Directing

Ruben Östlund

Directing · Born 1974-04-13 · Styrsö, Gothenburg, Sweden

Ruben Östlund (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈrʉːbɛnˈœstlɵnd]) (born April 13 1974) is a Swedish filmmaker best known for his satirical black comedy films Force Majeure (2014), The Square(2017) and Triangle of Sadness (2022). He is the recipient of various accolades, including two Palmes d'Or, four European Film Awards and nominations for three Academy Awards. Östlund was born in Styrsö, Gothenburg, Sweden. After high school, he started working in various ski resorts in the Alps during the winter seasons. While in the Alps, he began making skiing videos for his friends, which helped him obtain a job at a local production company. He went on to study at the film school in Gothenburg, Sweden, where he graduated in 2001. He was accepted to the school based on his skiing films. Together with film producer Erik Hemmendorff, he is the co-founder of the production company Plattform Produktion, which produces his films. His first three feature-length fiction films were The Guitar Mongoloid (2004), Involuntary (2008) and Play (2011). The Guitar Mongoloid won the FIPRESCI Award at the 27th Moscow International Film Festival. Östlund's short film Incident by a Bank won the Golden Bear for Best Short Film at the 60th Berlin International Film Festival and the Grand Prix at Tampere Film Festival in 2011. In 2014, his film Force Majeure was selected to compete in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival, winning the Jury Prize. Sweden then submitted Force Majeure for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. After the Academy shortlisted but did not nominate it, Östlund released a humorous video of his response to missing the nomination list. In 2016, he was a member of the jury for the Un Certain Regard section of Cannes. In 2017, his film The Square, loosely inspired by some of his own experiences and art installation with Kalle Boman, competed at the Cannes Film Festival, where it ultimately won the Palme d'Or. Alissa Wilkinson of Vox described the film as "Burying self-referential allusions in the background and merrily poking viewers till they bruise, The Square at times feels more like longform performance art than a narrative film. It's social satire by way of art-world comedy, and no woke participant is exempt from its barbs." In 2020, he received the King's Medal in Gold for significant efforts in Swedish film. Afterwards, he pursued the project Triangle of Sadness, a satirical film about the wealthy elite, winning his second Palme d'Or in 2022. On January 23, 2023, he won Best Director at the Guldbaggens gala for Triangle of Sadness. The film won five other nominations. In January of the same year, only a day after winning the Guldbaggengala, Triangle of Sadness received Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. He was the Jury president of the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. Description above from the Wikipedia article Ruben Östlund, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Credits · 37

Film
Redoubt
2026 · Producer
Film
Being Bo Widerberg
2025 · Self
Film
Death of a Fantastic Machine
2025 · Production Consultant
Film
Life and Other Problems
2024 · Executive Producer
Film
Room 999
2023 · Self
Film
And the King Said, What a Fantastic Machine
2023 · Executive Producer
Film
Beau Is Afraid
2023 · Thanks
Film
Triangle of Sadness
2022 · Editor
Film
Snow thérapie
2022 · Original Film Writer
Film
Code Haneke
2022 · Self
Carina Bergfeldt
2021 · Self - Guest
Film
Il était une fois... « The Square »
2020 · Self
Film
Downhill
2020 · Executive Producer
Film
Searching for Ingmar Bergman
2018 · Self - Filmmaker
Film
The Square
2017 · Director
Film
Fight on a Swedish Beach!!
2016 · Creative Director
Film
Ten Meter Tower
2016 · Art Department Production Assistant
Film
Force Majeure
2014 · Editor
Babel
2014
Min sanning
2012 · Self
Film
Room 1112
2012
Film
Twin Brothers: 53 Scenes in Chronological Order
2011 · Executive Producer
Film
Play
2011 · Director
Film
Incident by a Bank
2010 · Director
Film
Greetings from the Woods
2009 · Executive Producer
Skavlan
2009 · Self - Guest
Film
Involuntary
2008 · Director
Film
An Extraordinary Study in Human Degradation
2008 · Director of Photography
Nattbad
Film
Nattbad
2006 · Director
Film
Weekend
2006 · Editor
Le Cercle
2005 · Self
Film
Autobiographical Scene Number 6882
2005 · Director of Photography
Film
The Guitar Mongoloid
2004 · Director
Mustasch: Down in Black
Film
Mustasch: Down in Black
2002 · Director
Film
Family Again
2002 · Editor
Film
Let the Others Deal With Love
2001 · Director
Film
Free Radicals
1997 · Camera Operator
Ruben Östlund · MediaMark