Bille August (1948) is an award-winning filmmaker. His 1987 film Pelle to Conquer the World won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, an Oscar and a Golden Globe. He is one of six filmmakers to have won the Palme d’Or twice, winning the prestigious award again in 1992 for With the Best Intentions, based on an autobiographical screenplay by Ingmar Bergman.
Bille August trained as a filmmaker and photographer in Stockholm before attending the Danish National Film School, where he graduated with a degree in film in 1973. Since the early 1990s, Bille August has directed a series of major international co-productions, including The House of Spirits (1993), Smilla’s Sense for Snow (1997) and The Color of Freedom (2007) and his latest film, Night Train to Lisbon (2013), which won an award at the Berlinale. Also among his more intimate films are Jerusalem (1996), an adaptation by Selma Lagerlöf, and A Song for Martin (2001). In addition to numerous awards Bille August has been awarded the title of knight by both the Order of the Royal Knights of Denmark and Sweden and the French Order of the Chevaliers of the Order of Arts and Letters.
August in 2013 was a guest of the 17th Umbria Film Festival, on which occasion he received the Keys to the City of Montone.