Daniel Fridell

Daniel Fridell is an internationally awarded director with films selected for A list festivals like Toronto, SXSW, Montreal, Tokyo, Telluride, Mar Del Plata and Busan. He has made films that has been awarded with prices like the HBO-price, Nordisk film price and several Swedish Oscars (Golden bugs). He also works as a creator and writer of TV-series, novels and as a producer. According to an interview in Aftonbladet, Daniels grandmother, Saga Sjöberg, introduced him to filmmaking when at the age of six she gave him a Super 8 camera for Christmas. His first film "Squirrel Fight" featuring two Star Wars dolls and a squirrel premiered at the local daycare. It took him only a short time to realize this was his true calling. In 1993, while attending Kulturama Film Academy in Sweden, Daniel and actor Liam Norberg used the schools cameras at night and made the first of numerous Scandinavian hits, The Searchers (1993) (The Searchers). The film was released throughout Scandinavia and went to #1 at the box office. After that Daniel directed "Cry", an urban Romeo & Juliet that was also hit the Box Office and knocked off films like "The Lion King" from the #1 spot. "Cry" was in competition at the Tokyo Film Festival and won several prizes including best youth film at the Rotterdam Film Festival. Immersing himself fully into his craft, he spent the early 90's at the European Filmakademie in Berlin where he studied under Wim Wenders and Jan de Bont. He was invited to Los Angeles to continue studying with De Bont who was filming "Basic Instinct" and "Twister" where Daniel simultaneously enrolled at the Judith Weston Academy for Directors and Actors in Santa Monica. It wasn't long after he set course for a string of award winning, box office hits including Beneath the Surface (1997) (Under Ytan, original title), which became a success at the cinemas in Scandinavia, France and many other territories. It opened at the Montreal Film Festival winning numerous awards and was officially selected for over 40 film festivals. Mikael Persbrandt and Johanna Sällström won major acting awards, as well it won awards for Best Film and Photo. USA Films optioned the remake rights and the film was sold to over 25 countries and distributed in the U.S by Phaedra. In the 90's, it was also voted Best Swedish Feature by Swedish television. His next feature, Swedish Beauty (2000) (Dubbel-8, original title), was an official selection at the Toronto Film Festival. Fridell continued down this path of critically acclaimed dark drama's into the early 2000's where he wrote and directed two features back-to-back, Bloodbrothers (2005) (Blodsbröder, original title) with Noomi Rapace and Say That You Love Me (2006) (Say that you love me), both box office hits. "Say that you love me" newcomer, Haddy Jallow, also received Best Actress in Scandinavian for her role. Throughout his career, Fridell has also directed, produced and written many successful TV series including Dödsängeln (1997) with Mikael Håfström and a comedy series, "A class of its own", which became a cult hit in Northern Europe. It also won the Egmont and Ebeltofts prize for Best Scandinavian Youth program. In 2005, he wrote the screenplay together with Reidar Jönsson to the upcoming film "Hair of the Dog", a follow up to the Oscar nominated "My Life as a Dog" as well as producing At Point Blank (2003) (Rånarna, original title), Universal Pictures first Scandinavian local production starring Mikael Persbrandt and Sofia Helin and Exit (2006) starring Mads Mikkelsen and Alexander Skarsgård. It was in the mid-2000's where Fridell finally brought his talents across the pond where he shifted course from dark drama to documentaries and horror. He co-wrote and co-produced the Japanese horror Apartment 1303 (2007). In 2011, he later helped out designing and co-directing the American remake "Apartment 1303 3D" with Mischa Barton and Rebecca De Mornay. In 2011, he wrote and directed the critically acclaimed feature music documentary from Cuba, El Medico: The Cubaton Story (2011), which has received numerous awards including Best Documentary at the New York International Latino Film Festival. It was also a festival selection at SXSW 2012, Busan IFF Korea, Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Mar Del Plata, Afi Silver and LIDF England.