Thomas Vinterberg

Infobox Actor
name = Thomas Vinterberg

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imagesize = 300px
caption = Thomas Vinterberg at 40th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
birthdate = birth date and age|1969|5|19
location = Copenhagen, Denmark
occupation = Film director, producer, screenwriter and actor
birthname =
spouse = Maria Walbom (1990-2007)
yearsactive =
imdb_id =

Thomas Vinterberg (born May 19 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.

In 1993 he graduated from the National Film School of Denmark with "Last Round" ("Sidste Omgang"), which won the jury and producers' awards at the International Student Film Festival in Munich, and First Prize at Tel Aviv, as well as several other prizes; in 1994 the film received an Oscar nomination. That year Vinterberg made his first TV drama for DR TV and his short fiction film The Boy Who Walked Backwards, produced by Birgitte Hald at Nimbus Film.

This film has won awards and accolades all over the world, including Nordic Panorama in Iceland, the International Short Film Festival in Clermont-Ferrand, and the Toronto Film Festival.

His first feature film was "The Biggest Heroes" ("De Største Helte"), a road movie that received acclaim in his native Denmark.

In 1995, Vinterberg formed the Dogme 95 movement with Lars von Trier, Kristian Levring, and Søren Kragh-Jacobsen.

Following that dogma in 1998, he conceived, wrote and directed (and also had a small acting role in) the first of the Dogme movies, "The Celebration" ("Festen"). As per the rules of the Dogme manifesto, he did not take a directorial credit and IMDb has the film listed with no director. However, he and the film won numerous nominations and awards.

In 2003, he directed the apocalyptic science fiction love story "It's All About Love", a movie he wrote, directed and produced himself over a period of five years. This movie was entirely in English and featured, among others, Joaquin Phoenix, Claire Danes, and Sean Penn. The movie did not do well, as critics and audiences found it idiosyncratic and somewhat incomprehensible.

His next film, the English-language "Dear Wendy" (2005), scripted by Lars von Trier, also flopped, even in his native Denmark where it sold only 14.521 tickets [http://www.dfi.dk/talogstatistik/biograftal/biotal2006/biotal2006_2.htm] . Vinterberg then tried to retrace his roots with a smaller Danish-language production, "En mand kommer hjem" (2007), which also flopped, selling only 31.232 tickets [http://www.dfi.dk/talogstatistik/biograftal/biotal/biotal.htm] .

On August 1, 2008 he directed the music video for "The Day That Never Comes", the first single off Metallica's album "Death Magnetic".

Filmography

*"Sneblind" (1990) (short)
*"Last Round" / "Sidste omgang" (1993) (short)
*"The Boy Who Walked Backwards / Drengen der gik baglæns" (1994) (short)
*"The Biggest Heroes / De største helte" (1996)
*"The Celebration / Festen" (1998)
*"The Third Lie" (2000)
*"It's All About Love" (2003)
*"Dear Wendy" (2005)

External links

*
* [http://edition.cnn.com/2006/TRAVEL/02/02/copenhagen.qa/ CNN interview with Thomas Vinterberg]