Ruben Östlund (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈrʉːbɛnˈœstlɵnd]) (born April 13 1974) is a Swedish filmmaker best known for his satirical black comedy films Force Majeure (2014), The Square(2017) and Triangle of Sadness (2022). He is the recipient of various accolades, including two Palmes d'Or, four European Film Awards and nominations for three Academy Awards. Östlund was born in Styrsö, Gothenburg, Sweden. After high school, he started working in various ski resorts in the Alps during the winter seasons. While in the Alps, he began making skiing videos for his friends, which helped him obtain a job at a local production company. He went on to study at the film school in Gothenburg, Sweden, where he graduated in 2001. He was accepted to the school based on his skiing films. Together with film producer Erik Hemmendorff, he is the co-founder of the production company Plattform Produktion, which produces his films. His first three feature-length fiction films were The Guitar Mongoloid (2004), Involuntary (2008) and Play (2011). The Guitar Mongoloid won the FIPRESCI Award at the 27th Moscow International Film Festival. Östlund's short film Incident by a Bank won the Golden Bear for Best Short Film at the 60th Berlin International Film Festival and the Grand Prix at Tampere Film Festival in 2011. In 2014, his film Force Majeure was selected to compete in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival, winning the Jury Prize. Sweden then submitted Force Majeure for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. After the Academy shortlisted but did not nominate it, Östlund released a humorous video of his response to missing the nomination list. In 2016, he was a member of the jury for the Un Certain Regard section of Cannes. In 2017, his film The Square, loosely inspired by some of his own experiences and art installation with Kalle Boman, competed at the Cannes Film Festival, where it ultimately won the Palme d'Or. Alissa Wilkinson of Vox described the film as "Burying self-referential allusions in the background and merrily poking viewers till they bruise, The Square at times feels more like longform performance art than a narrative film. It's social satire by way of art-world comedy, and no woke participant is exempt from its barbs." In 2020, he received the King's Medal in Gold for significant efforts in Swedish film. Afterwards, he pursued the project Triangle of Sadness, a satirical film about the wealthy elite, winning his second Palme d'Or in 2022. On January 23, 2023, he won Best Director at the Guldbaggens gala for Triangle of Sadness. The film won five other nominations. In January of the same year, only a day after winning the Guldbaggengala, Triangle of Sadness received Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. He was the Jury president of the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. Description above from the Wikipedia article Ruben Östlund, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Biography from TMDB.
- April 13, 1974 (52)
- Styrsö, Gothenburg, Sweden
- Director, writer, editor, producer and actor
- 6 on MovieCove · 39 credits in all
What are Ruben Östlund's films like?
Across their 7 MovieCove titles with a thematic analysis, their films lean Society and Power.
Genres
Their MovieCove films by primary genre. The badge is the typical Midcredits score of the genre's films, the median percentile; an up arrow marks a genre at or above their average across these genres.
Themes
What they feel like to watch
A split, not a type: Ironic 3 · Wry 0 · Earnest 4
Light 2 · Serious 3 · Dark 2
Grounded 5 · Stylized 2 · Heightened 0
Gentle 1 · Charged 3 · Intense 3
A split, not a type: Steady 2 · Shifting 2 · Whiplash 3
Straight-faced 2 · Some laughs 4 · Funny 1
Slow burn 6 · Even-paced 1 · Relentless 0
Casual 1 · Engaged 5 · Full focus 1
Easy watch 2 · Affecting 4 · Heavy 1
A split, not a type: Resolved 2 · Open-ended 1 · Ambiguous 4
Moods and endings
- Happy1
- Bittersweet2
- Ambiguous4
AI-generated from each title's plot synopsis and cast list, with extra plot summaries, reviews and Parents Guide notes for titles the model may not know, and the model's own knowledge of the ones it recognizes. Only analyzed titles count, so this covers part of the filmography; the feel axes count films only for now.
Where can I watch Ruben Östlund's films?
As of October 24, 2026, 5 of their 6 MovieCove titles stream on a subscription or free service, most on Tubi (3).
Subscription and free streaming for Ruben Östlund's titles on MovieCove; rent and buy are not counted. Titles are listed by Midcredits score, highest first, at most 12 per service; a dashed chip is a producer credit or a minor one, such as a thanks. A service opens the browse page, which counts movies only, so its number can differ.
Filmography
39 credits, 6 with a MovieCove page; 13 appearances as themselves are hidden until asked for.
Redoubt (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2026)
Death of a Fantastic Machine (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2025)
Iris Berben - Ein persönliches Porträt (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2024)
Life and Other Problems (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2024)
Fantastic Machine(2023)
Midcredits score: 73rd percentile of all films
Beau Is Afraid(2023)
Midcredits score: 68th percentile of all films
Triangle of Sadness(2022)
Midcredits score: 85th percentile of all films
Snow thérapie (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2022)
Marks (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2022)
Downhill(2020)
Midcredits score: 8th percentile of all films
Konbini Vidéo Club (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2018)
The Square(2017)
Midcredits score: 82nd percentile of all films
Fight on a Swedish Beach!! (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2016)
Ruben Östlund Attack on NATO (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2016)
Ten Meter Tower (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2016)
Force Majeure(2014)
Midcredits score: 89th percentile of all films
Babel (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2014)
Room 1112 (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2012)
Twin Brothers: 53 Scenes in Chronological Order (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2011)
Play (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2011)
Incident by a Bank (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2010)
Greetings from the Woods (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2009)
Involuntary (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2008)
An Extraordinary Study in Human Degradation (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2008)
Nattbad (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2006)
Weekend (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2006)
Autobiographical Scene Number 6882 (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2005)
The Guitar Mongoloid (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2004)
Den ljusnande framtid är vår (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2004)
Irmelin (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2003)
Mustasch: Down in Black (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2002)
Family Again (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2002)
Kalle och bollhavet (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2002)
Let the Others Deal With Love (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2001)
Scen nr 6345 ur mitt liv (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2001)
Free Radicals II (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1998)
Free Radicals (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1997)
The Entertainment System Is Down (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)
Toast (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)
Career shape
A full career of 39 titles, 37 of them dated from 1997 to 2026.
Awards
5 major awards from 14 major nominations, 2008–2023.
- Oscar, nominated · Best Achievement in Directing
- Oscar, nominated · Best Original Screenplay
- BAFTA Award, nominated · Best Screenplay (Original)
- Cannes award, won
- Cannes award, won
- BAFTA Award, nominated · Best Film not in the English Language
- Independent Spirit Award, nominated · Best International Film
- Cannes award, won
- Cannes award, nominated
- Cannes award, won
- Cannes award, nominated
- Sundance award, nominated · International
- Berlinale award, won · Best Short Film
Show 1 earlier yearShow fewer
- Cannes award, nominated
Major bodies only: the Oscars, Primetime Emmys, Golden Globes, BAFTAs and Screen Actors Guild Awards are named; Cannes, Venice, the Berlinale, Sundance, the directors', writers' and producers' guilds, the Grammys, Critics Choice and the Independent Spirit Awards count as other major bodies. Festival and regional prizes are not counted. Source: IMDb.
How do Ruben Östlund's films land?
Their typical MovieCove film has a Midcredits score in the 78th percentile, the median of all 6; across their 7 films with reception data, the typical film sits in the 69th percentile for acclaim.
- 75th and up3
- 50th to 74th2
- Below 25th1
Shape of the crowd
None of their 6 titles divides audiences: 5 are Crowd Pleasers.
- Crowd Pleaser5
- Mixed1
Reviewers score the atmosphere 69/100 and the pacing 37/100 in their films, across 5 reviewed titles. The element that speaks to their work as a director.
Percentiles are each film's standing among all films on MovieCove; the typical film is the median, so one outlier cannot drag it. Percentiles and reviewer scores count the films IMDb credits them on, for now; the Midcredits score bands, the shape of the crowd and the two cards count their MovieCove titles, shows included (a show ranked among shows), appearances as themselves left out. A descriptor is the shape of a title's IMDb rating distribution against the catalog; "most divisive" needs a spread wider than half of all titles, and a card names only a principal credit: a craft role, and on a show a crew role or a run of episodes, never a courtesy credit or a one-off guest spot.
Is Ruben Östlund's work okay for kids?
Across a limited sample of up to 4 MovieCove titles with content scores.
Severity 0–100 from the Content Guide. Categories with under 10 votes on a title are not counted.
Who does Ruben Östlund work with?
People who share at least 2 of Ruben Östlund's MovieCove titles, grouped by what they did on them; Erik Hemmendorff shares the most, 5.
Actors
- Kristofer HivjuShared titles: Downhill (2020), Force Majeure (2014)See all 2 shared titles with Kristofer Hivju
Cinematographers and editors
- Fredrik WenzelShared titles: Triangle of Sadness (2022), The Square (2017), Force Majeure (2014)See all 3 shared titles with Fredrik Wenzel
- Mikel Cee KarlssonShared titles: Fantastic Machine (2023), Triangle of Sadness (2022)See all 2 shared titles with Mikel Cee Karlsson
- Jacob Secher SchulsingerShared titles: The Square (2017), Force Majeure (2014)See all 2 shared titles with Jacob Secher Schulsinger
Producers
- Erik HemmendorffShared titles: Fantastic Machine (2023), Triangle of Sadness (2022), Downhill (2020), The Square (2017), Force Majeure (2014)See all 5 shared titles with Erik Hemmendorff
- Philippe BoberShared titles: Triangle of Sadness (2022), The Square (2017), Force Majeure (2014)See all 3 shared titles with Philippe Bober
- Alexander BohrShared titles: Triangle of Sadness (2022), The Square (2017)See all 2 shared titles with Alexander Bohr
- Bradley ThomasShared titles: Triangle of Sadness (2022), The Square (2017)See all 2 shared titles with Bradley Thomas
