Susanne Bier

The family of her father, Rudolf Salomon Baer (born 1930), emigrated from Germany to Denmark in 1933 after Hitler's rise to power.

The family of her mother, Heni (née Jonas; born 1936), emigrated to Denmark from Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, to escape rising antisemitism.

In 1943, the two families fled from Denmark to Sweden, together with most Danish Jews, to escape the deportation to the Nazi death camps.

Three years after the end of World War II, they returned to Denmark.

The effects of the Holocaust caused Bier's parents to instill the strong moral values and principles into their children.

Later, the importance of human resilience and dignity would be a recurring theme in her films.

During her schooling, she went to Niels Steensens Gymnasium.

In interviews for the media as an adult, Bier describes herself as lacking in social skills as a child, who liked to play football with boys and preferred reading books to interacting with others.

After high school, citing a desire to reconnect with her Jewish roots, she studied art at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem.

Susanne Bier (born 15 April 1960) is a Danish filmmaker.

Susanne Bier was born to a Jewish family in Copenhagen, Denmark on 15 April 1960.

Later she would study architecture at the Architectural Association in London before finally returning to film and graduating from the National Film School of Denmark in 1987.

De Saliges (1987), Bier's graduation film, won first prize at the Munich film school festival and was subsequently distributed by Channel Four.

After directing music videos, commercials and the feature films Freud Flytter Hjemmefra (Freud's Leaving Home, 1990), Det Bli'r i Familien (Family Matters, 1993), Pensionat Oscar (Like it Was Never Before, 1995) and Sekten (Credo, 1997), Bier made a breakthrough in her home country of Denmark with the film The One and Only in 1999.

A romantic comedy about the fragility of life, the film won a clutch of Danish Film Academy awards and established Bier's relationship with actress Paprika Steen.

The film remains one of the most successful domestic films ever released in Denmark.

Bier returned to taboo subjects with the film The One and Only in 1999.

The film is a Danish romantic comedy starring Sidse Babett Knudsen, Niels Olsen, Rafael Edholm, and Paprika Steen in a story about two unfaithful married couples faced with becoming first-time parents.

The film was considered to mark a modern transition in Danish romantic comedies, The film earned both the Robert Award and Bodil Award as the Best Film of 1999.

A sidestep from the easy going charm of Livet är en schlager (Once in a Lifetime, 2000), Elsker dig for evigt (Open Hearts, 2002) brought Bier's work to much wider international attention and acclaim.

Acutely observed and beautifully written by Bier and Anders Thomas Jensen, the film is a perceptive and painful exploration of broken lives and interconnected tragedies.

Made under Dogme 95 regulations, the film also marked a move towards a more minimalist aesthetic.

Following the influence of Dogme 95 manifesto, Bier directed the film Open Hearts in 2002.

Open Hearts tells the story of two couples whose lives are traumatized by a car crash and adultery.

Open Hearts received a 96% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes movie review website.

Susanne Bier received the International Critics Award at the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival "for the fact that it proves that Dogma has come of age and matured into a potent cinematic language that skillfully captures the freeing of real emotions that extreme trauma creates within the lives of the characters in her film."

She is best known for her feature films Brothers (2004), After the Wedding (2006), In a Better World (2010), and Bird Box (2018), and the TV miniseries The Night Manager (2016) on AMC, The Undoing (2020) on HBO, and The First Lady (2022) on Showtime.

Bier is the first female director to win a Golden Globe Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a European Film Award, collectively.

Since the completion of Open Hearts, Bier's reputation has continued to ascend with the harrowing Brødre (Brothers, 2004) and the emotionally engaging Efter Brylluppet (After the Wedding, 2006), which was nominated for Best Foreign Language film at the 2007 Academy Awards.

After her first American film, Things We Lost in the Fire (2008) starring Benicio del Toro and Halle Berry, Bier went on to win the Oscar for Best Foreign Language film for In a Better World (2010).

In 2012, she returned to romantic comedy with local Danish smash-hit Den skaldede frisør (Love is All You Need) (2012) starring Trine Dyrholm and Pierce Brosnan.

In 2013 she was a member of the jury at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival.

After graduation, Bier was invited to Sweden to direct Freud's Leaving Home, which was critically acclaimed by film critics.

The film follows a girl, Freud, from Sweden who comes from a Jewish family, and it became the first feature film in Sweden to depict Swedish-Jewish culture.

With its heavily Jewish focus, the film "addresses the Jewish experience to an extent that is in rare in Scandinavian cinema".

The film won ten awards and was nominated for an additional three.

Her next film Family Matters continued exploration of complex, tabooed family relations begun in Freud's Leaving Home, including an incestuous relationship between brother and sister.

And in 2014, she directed her second American feature, dark romantic drama Serena starring Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper, and shortly after followed up with Danish drama A Second Chance starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Ulrich Thomsen, Nikolaj Lie Kaas and Maria Bonnevie.

Also a maker of shorts, music videos and commercials, Bier's films typically meditate on pain, tragedy, and atonement.

Bier is signed as a commercial director with international production company, SMUGGLER.