LASSE HALLSTROM most recently directed acclaimed adaptations of Joanna Harris' Chocolat, starring Juliette Binoche, Johnny Depp and Judi Dench (five Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture) and John Irving's The Cider House Rules, starring Tobey Maguire, Charlize Theron and Michael Caine.
For The Cider House Rules, Hallstrom received his second Oscar nomination for Best Director. Caine received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and Irving garnered an Oscar for Best Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published.
Hallstrom first came to the attention of American audiences in 1985 with the release of My Life as a Dog, a film about the adventures of a resilient 12 year old boy in an eccentric country village. For My Life as a Dog, Hallstrom received Academy Award nominations for both Best Director and Best Screenplay. The New York Film Critics cited My Life as a Dog as Best Foreign Film.
Next up for the director was Once Around, a romantic comedy starring Holly Hunter as a repressed Boston woman who is swept off her feet by an obnoxious salesman! millionaire played by Richard Dreyfuss. In 1993, Hallstrom directed What's Eating Gilbert Grape, the offbeat tale of a young man who holds the troubled Grape family together. The film brought recognition to a young Leonardo DiCaprio, who earned an Oscar nomination for his role as the title character's (played by Johnny Depp) autistic younger brother. Something to Talk About, starring Julia Roberts, Dennis Quaid, Gena Rowlands, Robert Duvall and Kyra Sedgewick in the story of two generations of a tumultuous Southern family, followed.
Hallstrom began his career in his native Sweden, working in television and directing music videos, most notably for the famed Swedish band ABBA. In 1997, he directed and edited ABBA: The Movie. Hallstrom subsequently directed several films in his homeland, including A Lover and His Lass, Father to Be and The Children of Bullerby Village.
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