Danish director to receive prestigious Sonning Prize

Director Lars von Trier will receive Denmark’s biggest culture award; the 2018 Sonning Prize.

The DKK 1m ($160,000) biennial award is given to an individual who has done commendable work for the benefit of European culture, screendaily.com wrote.

In a statement, Milena Bonifacini, Chairman of the Academy Council involved in nominating von Trier for the award, said: “He is a ground-breaking and avant-garde artist who positions himself confidently and self-consciously in a place far removed from the ever more commercialized mainstream films. It’s this continued embrace and break with the conventional, which sets Lars von Trier’s work apart and has contributed to making European film something special.”

The Sonning Prize 2018 will be awarded to von Trier on April 19 in the Ceremonial Hall at the University of Copenhagen.

The previous recipient in 2014 was another film director; Michael Haneke.

Von Trier, 61, is one of Europe’s most famous and controversial filmmakers. His films include Cannes winners ‘Breaking The Waves’ (Grand Prix), ‘Dancer In The Dark’ (Palme d’or) and ‘Europa’ (Jury Prize), as well as ‘Nymphomaniac’, ‘Melancholia’ and upcoming serial killer thriller ‘The House That Jack Built’.

He also co-founded Danish production powerhouse Zentropa with Peter Aalbaek Jensen in 1992.

Throughout his career Von Trier has also been dogged by controversy. He was temporarily kicked out of the Cannes Film Festival after joking about Nazis during a press conference in 2011.