Ole Bornedal started his career in radio in the 1980's before turning to television entertainment and satire as well as stage writing and directing. He was head of fiction in DR from 1993 to 1994, where he quit to dedicate himself to feature filmmaking after his massive breakthrough with his feature film debut 'Nightwatch' (1994), establishing him as one of the innovative directors of the Danish new wave of the 1990s. Bornedal also directed the US remake of the film, released in 1998.
His 1996 road movie comedy series 'Charlot and Charlotte' made him a frontrunner in the golden age of Danish TV drama as well. He followed up with the miniseries thriller 'Deep Water' in 1999.
Bornedal's third feature film, the international large-scale English-language co-production 'I am Dina' (2002), was also a success. After several years as a stage director, Bornedal returned to filmmaking in 2007 with the children's horror film 'The Substitute' (2007), thrillers 'Just Another Love Story' (2007) and 'Deliver Us From Evil' (2009) and US horror film 'The Possession' (2012).
In 2014, Bornedal's high profile historical TV drama '1864' became the subject of great debate about historic accuracy in fiction in Denmark.
Bornedal returned to his comedy roots with the dark comedy 'Small Town Killers' (2017). 'The Road to Mandalay' (2018), a portrait of the popular Danish singer-songwriter John Mogensen, became the second highest grossing film of the year. Release in 2021: the second world war drama 'The Shadow in My Eye'.
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