Lars von Trier

Director and screenwriter. Born 30/4 1956, Denmark, as Lars Trier. Studied at the University of Copenhagen's Department of Film and Media Studies (1976-79) and at the National Film School of Denmark (1979-82). His graduation film,"Images of Relief" (1982), evoked the attention of the critics who declared there was nothing comparable in Danish cinema since Dreyer. In a few years, Trier established himself as an internationally acclaimed auteur director and was later one of the co-founders of Dogme 95.

In 1992 Trier, together with producer Peter Aalbæk, established the production company Zentropa, which has since played a pivotal role i Scandinavian film production.

Trier debuted with the English-language feature "The Element of Crime" (1984) which, together with the low-budget experimental film "Epidemic" (1987) and the large-scale melodrama "Europa" (1991), compose the so-called Europa trilogy, a nightmarish vision of a doomed Europe in past, present and future.

Trier then released his television series "The Kingdom" (1994, second season in 1997). The highly entertaining mix of horror and comedy centring on the eccentric personalities at Copenhagen University Hospital was a great popular breakthrough for Trier. But the series also offered an experimental visual style with handheld cameras, grainy pictures and ostentatious violation of traditional narrative conventions that were the prelude to the concept of Dogme, presented in the manifesto Dogme 95.

Trier wrote the Dogme manifesto together with Thomas Vinterberg and presented it in Paris on 20 March 1995 as part of the celebration of cinema's 100-year anniversary. The manifesto was a protest against the time's superficial, technological and economically overloaded movie style, especially Hollywood's. Instead, they championed for a truer, simpler mode of production — as specified in the 'Vow of Chastity's Ten Commandments.'

Trier's next film was the intense melodrama "Breaking the Waves" (1996), which combined sexual debasement with religious devotion, told in a raw, handheld visual style. The film became a big international breakthrough. The story of female sacrifice continued in Trier's Dogme film "The Idiots" (1998), about a collective searching for their "inner idiot," and in the tragic musical and Palme d'Or winner "Dancer in the Dark" (2000). The three films make up the so-called Golden Heart trilogy.

In "The Five Obstructions" (2003), the premise was that Jørgen Leth was to make new versions of his classic short film "The Perfect Human" (1967) from specific rules and limitations that were devised by von Trier.

"Dogville" (2003) and "Manderlay" (2005) were a part of the incomplete USA trilogy. Comprising Trier's so-called Depression trilogy are "Antichrist" (2009) about woman's nature and nature's cruelty, "Melancholia" (2011) about the end of the world, and "Nymphomaniac" (2013 and 2014) about sexuality as a destructive obsession.

Trier has received several awards at the Cannes Festival, including the Palme d'Or and the award for Best Actress (Björk) for "Dancer in the Dark" (2000). Also in Cannes' Official Competition were, among others, "Antichrist" (2009) and "Melancholia" (2011), again winning the award for best actress (Charlotte Gainsbourg and Kirsten Dunst, respectively).