A century of Danish films

Nordisk Film, one of the world’s oldest film production companies, celebrated its 100th anniversary Monday at the Copenhagen studios where it started making silent movies at the dawn of the film industry.

Danish Queen Margrethe was to tour the facilities in the Valby neighborhood where thousands of films and TV shows have been produced since theater operator Ole Olsen founded the company on Nov. 6, 1906.

Today, Nordisk Film remains a major production house for movies in the Nordic region and has also ventured into computer games.

The company had its heyday during the industry’s early stages, when it had branches in London, New York, South America and Russia. In 1914 alone, Nordisk Film produced 143 feature films and 46 nonfiction movies and sold more than 7,000 copies worldwide.

The company produced silent movie great Asta Nielsen as well as comedy duo Fy and Bi, who are believed to have inspired Laurel and Hardy, and Abbott and Costello. In the late 1980s, two of its movies won the Academy Award for best foreign film -- “Babette’s Feast” in 1988 and “Pelle the Conqueror” in 1989.

Nordisk Film merged in 1992 with Egmont Group, a Danish media conglomerate.