Ruben Östlund

How does art talk about art? Ruben Östlund plays around with surrealism, satire and physical comedy, following the moral and professional dilemmas of a museum director setting up a controversial new exhibit and triggering massive reactions. Palme d’Or in Cannes. — The intelligent and handsome curator of a contemporary art museum is a divorced father, drives an electric car and supports charitable organizations. The new exhibition he has curated is an installment that invites people to consider altruism and promotes responsibility towards our fellow human beings. Sometimes, though, it's hard to live up to your own ideals. Both him and the museum are facing existential crises. — Nominated for Best Foreign Language Film | Oscars | 2018 Palme d'Or | Cannes Film Festival | 2017 Best European Film | Goya Awards | 2018

A film about personal fears and inner demons, under the pressure of society. Through five small, separate episodes of everyday disaster, Ruben Östlund's perceptive eye observes the suffocating bonds in a middle class on the brink of change. Premiere at the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard. — A coach driver on his customary rest stop, discovers that someone has damaged the curtain in the coach's toilet, and decides that no passenger will leave until the culprit decides to confess. 30-year-old Leif and his friends pull a prank that for some seems to cross all limits. Two teenage girls pose in front of their camera. A boy's parents arrange to set off fireworks for his birthday. When a firework doesn't go off properly, the host gets injured, but doesn't tell anyone for fear of spoiling the fun. When a teacher learns that a colleague hit a student, she uses a classroom psychological experiment to uncover the truth. What connects all these faces and all these stories? The pressure of society as a whole, against personal fears. — Official Selection Un Certain Regard | Cannes Film Festival | 2008 Audience Award | Stockholm Film Festival | 2008 FIPRESCI Prize | Palm Springs Film Festival | 2010 Best Director Award | Geneva Film Festival | 2008

Role-playing games and amateur children gangs in Gothenburg, in a cold but impressive observation of violent human behavior, which emerged from the director's extensive research into real incidents of organized bullying and his personal interviews with victims and perpetrators. — In central Gothenburg, Sweden, a group of 12 to 14 year old boys committed about 40 robberies against other children between 2006 and 2008. The robbers used an elaborate plan called the "little brother trick", which involved advanced role-playing and gang rhetoric instead of physical violence. — Official Selection DIrector's Fortnight | Cannes Film Festival | 2011

Ruben Östlund's first feature film showed the first solid signs of the talent of the later double Cannes winner, who defies the rules of traditional film narrative with a pseudo-documentary, hailed by international critics as an "art-house version of Jackass and Candid Camera". — The everyday life of a group of lonely, unconventional people in modern Sweden: a boy who composes punk songs, a neurotic woman on the verge of self-destruction, men who play with their guns. — FIPRESCI Prize | Moscow Film Festival | 2005

After "The Square", Reuben Östlund again tackles class satire in a delightful black comedy that puts Marx, consumerism and... bodily fluids in a blender against the backdrop of the greek Chiliadou beach. — Carl and Yaya are influencer fashion models whose relationship is increasingly soured by money. Offered free places on a luxury cruise, they find themselves sharing a superyacht with arms dealers and an oligarch, while a cynical Marxist alcoholic captains the ship as things quickly turn upside-down. — Nomination for Best Film | Oscars | 2023 Nomination for Best Director | Oscars | 2023 Nomination for Best Screenplay | Oscars | 2023 Palme d'Or | Cannes Film Festival | 2022 Best European Film | European Film Awards | 2023

A natural disaster during a ski holiday triggers an avalanche of strain in a couple's marriage. Before the Palme d’Or, Ruben Östlund explores modern relationships, stunningly balancing between evocative drama and hilarious comedy. — A cheerful Swedish family goes skiing at the French Alps. During a meal at a restaurant on a slope, an avalanche turns everything upside down. While plates fly away in all directions, the woman is looking for her husband as she tries to shield their children; but he ran away to save himself. After the avalanche stops, they burst into awkward laughter but the family balance has been completely overturned. His unexpected reaction causes the reassessment of family roles and relationships. — Un Certain Regard Jury Prize | Cannes Film Festival | 2014 Best Film | Seville European Film Festival | 2014 Best Screenplay | Seville European Film Festival | 2014