General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

After the Wedding (2006 film)

After the Wedding (Danish: Efter brylluppet) is a 2006 Danish drama film directed by Susanne Bier, written by Bier and Anders Thomas Jensen, and starring Mads Mikkelsen, Rolf Lassgård, Sidse Babett Knudsen, and Stine Fischer Christensen¹. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film as Denmark's entry².

Key fact	Detail
Original title	Efter brylluppet
Director / screenplay	Susanne Bier; screenplay by Anders Thomas Jensen (story by both)¹^•³
Cast	Mads Mikkelsen (Jacob), Rolf Lassgård (Jørgen), Sidse Babett Knudsen (Helene), Stine Fischer Christensen (Anna)¹^•³
Danish release	24 February 2006¹
Oscar nomination	Best Foreign Language Film, Denmark's entry, 2007 ceremony²
Worldwide box office	$11,632,723, of which $4,455,791 from Denmark and $1,534,584 from the United States⁴
Critical reception	87% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer from 102 reviews⁵

Spoilers

Plot

Jacob Petersen has dedicated his life to helping street children in India, where he heads an orphanage threatened with closure. A Danish businessman, Jørgen, offers him a donation of $4 million, on conditions: Jacob must return to Denmark and take part in the wedding of Jørgen's daughter. The wedding turns out to be a pivotal point linking Jacob's past with his future, and it throws him into the gravest dilemma he has ever faced.¹

At the wedding reception, a toast by the bride sets the film's central revelation in motion, and Jacob, Jørgen, and Jørgen's wife Helene spend the remainder of the film working through the resulting family crises⁶. The New Zealand International Film Festival synopsis describes Jørgen as a boorish and boozy billionaire with an agenda of his own, who introduces Jacob to Helene and appears to protract Jacob's visit with mysterious new afterthoughts and provisos⁷.

Production

The film was produced by Sisse Graum Jørgensen for Zentropa Entertainments16, with Peter Aalbæk Jensen and Peter Garde as executive producers. Morten Søborg was the director of photography, Pernille Bech Christensen and Morten Højbjerg edited, and Johan Söderqvist composed the music. It was shot on 35 mm in a 1.85:1 widescreen format with Dolby SRD sound¹. Production companies included Zentropa, Nordisk Film Denmark, Det Danske Filminstitut, SVT, Sigma Films, and Invicta Capital³. Filming took place in Denmark and India⁸.

The film is a Danish production with British co-production credit: Cineuropa lists the country as Denmark and the United Kingdom⁹, and a survey of Danish film culture records it as DK/GB¹⁰. The Swedish Film Institute's database likewise lists it as a Danish-British co-production, while the Internet Movie Database has indicated a Danish-Swedish collaboration¹¹.

Release and box office

The film premiered in Denmark on 24 February 2006, distributed by Nordisk Film Biografdistribution, with international sales handled by TrustNordisk¹. It rolled out across Europe and beyond over the following two years: Sweden on 1 September 2006, Italy on 22 December 2006, Germany on 1 February 2007, the United Kingdom on 9 March 2007, Spain on 13 April 2007, and Hungary on 3 January 2008⁹. In Spain it sold 79,645 admissions and grossed €417,289.74¹².

In the United States, IFC Films gave it a limited release on 30 March 2007 with an opening of $47,311; domestic grosses reached $1,534,584, about 13 percent of the worldwide total of $11,632,723⁴. Denmark accounted for the largest single-market gross at $4,455,791⁴.

Reception and awards

The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2007 ceremony². A contemporary Danish account noted it was the first Danish film nominated in that category since 1996 and the first purely Danish nominee since 1989; Germany's The Lives of Others won the award that year¹³.

At the Bodil Awards, Stine Fischer Christensen won Best Supporting Actress, with nominations for Best Film, Best Actress for Sidse Babett Knudsen, and Best Actor for Rolf Lassgård. At the Danish Film Awards (Robert), Christensen again won Best Supporting Actress among four nominations. Mads Mikkelsen won the FIPRESCI Prize for Best Actor at the Palm Springs International Film Festival and was nominated for the European Film Award for European Actor, while Bier was nominated for European Director. The film also took audience awards at the Cinéfest Sudbury and Film by the Sea festivals, and Knudsen won Best Actress at the Rouen Nordic Film Festival². It screened out of competition at the 2006 Rome Film Festival⁹.

Critics responded strongly to the performances. Screen International's Allan Hunter wrote that the film unfolds an emotionally complex saga of moral dilemmas and called it one of Bier's finest achievements¹⁴. The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw gave it three of five stars, calling it perhaps Bier's most persuasive movie yet, while Philip French read it as another Danish film with echoes of Hamlet, concerning the transference of power in wealthy dynasties and the revelation of painful secrets¹⁵. Time Out, also at three of five stars, praised the central revelation but judged the later accumulation of melodramatic elements a mistake⁶. On Rotten Tomatoes the critics consensus states that the cast brings the melodramatic script to life, creating a movie that is emotionally raw and satisfying⁵.

Runtime and versions

Reported running times differ by source: the Danish Film Institute lists 124 minutes¹, Cineuropa and the production catalog list 122 minutes⁹^•¹⁶, and the Spanish ICAA database certifies a 128-minute version¹². The Danish rating was not recommended for children under 7¹, and the film received an R rating in the United States⁴.

American remake

Producer Joel B. Michaels saw the film after its Oscar nomination and acquired the remake rights from the Danish production company in mid-2007 after a contested negotiation¹⁷. The resulting 2019 American film, directed by Bart Freundlich, stars Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams, Billy Crudup, Abby Quinn, and Alex Esola¹⁷.

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026