Norwegian director Jens Lien was educated at the London International Film School. In his early career he made documentaries, commercials and short films, including Shut the Door (2000) and Natural Glasses (2001) which were both nominated for the prestigious Palme d’Or in Cannes. Lien’s stylish and edgy short films have won numerous awards all over the world. 

 

In 2003, Lien’s first feature film Jonny Vang had its premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival. His acclaimed second feature The Bothersome Man premiered in 2006 to fantastic reviews, was selected for the Toronto International Film Festival and won both the ACID Award at the Cannes Film Festival and the Hampton Golden Starfish. Since its release it has further gone on to win more than 30 international awards.

 

The successful and award-winning feature Sons of Norway saw its world premiere at Toronto International Film Festival 2011 and was the opening film for The Norwegian Film Festival the same year. Lien is also director of the TV series Viva Hate for SVT which won Prix Europa for ‘Best European TV Series’ in 2015. His latest project, the sci-fi satire Beforeigners (2019-2021), was HBO Nordic’s first Norwegian original. Beforeigners was an immediate hit and was met with rave reviews both in Scandinavia and internationally. 

 

Furthermore, Lien is a distinguished director of commercials for TV and cinema, for which he has received international awards including the Cannes Lion and the Gullfisken Award (Best Commercial of the Year) twice –  in 2014 for the SAS commercial Daddy´s Girl and in 2020 for The Boy With the Lunchbox. The latter instantly went viral and has been streamed more than 700 million times.