Nicolas Winding Refn

Nicolas Winding Refn (Danish: [ˈne̝kolɑs ˈve̝nte̝ŋ ˈʁæfn̩]; born 29 September 1970) is a Danish film director, screenwriter, and producer.

He directed the Pusher trilogy (1996–2005), the crime drama Bronson (2008), and the adventure film Valhalla Rising (2009). In 2011 he directed the action drama film Drive (2011) for which he won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Director. He was also nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Direction. Refn's next films were the stylistically driven action film Only God Forgives (2013), and the psychological horror film The Neon Demon (2016).

In 2019, he directed his first television series, Too Old to Die Young, which premiered on Amazon Prime. After Amazon's Too Old to Die Young, Refn's next project took him to Netflix, and saw him returning to his native Copenhagen for the first time since Pusher 3, and was the setting for his magical-realism series, Copenhagen Cowboy. In 2008, Refn co-founded the Copenhagen-based production company Space Rocket Nation.

Refn was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, and raised partly in New York City, United States. Refn's parents are Danish film director and editor Anders Refn and cinematographer Vibeke Winding. His half-brother is the musician Kasper Winding.

He attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts but was expelled for allegedly throwing a chair into a wall.

Refn made his directorial debut with the Danish crime film Pusher (1996). It garnered a Best Supporting Actor Award for Zlatko Burić at the 1997 Bodil Awards.

Refn then directed Bleeder (1999), which featured much of the same cast from the Pusher Trilogy, including actors such as Kim Bodnia and Mads Mikkelsen. Refn won the FIPRESCI prize for the film at the 2000 Sarajevo Film Festival the work won Best Lighting at the Robert Festival. The film was nominated for Best Film and Best Supporting Actress at the 2000 Bodil Awards, as well as for the Grand Prix Asturias for Best Feature at the 1999 Gijón International Film Festival.^{[citation needed]}

In 2003, Refn directed and wrote his first English-language film, Fear X, which starred John Turturro and was shot in Canada. Although a financial disappointment, the Danish-Canadian production won an International Fantasy Film Award for Best Screenplay at the 2004 Fantasporto Film Festival, and was nominated for best actor awards (for Turturro) at the Bodil Awards and the Fangoria Awards, and best film awards at festivals including Sitges Film Festival and the Sochi International Film Festival.