page_title: Nicolas Winding Refn
section_title: 2011–2016: Hollywood breakthrough
hierarchical_section_title: Nicolas Winding Refn / Career / 2011–2016: Hollywood breakthrough
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Nicolas Winding Refn au festival de Cannes.
context_page_description: Nicolas Winding Refn is a Danish film director, screenwriter and producer. He is known for directing the Pusher trilogy, the fictionalised biographical film Bronson, the adventure film Valhalla Rising, the action drama film Drive, the crime film Only God Forgives, the psychological horror film The Neon Demon, and the crime series Too Old to Die Young. In 2008, Refn co-founded the Copenhagen-based production company Space Rocket Nation.
context_section_description: In 2011, Refn directed the American action drama film Drive (2011). It premiered in competition at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, where he received the Best Director Award.
  The film earned Refn a BAFTA nomination for directing. The film was also nominated in 2012 for an Academy Award for Best Sound Editing, a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture nomination for Albert Brooks, Excellence in Production Design Award from the Art Directors Guild, won Best Director, Best Screenplay (for Hossein Amini) and Best Supporting Actor (for Brooks) at the Austin Film Critics Awards, won Boston Society of Film Critics Awards for Best Supporting Actor (Albert Brooks) and Best Use of Music in a Film (by Cliff Martinez), the Critics Choice Award at the Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards for Best Action Movie, Best Director, Best Picture and Breakthrough Film Artist at the Central Ohio Film Critics Association, Best Original Score (Martinez) and Best Supporting Actor (Brooks) at the Chicago Film Critics Association Awards, Best Supporting Actor (Brooks) at the Florida Film Critics Circle Awards, Best Foreign Film at the Fotogramas de Plata, Best Director from the Las Vegas Film Critics Society, a Top Films Award from the National Board of Review, Best Supporting Actor (Brooks) at the National Society of Film Critics Awards, the San Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards and the New York Film Critics Circle Awards, Best Director at the San Diego Film Critics Society Awards.
  Refn wanted to cast Drive actress Christina Hendricks as Wonder Woman, but later focused on Batgirl instead.
  The Bangkok-set crime film Only God Forgives, starring Ryan Gosling and Kristin Scott Thomas, premiered in competition at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. The film was awarded the Sydney Film Prize at the 2013 Sydney Film Festival.
  Liv Corfixen, Refn's wife, directed the documentary My Life Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, centered on the life and work of Refn and their relationship. The documentary film premiered on July 17, 2014 in Denmark.
  In September 2011, Refn said his next film would be I Walk with the Dead, with Carey Mulligan  slated to play the lead; she was co-star of Drive. According to Refn, it will be a horror-movie sex thriller that may be set in Tokyo or Los Angeles.
  In 2013, Refn confirmed I Walk with the Dead as his next project. In October 2013 playwright Polly Stenham was confirmed to write the screenplay with Refn. They stated that the film will have an all-female cast. Refn admitted that he asked Stenham to write the screenplay to compensate for his perceived inability to write female characters.
  On November 3, 2014, his production company Space Rocket Nation, alongside its co-producers Gaumont Film Company and Wild Bunch, announced that Refn's next film would be titled The Neon Demon, rather than I Walk With The Dead. The Neon Demon would be filmed in Los Angeles, California, in early 2015. The film stars Elle Fanning, Karl Glusman, Keanu Reeves, Christina Hendricks, Abbey Lee, Jena Malone and Bella Heathcote. On April 14, 2016, it was announced that the film would be competing for the Palme d'Or at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, marking it as the third consecutive film directed by Refn that had competed for the Palme d'Or.
caption: Refn at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival
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