filmmaker spotlight - Susanne Bier

Danish director Susanne Bier is an Academy Award winning filmmaker, known for her films "After the Wedding" and "In a Better World."

Born in Copenhagen, Bier started her career in the worlds of art and architecture before studying at the National FIlm School of Denmark. Her first commercially successful film, "The One and Only," is considered a landmark Danish film; the 1999 film was one of the top three highest grossing Danish films of the decade, and is cosidered a transitional film in the romantic comedy genre. Bier directed a number of Scandinavian films before her critical breakthrough with the 2006 film "After the Wedding." Nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Foreign Langauge Film category, "After the Wedding" centers around the family secrets of former lovers. In 2007 Bier directed the US film "Things We Lost in the Fire" starring Halle Barry, her only English language film to date. Bier's latest film, "In a Better World" is the 2011 Academy Award winning Best Foreign Language Film. "In a Better Wolrd" tells the story of a struggling marriage and a potentially dangerous childhood friendship which examines the complexity of human emotion.

Bier emphasizes film as a means of mass communication, and strives in her work to end on an uplifting note that prevents the alienation of audiences. She is currently in the process of adapting the French thriller "Rapt."