Interview with EAVE Producer Signe Byrge Sørensen
“This business is about telling stories, and we need to find the ways of expression that fit the story in the best possible way.”
By Lilla Kadar
Danish EAVE producer Signe Byrge Sørensen has been in the film industry for decades, producing acclaimed documentaries, animated documentaries, and fiction films from around the globe. For example, her EAVE project THE ACT OF KILLING as well as THE LOOK OF SILENCE were both Oscar nominated documentaries, and FLEE was Oscar nominated in three categories: Documentary, International Feature Film and Animated Feature Film. We sat down with her to discuss producing in Denmark, working across genres and cultures, her upcoming projects, and why she encourages young aspiring producers to take part in film training programmes.
EAVE: You participated in EAVE's flagship programme, the EAVE Producers Workshop 15 years ago. How do you see your career development since, in the perspective of time?
Signe Byrge Sørensen: I began working in film in 1998, coming from a background in politics, economics, and international development. My first job was at a small production company called SPOR Media, focused on Africa, Asia, and Latin America, where we distributed films into Europe and co-produced with local filmmakers. I stayed for five years, did my first international co-productions, one from Zimbabwe and later Senegal, and then participated in Eurodoc in 2003. I then joined Final Cut Productions as a full-time producer, working there until 2008. When this company stopped operations, I co-founded Final Cut for Real with Anne Köhncke (also EAVE producer), director Joshua Oppenheimer and editor Janus Billeskov Jansen in 2009 and attended EAVE in 2010.
At that time, I had some experience with co-production in Africa, the Nordic countries, and some also in Europe, but I had not done any fiction yet at all. My project at the workshop was the documentary The Act of Killing, which I had become involved in when I met Joshua Oppenheimer in 2007. EAVE was crucial for my career: before The Act of Killing’s premiere in 2012, I had never had a film in a fiction A-festival. EAVE helped me navigate international sales, distribution, and launch the film. It premiered at Telluride and Toronto, then in Berlin, went to over 200 festivals, won 70+ awards, and marked my first experience with a major Oscar campaign! The work I did at EAVE was real work that led to helping me lay the foundation for experiencing all that.
THE ACT OF KILLING © Final Cut for Real
And then you continued the cooperation with Joshua Oppenheimer up until today.
Yes, we always saw The Act of Killing as one part of a diptych, with The Look of Silence as the other part. Together, they deconstruct the meaning today of the genocide in Indonesia in 1965-66 from two angles: The Act of Killing focuses on the perpetrators, and The Look of Silence focuses on the victims. They are different stories, locations, and situations, but very much two sides of the same coin. We always knew we would release The Look of Silence after The Act of Killing, and actually shot it before The Act of Killing came out, because we weren’t sure we would be able to return there once The Act of Killing was released. We edited The Look of Silence while releasing The Act of Killing, and then premiered it in 2014. It had a similar run: Venice, Telluride, Toronto, about 200 festivals, 70 prizes, and an Oscar campaign as well.
Another milestone in your career must have been the animated documentary Flee. Today you are also doing fiction films, and I am interested in these transitions through genres. Do you still see yourself mainly as a documentary producer?
I see myself as a film producer, and for me, the genre comes from the story. I started in documentary and love it, some stories are meant to be told that way, and I’ll keep doing those. But with Flee, for example, there was a reason Amin Nawabi, the protagonist, couldn’t show his face, and much of the story, his whole experience of fleeing from Afghanistan into Denmark, was in the past, with no archive material. So, animation became the right form. This was a full feature produced by the main producer Monica Hellström (also my EAVE fellow from 2010), Charlotte De La Gournerie and myself, with French, Norwegian and Swedish co-producers involved. It was a huge learning curve for Monica and me, but also a really positive experience. We worked with fantastic young animators who were deeply committed and excited to work on something real, from the documentary world.
At Final Cut for Real, we have always tried to push ourselves, whether it’s animation or even VR, like the piece my colleague producer Marie Kristensen produced that went to Venice. I think that this business is about telling stories, and we need to find the ways of expression that fit the story in the best possible way. As for fiction, we wanted to make a musical, so we jumped into the creation of THE END by Joshua Oppenheimer. That was also a long journey and a big learning process, but very challenging as well as rewarding.
Is it difficult to always learn something new, how a new format works?
It is definitely challenging, but it's also a way of life. There is never a point where you can say, 'This is how we always do it.' You're constantly adapting, learning, and being pushed out of your comfort zone. Collaboration is at the heart of everything we do in film. We learn so much through working with our partners: none of it would be possible without them.
THE LOOK OF SILENCE © Final Cut for Real
Are you relying on the EAVE network, for example, when you choose collaborators?
Yeah, and also on ACE Producers’ and Inside Pictures’ networks, because I have done those as well. I co-produced THE END with Conor Barry, for example, we were in the same group at EAVE in 2010. We have also produced a documentary together a long time ago. I stay active in these networks, attending events at major festivals and keeping up with what's happening. They are a great way to connect with people who share the same goals, even if they work differently, and to understand how collaboration can work across different systems in Europe
What support systems do you benefit from as a Danish producer? Can you tell us about the new tax incentive system?
As Danish producers, we are incredibly lucky to have a strong public service system, especially with DR, which is open to international projects, and the support of the Danish Film Institute (DFI), which backs both fiction and documentary, including strong minor co-production schemes. We use these a lot and have several upcoming documentary projects, and we are also very much interested in fiction co-productions, also as minor co-producers. In the past, we have co-produced The Nile Hilton Incident (Cairo Confidential in France) and Boy from Heaven with Tarik Saleh, as well as an Irish-Belgian film Good Favour with EAVE graduates Benoit Roland and Conor Barry. DFI is essential for us: they offer up to 100% of the Danish spend for documentaries, with a maximum usually around 70.000 Euro, and 60% for fiction, depending on artistic and technical merits. Regional funds are also available, though you need distribution in place to apply.
The new Danish tax incentive is another big step. I was part of the working group within our national Producers' Association, analysing how it could benefit TV, film, documentary, animation, and both local and international producers. It’s a 25% tax credit with a cap, and projects need at least 25% international financing (the more, the better), and a minimum budget (4 million DKK for documentaries, for example). There will be a cultural test, and we are hoping for two application rounds a year that would be fairly automatic in terms of points. There will be a cap on how much a production can get, which will make it possible also for smaller projects, like documentaries, to apply. This scheme has been announced so far, the politicians have approved it, but detailed rules will come in the autumn, with the first deadline expected around March 2026.
What are your next projects in the pipeline?
Right now, I’m working on The Coil Case, a documentary we pitched at CPH:DOX, co-produced with Anorak Films in Greenland (headed by EAVE producer and Danish National Coordinator Emile Hertling Péronard) and another Danish company called Reef TV. Thousands of Inuit women in Greenland were fitted with IUDs by Danish doctors in the 1960-70s - often without their consent. This film follows the women’s fight for justice and raises critical questions regarding Denmark’s colonisation of Greenland. It’s a painful, complex story, told from the women’s perspective, and a very important film for us.
I’m also developing an animated documentary called Nanyang with Italian company Elliot Films about a Chinese woman who lived through the Cultural Revolution as a child: her father was high up in Mao’s regime. It’s a deeply personal and political story about family, trust, and societal change, and we hope to co-produce with Italy and France, collaborating with the same animation team we worked with on Flee.
We also have a co-production with Nanuk Film in Barcelona and TF Distribution in Chile about the death of Pablo Neruda, a documentary directed by a couple who are both half-Chilean and half-Danish/German. Her family was from the left, and his family was from the right, but now they are partners both in life and in film.
And we are minor co-producers on a Polish film called My Father, the Iceman, a powerful father-daughter story. The father assassinated Chris Hani, the head of the communist party in South Africa, got imprisoned there, while becoming a far-right icon in Poland. The daughter fights for his freedom, even though she does not agree with his politics. The film explores her struggle to come to terms with who he is and who she is and finding her own feet.
You are producing films that explore many different angles of the world. Is there any reason behind this?
I think it comes down to curiosity and the way I got into film through an interest in the world, in society, politics, and economics. When we get proposals, we really focus on the director’s vision, both aesthetically and in their understanding of the people and world they are portraying, whether it’s fiction or documentary. We always look for a synergy between form and content. It is like solving a puzzle: how can we tell this story in a way where the form supports the meaning? We look for directors who want to go on that journey with us, and who care not just about making the film, but also about the participants and about how the film reaches the world: ideally with a long life, in education, in art, in public discourse.
FLEE © Final Cut for Real
What would you advise for today’s generation of producers who are starting their careers?
At Final Cut for Real, it has been really important to work as a kind of collective. We have always been a small group of producers who discuss and decide together, often working in pairs on projects. That internal collaboration has been incredibly valuable: we learn from each other, challenge each other, and discuss the projects before they face the outside world. I know I tend to fall in love with projects easily, so I really need someone to ask the tough questions early on: did you think about this, would this be too complicated or too expensive? Creating a space for that kind of shared thinking makes a big difference.
The other thing I always recommend is: do Eurodoc, EAVE, ACE, Inside Pictures. Do all of them, if you can, with some years between each round. I didn’t know this when I started, but in Denmark, we can get support from the DFI, the Producers' Rights Association PRD and Nordisk Film Fonden to cover the costs of attending these workshops, and we have tried to make sure everyone at Final Cut for Real could go when they wanted. They are really useful, and they give everyone a network of people that they know, and that’s a benefit for the whole company, because then the company network becomes bigger, it multiplies our opportunities. Also, it’s such intensive learning that happens in these courses, and since the film world and the world in general is changing so fast, we constantly need to update our knowledge, so I really encourage everyone to do it.
Page published 29 July 2025. Updated 31 July 2025.
