Nicolas Barbano

Nicolas Barbano is a Danish critic, journalist, producer and sometimes director specializing in genre films. Born in 1963, he started writing articles and reviews for a local newspaper at age 15, soon making a mark as Denmark's first film critic specializing in science fiction, horror and fantasy cinema. In 1994, while studying film and media at the University of Copenhagen (graduating at BA level), he also started researching adult cinema, then a poorly covered subject in serious film studies. He later served as board member and curator at Museum Erotica in central Copenhagen. Among his other fields of interest are animation, mythology and film music. He has served as a member of the FIPRESCI juries in Annecy and Ghent. As a filmmaker, he has contributed to various projects in a number of capacities, including actor, producer, writer, director, composer and publicist. He has written non-fiction books on science fiction, popular mythology and adult cinema, and contributed to countless periodicals and publications, including the National Danish Encyclopedia (Den Store Danske Encyklopædi), a music encyclopedia (Gad's Musikleksikon) and a film encyclopedia (Gyldendals Filmleksikon). Nicolas Barbano was one of the main participants in the first wave of Danish fanzine-publications, and has also contributed to the American genre film publications Famous Monsters of Filmland, Little Shoppe of Horrors and Video Watchdog. He started and edited the magazine Tracking (1983-85), Denmark's first magazine about films on video, where he wrote the first Danish article on David Cronenberg (he was the only Danish critic to review Cronenberg's Rabid (1977) at the time of its release, and later co-arranged a series of Cronenberg-films at the Danish Film Museum). Furthermore, Nicolas Barbano has written for Danish film magazines such as Filmnyt, Inquirer, Kosmorama, Levende Billeder, Mifune and Ekko, and for national newspapers such as Berlingske Tidende, B.T., Ekstra Bladet, Det Fri Aktuelt and Politiken. In 1996-2001 he was a regular freelance writer for the daily paper Ekstra Bladet, contributing countless reviews, articles, interviews etc. At Ekstra Bladet, he started and wrote a weekly video review column (the first in a Danish newspaper), stirring up controversy by also reviewing adult films, and later also a monthly column on film music. In 1989-93 he was writer (and sometimes co-director) for the long-running children's TV-program Troldspejlet (1989), where he created specials on vampires, werewolves etc. (he also coined the program's title, "Troldspejlet"). Additionally, he has conducted interviews etc. for TV-programs such as Bogart (1985) and Puls (1995), and in 2000 he showed up as writer, director, producer and host of his own TV-series Marilyn (2000), a wicked satire of Ole Michelsen's popular film review program Bogart (1985). In 1996, Nicolas Barbano initiated and organized the film festival Animani 96, which uniquely combined all types of animation, and attracted several Oscar-winning filmmakers. Among his short films are the occult thriller Adam Hart i Sahara (1990) and the ghost story Enken (1990), both of which he produced and directed. In 2001, in collaboration with Lars von Trier's film studio Zentropa, he founded the production company Innocent Pictures, where he produced the educational DVD Femi-X and Beyond (2004), which he also wrote and directed, and the best-selling feature film All About Anna (2005), an erotic/romantic comedy which won a Scandinavian Adult Award as Best Couples Film and was nominated for four AVN Awards, including Best Foreign Feature. Before it closed in early 2011, Innocent Pictures also owned the television station IPTV, broadcasting shows and films on Kanal 23 (Kanal København). On occasion, Nicolas Barbano has worked as studio cameraman on various television shows, and as behind-the-scenes journalist, still photographer and unit publicist on various short and feature film projects. Books written by Nicolas Barbano include 'Star Trek' (1990), 'Mysteriet om varulven' (1991), 'Bogen om Frankenstein' (1993) and 'Verdens 25 hotteste pornostjerner' (2000). He co-authored 'Stærk mand i Hollywood' (2007), the autobiography of Danish actor and stuntman Sven-Ole Thorsen. Books translated by Nicolas Barbano include 'Special Effects in Film and Television' (1998), 'Star Wars: Visual Dictionary' (1998) and 'Star Wars: The Power of Myth' (2000). He has edited the short-story collection 'Ulvens arv og andre noveller' (1984) and the non-fiction book 'Mumier fra hele verden' (1994).