Danish film and television director born in Brede, Denmark in 1948. He has two children by Swedish actress Pernilla August, with whom he was married 1991-1997.
August first trained to be a photographer in the field of advertising. He graduated from the Danish film school in 1971 and started working for television. He continued doing so after his debut as a movie director with Honeymoon in 1978. August writes a lot of scripts himself, (but has also made movies from the scripts of others, notably Ingmar Bergman's The Best Intentions - tv 1991, movie 1992 - winner of a Golden Palm at the Cannes film festival).
Most of his own scripts are based on bestselling epic works, such as his international breakthrough, Pelle the Conqueror, that was based on a trilogy by Danish author Martin Andersen Nexø and depicts the life of Swedish emigrants to Denmark at the turn of the century. The movie won an Academy Award for best foreign language film and another Golden Palm and is still regarded by many as his most successfull movie, even if The House of the Spirits, based on Isabel Allende's novel, might be more famous internationally due to its cast. Although used to working with prominent Scandinavian actors such as the brilliant Max von Sydow, this was August's first movie directing a truly star-laden production with names such as Meryl Streep, Vanessa Redgrave, Glenn Close and Jeremy Irons.
Other famous novels-gone-film in the normally very capable hands of Bille August are Victor Hugo's Les Misérables, Smilla's Sense of Snow - based on Danish author Peter Høeg's bestselling novel - and last, but not least, the historical drama Jerusalem, which was based on the work of Selma Lagerlöf, Swedish author and winner of the 1909 Nobel Prize for Literature.
Director's filmography from imdb.com:
En sång för Martin (2001 - aka A Song for Martin)
The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Tales of Innocence (1999) (V)
Les Misérables (1998)
Smilla's Sense of Snow (1997)
Jerusalem (1996)
The House of the Spirits (1993)
Den goda viljan (1992 - aka The Best Intentions)
The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (1992) TV Series (episodes "Vienna, November 1908", "Northern Italy, June 1918")
Pelle erobreren (1987 - aka Pelle the Conqueror)
Tro, håb og kærlighed (1984 - aka Twist and Shout)
Busters verden (1984 - aka Buster's World)
Zappa (1983)
Maj (1982) (TV)
Honningmåne (1978 - aka Honeymoon)