Susanne Bier is a renowned writer and director, celebrated for her emotionally charged and intimate portrayals of familial relationships. As Denmark's leading female filmmaker, her work transcends geographical boundaries, instead focusing on the complexities and explosive emotions that arise from within.
Bier's cinematic prowess has been recognized with numerous accolades, including the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film for her 2010 film In a Better World, as well as an Italian Golden Globe Award for Best European Film and Best Director at the European Film Awards. Her previous film, After the Wedding (2006),earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film and was later remade in English in 2019, starring Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams, and Billy Crudup.
In 2016, Bier won an Emmy Award for directing the six-part AMC mini-series The Night Manager, based on John le Carré's novel of the same name. The series starred Tom Hiddleston, Hugh Laurie, and Olivia Colman, all of whom received Golden Globe Awards for their performances.
Bier's subsequent projects include the 2018 Netflix film Bird Box, starring Sandra Bullock, which became the most-watched film in Netflix history. In 2020, she directed the six-part HBO series The Undoing, starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant, which marked the network's first original series to grow its audience each week.
Prior to her work in television, Bier co-wrote and directed the romantic comedy The One and Only (1999),which won the Best Film award at the Danish Robert Awards and became the most-watched domestic film in Denmark in 20 years, with one-fifth of the country's population having seen it at the cinema.
In 2002, Bier directed Open Hearts, a film shot in accordance with the Dogme '95 filmmaking aesthetic, which won numerous awards, including the Audience Award at the Robert Festival and the International Film Critics' Award at the Toronto International Film Festival. She followed this with Brothers (2004),which won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival.
In 2007, Bier directed her first English-language film, Things We Lost in the Fire, starring Halle Berry and Benicio Del Toro. In 2012, she returned to the comedy genre with Love Is All You Need (2013),which won the European Film Award for Best Comedy and starred Pierce Brosnan and Trine Dyrholm.
Most recently, Susanne Bier directed the Showtime limited series The First Lady, starring Viola Davis, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Gillian Anderson.
