Ruben Östlund started as a director of skiing films in the 1990s, and eventually went on to study at the film school in Gothenburg, from which he graduated in 2001. Together with film producer Erik Hemmendorff he is the co-founder of the production company Plattform Produktion, which produces his films. His feature debut The Guitar Mongoloid won the FIPRESCI Award at Moscow in 2005. Involuntary premiered at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard in 2008 and was then distributed in more than 20 countries and shown at numerous festivals, garnering Östlund international recognition. Two years later, he won the Golden Bear in Berlin for Incident by a Bank, a short film in which every camera movement was computer-generated in post-production. The premiere of his third feature Play (2011) took place at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight, where he was awarded the Coup de Coeur award.
Following Cannes, Play was shown in Venice, Toronto, and New York, as well as numerous other festivals where it was awarded additional prices and distinctions, including being nominated for the prestigious European Parliament LUX prize and winning the Nordic Prize, the highest distinction in Scandinavia. His latest film before The Square, Force Majeure was selected to be part of Cannes Film Festival - Un Certain Regard's official competition in May 2014.