As in Heaven Budget

What Is the Budget of As in Heaven (2021)?

As in Heaven (2021), known in Danish as Du som er i himlen, was directed by Tea Lindeburg in her feature debut on an estimated production budget of $2,500,000 to $3,500,000. The film was produced by Danish company Motor Productions with backing from the Danish Film Institute, DR (Danish public broadcasting), the Nordisk Film & TV Fond, and several Scandinavian co-financiers. The modest budget reflects the standard envelope for first-feature Danish period drama backed by the country's public-funding ecosystem.

Lindeburg adapted the screenplay from Marie Bregendahl's 1912 novel En dødsnat (A Night of Death), one of the canonical works of Danish rural literature. The project was structured as a contained one-location period piece designed to maximize visual and emotional impact within a tightly disciplined budget, with the Danish Film Institute's standard development and production support carrying the bulk of the financing through the early-career feature route.

Key Budget Allocation Categories

The estimated $2,500,000 to $3,500,000 budget broke down across:

• Above-the-Line Talent: First-time feature director Tea Lindeburg and a young Danish ensemble led by Flora Ofelia Hofmann Lindahl took Danish Film Institute scale rates appropriate to a debut feature. Veteran Danish actors Ida Cæcilie Rasmussen, Stine Fischer Christensen, and Thure Lindhardt filled key adult roles at standard Scandinavian feature rates.
• Single Farm Location: The film unfolds entirely on and around a single late-19th-century Danish farm, which the production sourced and dressed for the period in Denmark. Concentrating the entire shoot in one location minimized travel, multiple-unit costs, and lighting setup time, allowing the production to invest more deeply in period authenticity.
• Period Production Design: The art department dressed the farm interiors and exteriors to a circa-1900 standard, sourcing period-appropriate furniture, textiles, kitchen equipment, agricultural tools, and clothing. Production designer Sabine Hviid built the visual world the film inhabits, with a deep emphasis on the candlelit interiors and the natural lighting on the farm exteriors.
• Cinematography on 35mm: Cinematographer Marcel Zyskind, an internationally established DP with credits including Mister Lonely and 9 Songs, shot the film on 35mm to achieve the texture and grain quality the project required. The choice to shoot on film rather than digital was a meaningful budget commitment for a Danish first feature.
• Score: Kristian Eidnes Andersen (Lars von Trier's Antichrist, Melancholia, Nymphomaniac) composed the score, providing a recognizable Scandinavian arthouse composer credit at a budget tier where that level of attachment would not be guaranteed. The recording sessions were limited but the composer pedigree elevated the film's critical positioning.
• Festival Strategy: Motor Productions invested in a sustained festival campaign beginning with the Toronto International Film Festival world premiere in September 2021 and continuing through San Sebastian, Gothenburg, and the European Film Awards circuit. The festival travel and publicity line was meaningful relative to the production budget.

How Does As in Heaven's Budget Compare to Similar Films?

At an estimated $2,500,000 to $3,500,000, As in Heaven sits in the standard Danish Film Institute first-feature production tier. The comparison set illustrates how its cost profile compares with similar Scandinavian and European period work:

• Another Round (2020): Budget approximately $3,800,000 | Worldwide $19,500,000. Thomas Vinterberg's Oscar-winning Danish drama was made for a slightly larger budget and delivered the breakout case for Danish-language drama in the post-pandemic window.
• Land of Mine (2015): Budget approximately $4,000,000 | Worldwide $1,800,000. Martin Zandvliet's Oscar-nominated Danish war drama cost similarly, illustrating the production envelope for prestige Danish period work with international festival ambition.
• The Hunt (2012): Budget approximately $3,800,000 | Worldwide $16,000,000. Vinterberg's earlier Mads Mikkelsen contained drama provides the genre comparison for low-budget contained Danish work with international art-house impact.
• A Royal Affair (2012): Budget approximately $8,800,000 | Worldwide $11,500,000. Nikolaj Arcel's Mads Mikkelsen historical drama cost roughly three times what As in Heaven was made for, illustrating how a star-driven historical epic compares with a contained debut period drama.

As in Heaven Box Office Performance

As in Heaven received a primarily festival and arthouse theatrical release. The film opened in Denmark on October 14, 2021 and rolled out across Scandinavia, continental Europe, and select arthouse markets through 2022. Box office gross figures reported by the Danish Film Institute placed the domestic Danish theatrical take at approximately $850,000, with additional Scandinavian and international arthouse grosses bringing the cumulative worldwide theatrical to roughly $1,400,000.

Against an estimated production budget of $2,500,000 to $3,500,000, the financial breakdown is structured around the Danish public-funding model rather than traditional theatrical recoupment:

• Production Budget: approximately $2,500,000 to $3,500,000
• Estimated Prints & Advertising (P&A): approximately $400,000 to $700,000 (festival circuit and arthouse rollout)
• Total Estimated Investment: approximately $2,900,000 to $4,200,000
• Worldwide Theatrical Gross: approximately $1,400,000
• Net Return via Theatrical: approximately -$1,500,000 to -$2,800,000 (typical for Danish public-funded debut)
• ROI: measured in cultural value, awards, and television sales rather than theatrical revenue

Danish Film Institute-backed productions are not expected to recoup theatrically. The funding model treats theatrical gross as one channel among several, with broadcast deals (DR for Denmark, public broadcasters across Nordic territories), streaming sales, festival prize money, and international sales contributing to overall recoupment. As in Heaven sold to most major European territories and to a network of arthouse distributors covering North America (MUBI), the UK, and selected Asian markets.

As in Heaven Production History

Tea Lindeburg developed the project across several years, drawing on Marie Bregendahl's 1912 novel En dødsnat as the structural foundation while expanding the perspective to focus on the daughter Lise rather than the dying mother. The Danish Film Institute committed development funding in 2018, with Motor Productions attaching as the principal Danish producer and a slate of Scandinavian co-financiers joining through 2019 and 2020.

Principal photography took place in 2020 in rural Denmark, using a single farm location dressed to a turn-of-the-century period standard. The production navigated COVID-era restrictions through a tight contained schedule, with Marcel Zyskind shooting on 35mm and the cast living near the location to minimize travel during the pandemic.

Post-production ran through 2020 and into 2021, with the film accepted to the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival for a world premiere on September 12, 2021 in the Discovery section. The TIFF launch positioned the film for the San Sebastian competition just weeks later, where Lindeburg won the Silver Shell for Best Director and Flora Ofelia Hofmann Lindahl won Best Leading Performance.

The Danish theatrical release followed on October 14, 2021, with continued festival travel through the European Film Awards and the 2022 Gothenburg Film Festival, where the film won the Dragon Award for Best Nordic Film. Lindeburg's directorial profile rose substantially across the late-2021 and early-2022 awards window, positioning her for English-language work that materialized in subsequent years.

Awards and Recognition

As in Heaven swept the Scandinavian awards circuit. At the 2021 San Sebastian International Film Festival, Tea Lindeburg won the Silver Shell for Best Director and Flora Ofelia Hofmann Lindahl won the Silver Shell for Best Leading Performance, a remarkable haul for a Danish debut feature.

The 2022 Gothenburg Film Festival awarded the film its Dragon Award for Best Nordic Film, the highest honor in the festival's competition. The Danish Robert Awards (Denmark's national film prize) nominated the film in multiple categories including Best Film and Best Director, with Lindahl winning Best Actress at the 2022 ceremony.

The film received the Nordic Council Film Prize nomination and represented Denmark for European Film Awards consideration. It was not selected as Denmark's official entry for the Academy Awards Best International Feature category, with Joachim Trier's The Worst Person in the World taking that slot for Norway in the same window and overshadowing the broader Scandinavian conversation.

Critical Reception

As in Heaven received uniformly positive reviews. Variety's Jessica Kiang praised the film as marking the arrival of "a distinctively poetic new voice in Danish cinema," calling Lindeburg's direction "both controlled and emotionally devastating." The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw described Flora Ofelia Hofmann Lindahl's performance as "quietly extraordinary," placing it among the year's strongest film debuts.

The Hollywood Reporter's Jonathan Romney highlighted the film's "striking visual language and emotional precision," linking it to a Scandinavian tradition that includes Bergman and Dreyer while emphasizing that Lindeburg's framing of female labor and rural faith felt distinct from the male-authored canon. IndieWire's Eric Kohn placed the film on the publication's list of best debuts of 2021.

Critical conversation focused on the film's compression of an entire emotional arc into approximately 24 hours of story time, the cinematography’s use of natural and candle light, and the way the script reframed Marie Bregendahl's source material around the daughter rather than the mother. The film's reputation has continued to grow in the years following its release, with curated streaming platforms positioning it as essential viewing for audiences interested in contemporary Scandinavian arthouse work.