Nicolas Winding Refn | |
|---|---|
 Refn at the2013 Cannes Film Festival | |
| Born | (1970-09-29)29 September 1970 (age 55) Copenhagen, Denmark |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1996–present |
| Notable work |
|
| Spouse | [1] |
| Children | 2 |
| Awards | AACTA International Award Festival de Cannes Prix de la mise en scène FIPRESCI Prize José Luis Guarner Critic's Award Satellite Award |
Nicolas Winding Refn (Danish:[ˈne̝kolɑsˈve̝nte̝ŋˈʁæfn̩]; born 29 September 1970) is a Danish film director, screenwriter, and producer.
He directed thePusher trilogy (1996–2005), the crime dramaBronson (2008), and the adventure filmValhalla Rising (2009). In 2011 he directed the action drama filmDrive (2011) for which he won theCannes Film Festival Award for Best Director. He was also nominated for theBAFTA Award for Best Direction. Refn's next films were the stylistically driven action filmOnly God Forgives (2013), and the psychological horror filmThe Neon Demon (2016).
In 2019, he directed his first television seriesToo Old to Die Young (2019) which premiered onAmazon Prime.[2] After Amazon'sToo Old to Die Young, Refn's next project took him toNetflix, and saw him returning to his native Copenhagen for the first time sincePusher 3, and was the setting for his magical-realism series,Copenhagen Cowboy. In 2008, Refn co-founded theCopenhagen-based production companySpace Rocket Nation.[3]
Refn was born inCopenhagen, Denmark, and raised partly inNew York City,United States.[4] Refn's parents are Danish film director and editorAnders Refn andcinematographer Vibeke Winding.[5][6][7] His half-brother is the musician Kasper Winding.[8]
He attended theAmerican Academy of Dramatic Arts but was expelled for allegedly throwing a chair into a wall.[9]
Refn made his directorial debut with the Danish crime filmPusher (1996).[10] It garnered a Best Supporting Actor Award for Zlatko Burić at the 1997Bodil Awards.
Refn then directedBleeder (1999), which featured much of the same cast from thePusher Trilogy, including actors such asKim Bodnia andMads Mikkelsen. Refn won theFIPRESCI prize for the film at the 2000Sarajevo Film Festival the work won Best Lighting at the Robert Festival. The film was nominated for Best Film and Best Supporting Actress at the 2000Bodil Awards, as well as for the Grand Prix Asturias for Best Feature at the 1999Gijon International Film Festival.[citation needed]
In 2003, Refn directed and wrote his first English-language film,Fear X, which starredJohn 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 2004Fantasporto Film Festival, and was nominated for best actor awards (for Turturro) at theBodil Awards and theFangoria Awards, and best film awards at festivals includingSitges Film Festival and theSochi International Film Festival.
Refn later made two sequels toPusher,Pusher II (2004) (a.k.a.Pusher II: With Blood on My Hands) andPusher 3 (2005) (a.k.a.Pusher III: I'm The Angel of Death). ForPusher II, lead actorMads Mikkelsen won a Best Actor award at the 2005Bodil Awards,[11] Best Actor at the 2005 Robert Festival[12] (where the film was also nominated for Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Film, among other nominations), and Best Actor at the 2005 Zulu Awards. The film was remade as a British version in 2012,Pusher, directed byLuis Prieto and executive produced by Refn.[10]
In 2008, Refn returned to the European art house film circuit after his unsuccessful Hollywood ventureFear X. He wrote and directedBronson (2008), which starredTom Hardy as the title character, the U.K. prisonerCharles Bronson, noted for mental illness, violence and art. The film won Best Film at the 2009Sydney Film Festival, and was also nominated for the Grand Jury Prize (World Cinema — Dramatic) at the 2009Sundance Film Festival. Hardy won a Best Actor award at the 2009British Independent Film Awards for his portrayal of Charles Bronson (and the film was nominated for a Best Achievement in Production award as well). Hardy was nominated for Best Actor by theEvening Standard British Film Awards and theLondon Critics Circle Film Awards.
In 2009, Refn teamed up again with frequent collaborator Mads Mikkelsen to write and directValhalla Rising, asurrealistic period piece about the Viking era. The film won an International Fantasy Film Special Jury Award and Special Mention at the 2010Fantasporto Festival, and won the Titra Film Award for Refn at the 2010Neuchatel International Fantastic Film Festival. The film also won a Best Make-Up award at the 2011 Robert Festival.
In 2011, Refn directed the American action drama filmDrive (2011). It premiered in competition at the2011 Cannes Film Festival, where he received theBest Director Award.[13]
The film earned Refn aBAFTA nomination for directing. The film was also nominated in 2012 for anAcademy Award for Best Sound Editing,[14][15] aGolden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture nomination forAlbert Brooks,[16] Excellence in Production Design Award from the Art Directors Guild, won Best Director, Best Screenplay (forHossein Amini) and Best Supporting Actor (for Brooks) at the Austin Film Critics Awards, wonBoston Society of Film Critics Awards for Best Supporting Actor (Albert Brooks) and Best Use of Music in a Film (byCliff Martinez), the Critics Choice Award at theBroadcast Film Critics Association Awards for Best Action Movie, Best Director, Best Picture and Breakthrough Film Artist at the Central Ohio Film Critics Association, Best Original Score (Martinez) and Best Supporting Actor (Brooks) at theChicago Film Critics Association Awards, Best Supporting Actor (Brooks) at theFlorida Film Critics Circle Awards, Best Foreign Film at the Fotogramas de Plata, Best Director from the Las Vegas Film Critics Society, a Top Films Award from theNational Board of Review, Best Supporting Actor (Brooks) at theNational Society of Film Critics Awards, theSan Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards and theNew York Film Critics Circle Awards, Best Director at theSan Diego Film Critics Society Awards.[17]
The Bangkok-set crime filmOnly God Forgives, starringRyan Gosling andKristin Scott Thomas, premiered in competition at the2013 Cannes Film Festival.[18] The film was awarded theSydney Film Prize at the 2013Sydney Film Festival.[19]
Liv Corfixen, Refn's wife, directed the documentaryMy Life Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, centered on the life and work of Refn and their relationship.[20] The documentary film premiered on 17 July 2014, in Denmark.[21]
In September 2011, Refn said his next film would beI Walk with the Dead, withCarey Mulligan, co-star ofDrive, slated to play the lead.[22] According to Refn, it was to be a horror-movie sex thriller that may be set in Tokyo or Los Angeles.[23] In October 2013 playwrightPolly Stenham was confirmed to write the screenplay with Refn. They stated that the film will have an all-female cast. Refn admitted that he asked Stenham to write the screenplay to compensate for his perceived inability to write female characters.[24] By November 2014, the film had been retitledThe Neon Demon, with filming planned to take place in Los Angeles in early 2015.[25] The film starredElle Fanning,Karl Glusman,Keanu Reeves,Christina Hendricks,Abbey Lee,Jena Malone andBella Heathcote.[26] The film was Refn's third consecutive in competition for thePalme d'Or.[27]
FollowingThe Neon Demon, Refn developed and directed the streaming television seriesToo Old to Die Young for Amazon in 2019 andCopenhagen Cowboy for Netflix in 2023. The latter was his first Danish-language release since thePusher series.
On 23 April 2025, it was announced that Refn would write and direct a film forNeon entitledHer Private Hell, and it would starSophie Thatcher,Charles Melton,Kristine Froseth, andHavana Rose Liu.[28]Principal photography began on 8 May 2025[29][30] and concluded in late July. The film will be released in 2026.[31]
He directed an extended Gucci commercial featuringBlake Lively and himself in a brief cameo,[32] which premiered at the2012 Venice Film Festival. The short film is entitled Gucci Premiere. He also directed the music video for his frequent collaboratorPeter Peter's band Bleeder, which featured his wife Liv Corfixen as a crazy nurse. He also directed a series ofLincoln commercials starringMatthew McConaughey.
In 2019, Cannes Film Festival announced that it would host a masterclass with Refn on working in Film and TV.[33]
In 2005, it was reported that Refn would co-write a screenplay withNicholas St. John titledBilly's People.[34] Following the box office disasters of his filmsBleeder (1999) andFear X (2003), Refn scrapped the project.[35]
In 2009, Refn expressed high interest in developing a film biopic of notorious EnglishoccultistAleister Crowley, withBronson starTom Hardy in the lead role. Refn admitted to not knowing anything about the life of the magician and referred to Crowley as a "Satan-worshipping cult personality".[36] That year, he became attached to directJekyll, a modern retelling ofStrange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde withKeanu Reeves set to play the titular roles. Refn wanted the film to take place "in modern America and use as much credible science as possible."[37] However, in February 2010, he dropped out of the project in order to work onDrive.[38]
In 2010, Refn planned to directPaul Schrader's scriptThe Dying of the Light withHarrison Ford andChanning Tatum as the leads.[39] However, in February 2010, Refn exited the project. In September 2011 during promotion forDrive, he claimed that Ford did not want his character to die, causing the film production to fall apart.[40][41] Schrader directed the film, which starredNicolas Cage andAnton Yelchin in the Ford and Tatum roles. Following its release, Refn joined with Schrader, Cage, and Yelchin in protesting the studio's final edit of the project, which was not to Schrader's original vision. Tatum originally wanted Refn to directMagic Mike, which came to be directed bySteven Soderbergh and released in 2012. That year, Refn was attached a remake of the 1980s crime showThe Equalizer starringDenzel Washington until the deal with Sony fell through.[42] The adaptationThe Equalizer ended up being directed byAntoine Fuqua and released in 2014.
Refn wanted to castDrive actressChristina Hendricks asWonder Woman,[43][44][45] but later focused onBatgirl instead.[46][47]
In July 2016, Refn revealed that he had turned down the offer to direct theJames Bond movieSpectre.[48] The following month, he announced on Twitter that his next project would be titledThe Avenging Silence, calling it "Ian Fleming +William Burroughs + NWR = The Avenging Silence" and posted images for Fleming's novelDr. No and for Burroughs's novelThe Soft Machine.[49][50] Producer Lene Borglum described the purported plot as: "[A] former European spy [accepts] a mission from a Japanese businessman to take down the head of aYakuza boss in Japan".[51]
Refn has spoken aboutcharacterization in his films:
I've always liked characters that because of the circumstances, have to transform themselves, and in the end, it's inevitable that what they end up becoming is what they were meant to be. Take, for example,Pusher II, which is a movie about a son [played by Mads Mikkelsen] who all his life wants his father's love, but realizes he needs to kill him to free the sins of the father from him. What plants the seed for him is realizing he has his own child, and the responsibility of that suddenly forces him to take action. And it's a happy ending, even though it's a dark ending, but for the character, it is what he was meant to become. It's almost like he achieved his true meaning. AndDrive is similar in the sense that The Driver was meant to become a superhero, and he's denied all these things—relationships, companionship. And why would he be denied that? It was because he was meant for something greater.[52]
Refn prefers to shoot his films in chronological order: "I read that [directorJohn Cassavetes] had done it on some of his films, so I thought, 'That's a pretty cool approach.' And after I did it on my first movie, I felt, 'How can you do a movie any other way?' It's like a painting—you paint the movie as you go along, and I like the uncertainty of not knowing exactly how it's going to turn out."[53] Refn spoke more about shooting in chronological order in September 2011, in reference toDrive:
It's always difficult with production. All my films previous toDrive had been shot in what I call 100-percent almost-chronological order. WhereDrive is like 80 percent. The reason why it didn't go 100 was that I just simply couldn't afford the last remaining pieces. I could afford what I call the "emotional chronological order". So nobody would die or leave the movie in the middle of their shooting schedule. It would always be the end. So there was a build-up as much as possible.[52]
On his approach to working with actors, Refn has said:
I think the first thing I ask any actor is what they would like to do, which sometimes can frighten people or can be looked upon as, 'Oh, you don't know what you want.' But I try to draw the actor in—to force them in, in some cases, because a lot of actors don't want to discuss things or go in deep; they just want to come and do the work, play their part and walk away. But for me, it doesn't work like that. You've got to get absorbed and dirty, and a way to do that is to ask the actor what they would like to do. It also forces them to be more truthful.[53]
Refn'scolor blindness has influenced his style: "I can't see mid-colors. That's why all my films are very contrasted, if it were anything else I couldn't see it."[9]
Refn has cited viewingThe Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) as inspiration for his filmmaking career:
I grew up in a cinema family. My parents were brought up on theFrench New Wave. That was God to them, but to me it was the antichrist, and how better to rebel against your parents than by watching something your mother is going to hate, which were American horror movies. When I sawTexas Chain Saw Massacre, I realized: I don't want to be a director, I don't want to be a writer, I don't want to be a producer, I don't want to be a photographer, I don't want to be aneditor, I don't want to be asound man. I want to be all of them at once. And that film proved that you can do it because that movie is not a normal movie.[53]
Refn has said numerous times that his largest cinematic influence has been the directorAlejandro Jodorowsky (to whom Refn dedicatedOnly God Forgives),[54] of whom he has said:
I had been seeing Jodorowsky the last couple years in Paris and we'd become quite close. Before we'd have dinner, we'd always have a tarot reading and talk about what it means. I feel that as a filmmaker, he's the last of the great giants of an era that's coming to a close. A year ago, he baptized me as his spiritual son and I wanted to reward that gesture.[55]
He stated that for his first filmPusher, he stole everything fromGillo Pontecorvo's 1965 Oscar-nominatedThe Battle of Algiers andRuggero Deodato's 1980 highly controversial filmCannibal Holocaust.[56] Also influential to his film viewing experience wereJohn Cassavetes' 1976 filmThe Killing of a Chinese Bookie andKevin Smith's 1994 indie filmClerks.[53]
Other favorites includeTokyo Drifter (1966),Kwaidan (1964),My Life as a Dog (1985),Man on Fire (2004),Pretty Woman (1990),Scorpio Rising (1963),Vampyr (1932),Videodrome (1983),Suspiria (1977),Cloverfield (2008),Flesh for Frankenstein (1973),Planet of the Vampires (1965),Liquid Sky (1982),The Shining (1980),Night of the Living Dead (1968),To Die For (1995),Sixteen Candles (1984),The Night of the Hunter (1955),Alien (1979) andBeauty and the Beast (1946). Some of the films Refn helped restore includeRon Ormond'sThe Burning Hell (1974),Curtis Harrington'sNight Tide (1961) andRay Dennis Steckler'sWild Guitar (1962).[57][58][59][60][61]
He has also stated he is influenced byextraterrestrials. After the making ofCopenhagen Cowboy, a "making-of" documentary was produced titledCopenhagen Cowboy: Nightcall with Nicolas Winding Refn, and it arrived on Netflix on 31 January 2023. In the documentary, Refn said:
I am a very superstitious person, and I have contacts with extraterrestrials through my work that I regularly speak with. So it was very natural for me to bring that into the process. I always knew that the Miu character and her so-called sister, Rakel, would essentially come from another dimension. I just had to figure out how I interpreted it into the story.[62]
Refn is married to actressLiv Corfixen,[63] and together they have two daughters, Lola and Lizzielou.[64] Corfixen wrote and directed a documentary entitledMy Life Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, which chronicles the "behind the scenes" experience of shootingOnly God Forgives when the entire family had to be relocated to Thailand. The documentary has received positive reviews after premiering atFantastic Fest and Beyond Fest.[65] The soundtrack for the documentary is also composed entirely byCliff Martinez, with the last track "Disconnected" composed, written and sung by Julian Winding, Refn's nephew.[66]
After making the movieFear X, Refn was heavily in debt. The story of his recovery is recorded in the documentaryGambler, directed by Phie Ambo.[67]
At the2011 Cannes Film Festival, Refn said that he was repulsed by the controversial remarks byLars von Trier aboutAdolf Hitler, calling them unacceptable.[68]
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Pusher | Yes | Yes | No |
| 1999 | Bleeder | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 2003 | Fear X | Yes | Yes | No |
| 2004 | Pusher II | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 2005 | Pusher 3 | Yes | Yes | No |
| 2008 | Bronson | Yes | Yes | No |
| 2009 | Valhalla Rising | Yes | Yes | No |
| 2011 | Drive | Yes | No | No |
| 2013 | Only God Forgives | Yes | Yes | No |
| 2016 | The Neon Demon | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 2026 | Her Private Hell | Yes | Yes | TBA |
Executive producer
Acting roles
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Pusher | Brian | |
| 2005 | Kinamand | Lægen ("The Doctor") | |
| 2012 | Pusher | Dutch Bob | |
| 2019 | Death Stranding | Heartman | Video game likeness[69][70] |
| 2025 | Death Stranding 2: On the Beach |
Documentary appearances
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Gucci Première | Yes | No | |
| 2022 | Touch of Crude | Yes | Yes | |
| 2023 | Delresto | Yes | No | Segment ofCircus Maximus |
| 2024 | Beauty Is Not a Sin | Yes | Yes |
| Year | Title | Director | Executive Producer | Writer | Creator | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Agatha Christie's Marple | Yes | No | No | No | Episodes "Towards Zero" and "Nemesis" |
| 2019 | Too Old to Die Young | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Miniseries |
| 2023 | Copenhagen Cowboy | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | |
| 2023 | The Famous Five | No | Yes | No | Yes |
Acting role
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Copenhagen Cowboy | Jørgen | Episode "From Mr. Chiang with Love" |
| Year | Title | Artist |
|---|---|---|
| 1999 | "Psycho Power" | Bleeder |
| 2023 | "Delresto (Echoes)" | Travis Scott |
