co-production with NRK, TV4, ARD Degeto, co-produced by Film i Väst, Sirena Film, Zentropa Sweden, Saga Film and Ginger Pictures, co-produced with the support from Czech Film Fund and BNP Paribas Fortis Film Finance in collaboration with CANAL+ Poland and M7.
Zentropa Entertainments and TV 2 Denmark developed the series with support from the Danish Film Institute’s Public Service Fund and The Creative Europe Media programme of the European Union, and STUDIOCANAL as co-producer. At script stage CANAL+ immediately commissioned the highly anticipated series in France as a CANAL+ Creation Originale.
Thomas Vinterberg comments: “I am proud and excited. La Biennale di Venezia is the perfect place for “Families Like Ours” to meet the world. After “Another Round”, I dove straight into this epic story about families who must leave their mother country before the water will flood their land. Consequently, the water in the streets of Venice is a particularly poignant setting. There’s something innately defiant about a festival in a city on water, which perfectly mirrors my primary theme - resilience. Human beings have an incredible ability to adapt, even in the most challenging of circumstances. I find great hope and dignity in that;" commented.
Countries disappear, love remains. Denmark, in a not-too-distant future. The rising water levels can no longer be ignored and the country needs to be evacuated. As people disperse in all directions, they must bid farewell to what they love, what they know, and who they are. Slowly but steadily, everything is different. All property becomes worthless, all fortunes change, and luck favours only a few. Those who can afford it travel to affluent countries while the less well-off depend on government-funded relocation to more challenging destinations. Families, friends, and loved ones are separated. Some will be overcome by hatred and division while others will nurture love and foster new beginnings.
Against this backdrop we meet Laura, a high school student in love for the first time and on the cusp of graduation. When news of the evacuation breaks, the course of Laura and her family's lives are changed forever, and Laura is forced into the impossible dilemma of choosing between the three people she loves the most.
Studiocanal´s EVP Global Sales and Distribution Anne Cherel is overseeing worldwide sales. Studiocanal is actively producing a slate of premium international TV series in-house, as well as through its network of award-winning subsidiary production companies.