Biography
Bille August (born November 9, 1948) is a Danish Academy Award winning film and television director. His film Pelle the Conqueror from 1987 won the Palme D'or, Academy Award and Golden Globe. He is one of the very few directors to win the Palme D'or twice, winning the prestigious award again in 1991 for The Best Intentions, based on the autobiographical script by Ingmar Bergman. He was married to Swedish actress Pernilla August from 1991 to 1997. His son Anders August is a screenwriter.
Known For
Complete Filmography

Lifting the Veil: Behind the Scenes of Ehrengard
2023
as Self
Queen Margrethe II of Denmark and director Bille August showcase their meticulous attention to the sets and costumes of the "Ehrengard" film adaptatio...

Ehrengard: The Art of Seduction
2023
Director
When a self-appointed expert on love tries to teach a timid prince the art of seduction, the plan backfires, leading to scandal — and unexpected roman...

The Kiss
2022
Director, Writer
A romantic drama set in Denmark in 1913, the story follows Anton, a noble and conscientious young man whose top priority is to complete his training a...

The Pact
2021
Director
Aged 63, Karen Blixen is at the pinnacle of her fame and next in line to win the Nobel Prize for literature. It has been 17 years since she gave up he...

A Fortunate Man
2018
Director, Screenplay
A gifted engineer flees his austere roots to pursue wealth and success among Copenhagen's elite. As he rises through the ranks of society, the pride p...

55 Steps
2018
Director
The inspiring true story of Eleanor Riese, a mental illness patient herself, who brings a class action suit to give competent mental patients the righ...

The Chinese Widow
2017
Director
It’s 1941 and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor has destroyed America’s morale. The US President Franklin D. Roosevelt then decides to risk it all b...

Silent Heart
2014
Director
Three generations of a family gather over a weekend. The sisters Sanne and Heidi have accepted their terminally-ill mother’s desire to die before her ...

Night Train to Lisbon
2013
Director
Raimund Gregorius, having saved a beautiful Portuguese woman from leaping to her death, stumbles upon a mesmerizing book by a Portuguese author, which...

Marie Kroyer
2012
Director
Marie Krøyer is hailed as “the most beautiful woman in Europe” and leads a happy marriage life with her husband the great Danish painter P.S. Krøyer a...

To Each His Own Cinema
2007
Director
Commissioned to mark the 60th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival, "To Each His Own Cinema" brought together 33 of the world's pre-eminent filmmak...

The Last Dating Show
2007
Director
A young Dane has a movie date with a woman. He translates it into English because she does not speak Danish. The man's translation of the Danish movie...

Goodbye Bafana
2007
Director
The true story of a white South African racist whose life was profoundly altered by the black prisoner he guarded for twenty years. The prisoner's nam...

Return to Sender
2004
Director
While fighting for a woman who sits on death row, a lawyer happens upon new information which brings into question the motives of a man associated wit...

A Song for Martin
2001
Director, Writer
Martin, conductor of a symphonic orchestra, meet Barbara, violine player and they start a relationship. Five years later Martin starts to develop loss...

The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: The Perils of Cupid
2000
Director
First love - or first infatuation - overwhelms Indy in Vienna, where he is smitten with the daughter of Archduke Francis Ferdinand. Needing emotional ...

The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Tales of Innocence
1999
Director
In Italy, Indy's espionage work takes him behind enemy lines where he embarks on an important propaganda assignment that he hopes will bring a swift e...

Les Misérables
1998
Director
In 19th century France, Jean Valjean, a man imprisoned for stealing bread, must flee a relentless policeman named Javert. The pursuit consumes both me...

Smilla's Sense of Snow
1997
Director
Smilla Jaspersen attempts to understand the death of a small boy who falls from the roof of her apartment building. Suspecting wrongdoing, Smilla unco...

Jerusalem
1996
Writer, Director
Members of a devout Christian congregation try to start a new life in Palestine.

The House of the Spirits
1993
Screenplay, Director
A rancher, his clairvoyant wife and their family face turbulent years in South America.

The Best Intentions
1992
Director
In this film about Ingmar Bergman's parents, Henrik Bergman is studying for the priesthood and trying to make ends meet when he encounters the lovely,...
Foreign Filmmakers in Hollywood
1989
as Self
Filmed around the time of the 1989 Oscars this documentary includes interviews with foreign filmmakers from a variety of disciplines about their exper...

Pelle the Conqueror
1987
Director, Screenplay
In the late 19th century, two Swedish emigrants, Lasse Karlsson and his son Pelle, arrive on the Danish island of Bornholm hoping to find work on a fa...

Twist and Shout
1984
Director, Writer
Danish teens come of age in 1963. Bjorn and Erik are close friends. Bjorn is pursued by Kirsten, a future Stepford wife, but he falls for Anna, who in...

Busters verden
1984
Director
The television series was based on a play by Danish author Bjarne Reuter. In 1984 Reuter published his collection Tre skuespil ("Three Plays"); a coll...

May
1983
Director
An everyday story about a young girl from the countryside and the people she meets when she moves to the big city to train as a hairdresser.

Zappa
1983
Director
Denmark, 1961. Bjørn, a middle-class boy in his early teens, wants to be accepted by Steen, a bullying peer of his with wealthy but freezingly cold pa...

Sova Räv
1982
Cinematography
About four young individuals that has been let down by their parents. They live an extroverted life together, searching for their identity, in constan...

The Grass Is Singing
1981
Director of Photography
In Southern Rhodesia in the 1940s, city-dweller Mary marries farmer Dick Turner and is plucked from the comforts of her cosmopolitan life and forced t...
Thomas - A Child Out of Reach
1980
Camera Operator
A feature length documentary about fourteen year old Thomas, a psychotic and severely mentally handicapped young boy.

In My Life
1978
Director
A young man finds love and settles down, but when his young wife spirals into depression they both have decisions to make.

Men Can't Be Raped
1978
Director of Photography
A woman who has been raped by a man at a party plots and executes an elaborate and humiliating revenge.

Christiania
1977
Camera Operator
Freetown Christiania, also known as Christiania, is an intentional community and commune of about 850 to 1,000 residents, covering 7.7 hectares (19 ac...

Hemåt i natten
1977
Director of Photography
Harri is one of Sweden's many Finnish immigrant-workers. While in Sweden, the illiterate Harri marries and has a child. After accidentally killing a m...

Me, You
N/A
Director
On a remote Italian island in the early 1960s, a teenage boy haunted by memories of the war falls in love with an older girl who holds a dark secret. ...
Versace: The Medusa Eyes
N/A
Director, Writer
A look at the life of Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace who rose to fame in the late 1970s.