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The Most Famous

FILM DIRECTORS from Denmark

This page contains a list of the greatest Danish Film Directors. The pantheon dataset contains 1,581 Film Directors, 21 of which were born in Denmark. This makes Denmark the birth place of the 19th most number of Film Directors behind Australia and Austria.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Danish Film Directors of all time. This list of famous Danish Film Directors is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Danish Film Directors.

1. Lars von Trier (1956 - )

With an HPI of 68.59, Lars von Trier is the most famous Danish Film Director. His biography has been translated into 64 different languages on wikipedia.

Lars von Trier (né Trier; 30 April 1956) is a Danish film director and screenwriter. Beginning in the late-1960s as a child actor working on Danish television series Secret Summer, von Trier's career has spanned more than five decades. Considered a major figure of the European film industry, he and his works have been variously described as ambitious and provocative, as well as technically innovative. His films offer confrontational examinations of existential, social, psychosexual, and political issues, and deal in subjects including mercy, sacrifice, and mental health. He frequently collaborates with the actors Jens Albinus, Jean-Marc Barr, Udo Kier and Stellan Skarsgård. Von Trier co-created the avant-garde filmmaking movement Dogme 95 alongside fellow director Thomas Vinterberg and co-founded the Danish film production company Zentropa, the films from which have sold more than 350 million tickets and garnered eight Academy Award nominations. Von Trier has been the subject of criticisms and controversies. Cannes Film Festival, in addition to awarding his films on numerous occasions, once listed him as persona non grata for making a Nazism joke during an interview; animal harm on Manderlay's set, and graphic violence and unsimulated sex in some of his films have drawn criticism; and he has been accused of mistreatment and negligence towards actresses during the filming process, including Björk.

2. Carl Theodor Dreyer (1889 - 1968)

With an HPI of 65.89, Carl Theodor Dreyer is the 2nd most famous Danish Film Director. His biography has been translated into 52 different languages.

Carl Theodor Dreyer (Danish: [ˈkʰɑˀl ˈtsʰe̝ːotɒ ˈtʁɑjˀɐ]; 3 February 1889 – 20 March 1968), commonly known as Carl Th. Dreyer, was a Danish film director and screenwriter. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, his movies are noted for emotional austerity and slow, stately pacing, frequent themes of social intolerance, the inseparability of fate and death, and the power of evil in earthly life. His 1928 movie The Passion of Joan of Arc is considered to be one of the great movies of all time, renowned for its cinematography and use of close-ups. It frequently appears on Sight & Sound's lists of the great films ever made, and in 2012's poll, it was voted the ninth-best film by film critics and 37th by film directors. His other well-known films include Michael (1924), Vampyr (1932), Day of Wrath (1943), Ordet (The Word) (1955), and Gertrud (1964).

3. Bille August (1948 - )

With an HPI of 61.56, Bille August is the 3rd most famous Danish Film Director. His biography has been translated into 33 different languages.

Bille August RD (born 9 November 1948) is a Danish director, screenwriter, and cinematographer of film and television. In a career spanning over four decades, he has been the recipient of numerous accolades, making him one of the most acclaimed contemporary Danish filmmakers. August's 1987 film Pelle the Conqueror won the Palme d'Or, Academy Award and Golden Globe Award. He is one of only ten directors to win the Palme d'Or twice, winning the award again in 1992 for The Best Intentions, based on the autobiographical script by Ingmar Bergman. His filmography includes The House of the Spirits, based on the novel by Isabel Allende; Smilla's Sense of Snow; Les Misérables; Night Train to Lisbon, Silent Heart, The Chinese Widow and A Fortunate Man. He has received five Robert Awards (including Best Film and Best Director) and three Bodil Awards for Best Danish Film. He is also a Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog.

4. Gabriel Axel (1918 - 2014)

With an HPI of 57.92, Gabriel Axel is the 4th most famous Danish Film Director. His biography has been translated into 30 different languages.

Axel Gabriel Erik Mørch better known as Gabriel Axel (18 April 1918 – 9 February 2014) was a Danish film director, actor, writer and producer, best known for Babette's Feast (1987), which he wrote and directed.

5. Thomas Vinterberg (1969 - )

With an HPI of 57.16, Thomas Vinterberg is the 5th most famous Danish Film Director. His biography has been translated into 37 different languages.

Thomas Vinterberg (Danish: [ˈtsʰʌmæs ˈve̝nˀtɐˌpɛɐ̯ˀ]; born 19 May 1969) is a Danish film director who, along with Lars von Trier, co-founded the Dogme 95 movement in filmmaking, which established rules for simplifying movie production. He is best known for the films The Celebration (1998), Submarino (2010), The Hunt (2012), Far from the Madding Crowd (2015), and Another Round (2020). For Another Round, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director (the first Danish filmmaker nominated for the Best Director category).

6. Susanne Bier (1960 - )

With an HPI of 54.12, Susanne Bier is the 6th most famous Danish Film Director. Her biography has been translated into 34 different languages.

Susanne Bier (Danish: [suˈsænə ˈpiɐ̯ˀ]; born 15 April 1960) is a Danish filmmaker. She is best known for her feature films Brothers (2004), After the Wedding (2006), In a Better World (2010), and Bird Box (2018), and the TV miniseries The Night Manager (2016) on AMC, The Undoing (2020) on HBO, and The First Lady (2022) on Showtime. Bier is the first female director to win a Golden Globe Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a European Film Award, collectively.

7. Henning Carlsen (1927 - 2014)

With an HPI of 50.95, Henning Carlsen is the 7th most famous Danish Film Director. His biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

Henning Carlsen (4 June 1927 – 30 May 2014) was a Danish film director, screenwriter, and producer most noted for his documentaries and his contributions to the style of cinéma vérité. Carlsen's 1966 social-realistic drama Hunger (Sult) was nominated for the Palme d'Or and won the Bodil Award for Best Danish Film. Carlsen also won the Bodil Award the following year for the comedy People Meet and Sweet Music Fills the Heart. Acting as his own producer since 1960, Carlsen has directed more than 25 films, 19 for which he wrote the screenplay. In 2006, he received the Golden Swan Lifetime Achievement Award at the Copenhagen International Film Festival.

8. Nicolas Winding Refn (1970 - )

With an HPI of 50.40, Nicolas Winding Refn is the 8th most famous Danish Film Director. His biography has been translated into 28 different languages.

Nicolas Winding Refn (Danish: [ˈne̝kolɑs ˈve̝nte̝ŋ ˈʁæfn̩]; born 29 September 1970) is a Danish film director, screenwriter, and producer. He found great success early in his career directing the Pusher trilogy (1996–2005), the crime drama Bronson (2008), and the adventure film Valhalla Rising (2009). In 2011 he gained newfound stardom directing the action drama film Drive (2011) for which he won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Director. He was also nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Direction. Refn's next films were the stylistically driven action film Only God Forgives (2013), and the psychological horror film The Neon Demon (2016). In 2019, he directed his first television series Too Old to Die Young (2019) which premiered on Amazon Prime. After a bad experience with Amazon and how it handled Too Old to Die Young, Refn's next project took him to Netflix, and saw him returning to his native Copenhagen for the first time since Pusher 3, and was the setting for his magical-realism series, Copenhagen Cowboy. In 2008, Refn co-founded the Copenhagen-based production company Space Rocket Nation.

9. Benjamin Christensen (1879 - 1959)

With an HPI of 50.17, Benjamin Christensen is the 9th most famous Danish Film Director. His biography has been translated into 20 different languages.

Benjamin Christensen (28 September 1879 – 2 April 1959) was a Danish film director, screenwriter and an actor, both in film and on the stage. As a director, he was best known for his 1922 film Häxan (aka Witchcraft Through the Ages). His most memorable and acclaimed acting performance was in the film Michael (1924), where he played Claude Zoret, the male lover of the film's title character in a landmark gay film.

10. Erik Balling (1924 - 2005)

With an HPI of 50.09, Erik Balling is the 10th most famous Danish Film Director. His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Erik Balling (29 November 1924 – 19 November 2005) was a Danish TV and film director. He created two of Denmark's most popular TV-series, Matador and Huset på Christianshavn. His feature film Qivitoq (1956) was nominated for a Golden Palm at the 1957 Cannes Film Festival, and for an Oscar as Best Foreign Language Film. His 1962 film Den kære familie was entered into the 3rd Moscow International Film Festival. Together with Henning Bahs, he also created the hugely popular series of Olsen Gang feature films.

People

Pantheon has 21 people classified as film directors born between 1869 and 1977. Of these 21, 13 (61.90%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living film directors include Lars von Trier, Bille August, and Thomas Vinterberg. The most famous deceased film directors include Carl Theodor Dreyer, Gabriel Axel, and Henning Carlsen. As of April 2022, 1 new film directors have been added to Pantheon including Ole Bornedal.