Thomas Vinterberg will chair the jury of the 21st edition of the Marrakech International Film Festival

Academy Award-winning Danish director Thomas Vinterberg will chair the jury of the 21st Marrakech International Film Festival, which takes place from November 29th to December 7th, 2024.

The jury will award the Étoile d'Or to one of the 14 first and second features in the festival’s international competition, which is dedicated to the discovery of filmmakers from around the world.

“It’s a great privilege and an honor to have received the noble invitation from Marrakech International Film Festival to preside over the jury. In this rapidly changing and increasingly divided world, festivals such as Marrakech provide a much-needed window into a wide variety of cultures. Films can describe what cannot be explained. Make us understand the unacceptable. And there is indeed a lot to understand right now,” said Vinterberg when accepting the role as Jury President.

Since his remarkable entry onto the world cinema stage with The Celebration (1998), for which he won the Jury Prize at the Festival de Cannes when he was just 28, Thomas Vinterberg has become one of the most celebrated European filmmakers of our time. The author of a daring body of work that questions and exposes the darker side of human nature, Vinterberg reinvents himself and surprises audiences with each of his films.

Born in 1969, Vinterberg is an Academy Award-winning filmmaker based in Copenhagen. He was nominated for the Oscar for Best Director for Another Round (2020), the first Danish filmmaker ever to receive this honor. He went on to win an Oscar, a BAFTA, a César, and four European Film Awards for the blockbuster drama, which had its premiere in Cannes and later screened at the Toronto and San Sebastián International Film Festivals.

Vinterberg trained at the Danish National Film School. In 1993, his graduation short film, Last Round, won numerous awards and was nominated for a Student Academy Award. He went on to make the short The Boy Who Walked (1995), which won several audience awards, notably at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival. He made his feature-length directorial debut with The Biggest Heroes in 1996.

In 1995, Vinterberg and Lars von Trier wrote the Dogme95 Manifesto. In 1998, Vinterberg directed The Celebration, the first film of this movement. The film was awarded the Special Jury Prize in Cannes, the Fassbinder Award at the European Film Awards, and Best Foreign Language Film by both the Los Angeles Critics Association and New York Film Critics Circle, as well as numerous other prizes worldwide. In 2008, Vinterberg and von Trier, together with their “Dogme brothers” Kristian Levring and Søren Kragh-Jacobsen, received the Award for Outstanding European Achievement in World Cinema at the European Film Awards.

Vinterberg directed the critically acclaimed English-language films It’s All About Love (2003), starring Joaquin Phoenix, Claire Danes, and Sean Penn, and Dear Wendy (2005), written by Lars von Trier and starring Jamie Bell. He returned to Danish-language films with When a Man Comes Home (2007) and Submarino (2010), the latter of which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival and was awarded the Nordic Council Film Prize.

In 2012, he directed The Hunt, starring Mads Mikkelsen, which was nominated for an Academy Award and the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film and went on to win the British Independent Film Award for Best International Independent Film. Mikkelsen won the Best Actor Award in Cannes for his performance in this film.

In 2015, he directed Far from the Madding Crown, starring Carey Mulligan, Matthias Schoenaerts, and Michael Sheen. In 2016, he wrote and directed The Commune, which won a European Film Award and a Vilnius International Film Award, and for which Trine Dyrholm won the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the Berlinale.

Vinterberg has also written and directed critically acclaimed plays for the national stage at Austria’s Burgtheater Wien, which play to sold-out audiences around Europe. He has also directed music videos for bands including Blur and Metallica.

Selected Filmography

• *Families Like Ours / Familier som vores (2024, TV)
• *Another Round / Druk (2020) – Best International Film • Academy Awards | Best Film Not in the English Language • BAFTAs | Best Foreign Film • César Awards | Best European Film • Goya Awards | Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor (Mads Mikkelsen) • European Film Awards
• The Command / Kursk (2018)
• *The Commune / Kollektivet (2016) –Silver Bear for Best Actress (Trine Dyrholm) • Berlin International Film Festival | Best Editing (Anne Østerud & Janus Billeskov Jansen) • European Film Awards
• Far from the Madding Crowd (2015)
• *The Hunt / Jagten (2012) – Best Screenplay • European Film Awards | Best Actor (Mads Mikkelsen) • Festival de Cannes | Best Foreign Independent Film • British Independent Film Awards
• *Submarino (2010) – Best Film • Nordic Council Film Prize
• *A Man Comes Home / En mand kommer hjem (2007)
• Dear Wendy (2005)
• *It's All About Love (2003)
• *The Third Lie (2000, short film)
• *The Celebration / Festen (1998) – Special Prize of the Jury • Festival de Cannes | European Discovery Award—Fassbinder Award • European Film Awards | Best Foreign Film • Independent Spirit Awards | Best Foreign Film • Los Angeles Critics Association, New York Film Critics Circle
• *The Biggest Heroes / De største helte (1996)
• *The Boy Who Walked Backwards / Drengen der gik baglæns (1994, short film)
• *Slaget på tasken (1993, TV, short film)
• *Last Round / Sidste omgang (1993, short film)

* Also screenwriter

For further information, please visit

www.marrakech-festival.com