Ruben Östlund (born 13 April 1974) is a Swedish filmmaker best known for his black comedic and satirical films '' Force Majeure'' (2014), '' The Square'' (2017) and '' Triangle of Sadness'' (2022), all of which received largely positive reviews and won awards at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films ...

, including the

Palme d'Or The Palme d'Or (; en, Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festival's highest prize was the Grand Prix du Fe ...

for the latter two.

Life and career

Östlund was born in

Styrsö Styrsö () is a small island and a locality situated in Göteborg Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had 1,304 inhabitants in 2010. It lies in the Southern Göteborg Archipelago of Sweden with about 1,400 inhabitants. Regulafe ...

Gothenburg Municipality Gothenburg Municipality (''Göteborgs kommun'' or ''Göteborgs stad'') is a municipality in Västra Götaland County in western Sweden. Its seat is located in the city of Gothenburg. When the first Swedish local government acts were implement ...

, Sweden. After high school, he started working in various

ski resort A ski resort is a resort developed for skiing, snowboarding, and other winter sports. In Europe, most ski resorts are towns or villages in or adjacent to a ski area – a mountainous area with pistes (ski trails) and a ski lift system. In N ...

s in the

Alps The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, ...

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, graduating 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 Play most commonly refers to: * Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment * Play (theatre), a work of drama Play may refer also to: Computers and technology * Google Play, a digital content service * Play Framework, a Java framework * P ...

'' (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 The 60th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 11 to 21 February 2010, with Werner Herzog as President of the Jury. The opening film of the festival was Chinese director Wang Quan'an's romantic drama ''Apart Together'', in com ...

and the Grand Prix at

Tampere Film Festival The Tampere Film Festival ( fi, Tampereen elokuvajuhlat) is a short film festival held every March, mostly at the Finnkino Plevna movie theatre, in Tampere, Finland. It is accredited by the film producers' society FIAPF, and together with the sho ...

in 2011. In 2014, his film ''Force Majeure'' was selected to compete in the

Un Certain Regard (, meaning 'a certain glance') is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's official selection. It is run at the Debussy, parallel to the competition for the . This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob. The section presents 20 films ...

section at the

, winning the Jury Prize. Sweden then submitted ''Force Majeure'' for the

Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film The Academy Award for Best International Feature Film (known as Best Foreign Language Film prior to 2020) is one of the Academy Awards handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to a ...

. After the

Academy An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosop ...

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 Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. The ci ...

. In 2017, his film '' The Square'', loosely inspired by some of his own experiences and

art installation Installation art is an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called ...

with

Kalle Boman Karl-Axel "Kalle" Boman (born 5 April 1943) is a Swedish film producer based in Gothenburg who has been involved in many works in Swedish cinema for over 50 years. Raised in Södermalm, he was exposed to a theatre school as a boy through a fri ...

, competed at the

, where it ultimately won the

. 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

in 2022.

Personal life

Ruben has been in a relationship with fashion photographer Sina Görcz since 2014 and has a son called Elias. Due to COVID-19, Ruben and Sina had to postpone their wedding. He was previously married to his director colleague Andrea Östlund. They divorced in 2008 and have twin daughters, Alva and Hilda, together. Ruben was 28 when he became a father for the first time and was working on '' The Guitar Mongoloid'', his first feature film.

Filmography

References

External links

* *
Ruben Östlund
at the

Danish Film Institute The Danish Film Institute ( da, Det Danske Filminstitut) is the national Danish agency responsible for supporting and encouraging film and cinema culture, and for conserving these in the national interest. Also known as ''Filmhuset'' ("the film ...

Ruben Östlund
at the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

Plattform Produktion official websitePlattform Produktion
at

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most ...

Ruben Östlund
at

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ostlund, Ruben 1974 births Living people Best Director Guldbagge Award winners Best Screenplay Guldbagge Award winners Directors of Palme d'Or winners European Film Award for Best Director winners European Film Award for Best Screenwriter winners Swedish male screenwriters People from Gothenburg Swedish cinematographers Swedish directors Swedish film directors Swedish film editors Swedish film producers Swedish filmmakers Swedish satirists Swedish screenwriters