Ruben Östlund Trivia | 35 facts about the Swedish director

Ruben Östlund was announced as the President of the Jury for the 76th Cannes Film Festival.

Let’s find out some trivia and facts about the world renowned director.

1. Ruben Östlund was born on April 13th, 1974
2. He is a Swedish filmmaker
3. He was best known for his black comedic and satirical films Force Majeure (2014), The Square (2017) and Triangle of Sadness (2022)
4. All of which received largely positive reviews
5. The films won awards at the Cannes Film Festival
6. The latter two won the Palme d’Or
7. His English-language debut Triangle of Sadness received critical acclaim
8. The film earned him an Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay
9. The film itself was nominated for Best Picture
10. Östlund was born in Styrsö, Gothenburg Municipality, Sweden
11. After high school, he started working in various ski resorts in the Alps during the winter seasons
12. While in the Alps, he began making skiing videos for his friends, which helped him obtain a job at a local production company
13. He went on to study at the film school in Gothenburg, graduating in 2001
14. He was accepted to the school based on his skiing films
15. Together with film producer Erik Hemmendorff, he is the co-founder of the production company Plattform Produktion, which produces his films
16. His first three feature-length fiction films were The Guitar Mongoloid (2004), Involuntary (2008) and Play (2011)
17. The Guitar Mongoloid won the FIPRESCI Award at the 27th Moscow International Film Festival
18. Östlund’s short film Incident by a Bank won the Golden Bear for Best Short Film at the 60th Berlin International Film Festival
19. And the Grand Prix at Tampere Film Festival in 2011
20. In 2014, his film Force Majeure was selected to compete in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival
21. Winning the Jury Prize
22. Sweden then submitted Force Majeure for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
23. After the Academy shortlisted but did not nominate it, Östlund released a humorous video of his response to missing the nomination list
24. In 2016, he was a member of the jury for the Un Certain Regard section of Cannes
25. In 2017, his film The Square, loosely inspired by some of his own experiences and art installation with Kalle Boman
26. The film competed at the Cannes Film Festival, where it ultimately won the Palme d’Or
27. In 2020, he received the King’s medal in gold for significant efforts in Swedish film
28. Afterwards, he pursued the project Triangle of Sadness, a satirical film about the wealthy elite, winning his second Palme d’Or in 2022
29. On January 23, 2023, he won Best Director at the Guldbaggens gala for Triangle of Sadness
30. The film won five other nominations
31. In January the same year, only a day after winning The Guldbaggengala, he was the Swedish nomination in Best Picture to the Academy Awards 2023 as well in Original Screenplay
32. Östlund has been in a relationship with fashion photographer Sina Görcz since 2014 and has a son called Elias
33. He was previously married to his director colleague Andrea Östlund
34. They divorced in 2008 and have twin daughters, Alva and Hilda, together
35. Östlund was 28 when he became a father for the first time and was working on The Guitar Mongoloid, his first feature film