Biography
Nikolaj Arcel was a Danish screenwriter and director who achieved international acclaim in 2012 with his Oscar-nominated period drama, "A Royal Affair." Born and raised in the cosmopolitan city of Copenhagen, Arcel always had a desire to write and direct his own movies. Hence, when it came time to enter college, he enrolled in Denmark's prestigious National Film School. While attending the university, Arcel learned the rudimentary aspects of filmmaking and screenwriting, while simultaneously honing his craft by writing and directing numerous short films. One of those films, 2001's "Woyzecks sidste symfoni," won the Grand Prix award at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, thus putting Arcel on the map as a hot young director to watch. Upon graduating from the university in 2001, Arcel wasted no time in writing and directing his own feature films. His debut feature, 2004's "King's Game" was nominated for various awards in his native country, while his 2007 follow-up, "The Island of Lost Souls," was equally as successful. While writing and directing his own features, Arcel also began to write the screenplays for various other wildly successful films, most notably 2009's "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," which would later be remade in America by the Oscar-nominated director, David Fincher. Then in 2012 Arcel wrote and directed "A Royal Affair," a period drama set in the 18th Century. The film was a smash success both in his native Denmark, as well as abroad, having earned a Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Film.
