How do you feel about the inclusion of BEAUTY IS NOT A SIN in the Venice program?
It’s a great honor to have anything screened at the Venice Film Festival, but what I find most interesting is that a commercial was selected for the first time ever in the official program. It is exciting to be a part of the festival’s evolution, as the floodgates will surely open to new possibilities.
By screening BEAUTY IS NOT A SIN together with my first film, PUSHER, in the Venice Classics, it is a complete NWR experience, a collision of my past and my future.
Director’s Biography
Nicolas Winding Refn (NWR) was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1970. At age eight he moved to New York with his parents where he lived out his teenage years. At 17, NWR moved back to his na’ve Copenhagen to complete his Gymnasium (High School) Educa’on. Upon his school gradua’on, he swi5ly flew back to New York where he aAended the American Academy of Drama’c Arts. However, this educa’on was cut short when NWR threw a desk at a classroom wall and was expelled from the Academy. Consequently, he applied to the Danish Film School and wasreadily accepted. This educa’on too was to be short-lived as one month prior to the start of term he dropped out. A short film NWR had wriAen, directed and starred in was aired on an obscure cable TV channel and lead to the opportunity of a life’me – he was spoAed and offered 3.2 million kroners to turn the short into a feature. At only 24, NWR had wriAen and directed the extremely violent and uncompromising, Pusher (1996). The film became a cult phenomenon and won him instant interna’onal cri’cal acclaim in 1996.
