Ruben Östlund

One of the few Swedish filmmakers of his generation whose every feature is considered essential viewing, Ruben Östlund (birthname: Claes Olle Ruben Östlund) has established himself as a master of contemporary black comedy addressing hot-button and moral issues.

He made documentary shorts during this period, and then directed his debut feature, The Guitar Mongoloid in 2004, earning the international critics prize at the Moscow Film Festival. Östlund alternated between features and shorts, including Involuntary (2008), which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard, until he delivered his controversial breakout film about youth and racism, Play in 2011.

This film established Östlund as a must-see filmmaker whose work proved to be an instant conversation piece. His bracing drama-comedy, Force Majeure (2014), won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for best foreign film at the Golden Globes Awards. Force Majeure is one of the few Swedish films in recent years to receive a Hollywood remake—Downhill (2020), with Will Ferrell and Julia Louis-Dreyfus—and also adapted to the stage for a production at London’s Donmar Warehouse in 2022. 

Ruben Östlund is one of the few filmmakers to have gone straight from winning the top prize in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard sidebar section to winning the Palme d’Or in Cannes’ main competition, for The Square (2017), an ambitious black comedy that skewed the contemporary art world and starred Claes Bang, Elisabeth Moss and Dominic West.

Östlund’s greatest success to date, The Square won six European Film Awards (including film, director, and screenplay) and was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. In 2022, Östlund was back in the Cannes competition with Triangle of Sadness, with Woody Harrelson, Harris Dickinson, and Charlbi Dean, a dark comedy set on a cruise ship and an ensuing disaster.