Lars von Trier

Known for: Dancer in the Dark (2000), Melancholia (2011)

Lars von Trier co-founded the Dogme 95 manifesto with Thomas Vinterberg in 1995, a set of formal constraints — no artificial lighting, handheld camera, no non-diegetic music — that influenced independent filmmaking internationally. His own films, including the Depression Trilogy — Melancholia (2011), Nymphomaniac (2013), The House That Jack Built (2018) — largely abandoned the manifesto's restrictions while retaining its confrontational aesthetic. He won the Palme d'Or for Dancer in the Dark (2000).