Benjamin Ree

Benjamin Ree
Ree in 2019
Born	Benjamin Olafsen Ree (1989-07-10) 10 July 1989 (age 35) Hole, Norway
Education	Oslo Metropolitan University
Occupation	Film director
Years active	2010–present

Benjamin Ree (born July 10, 1989) is a Norwegian director and cinematographer of several documentaries, including Magnus (2016), The Painter and the Thief (2020), and The Remarkable Life of Ibelin (2024).^[1]

Early life

Ree began making films at the age of eleven^[2] and studied journalism at Oslo Metropolitan University.^[3] After his studies Ree worked as a freelance videojournalist for BBC and Reuters,^[4] most notably covering the 2011 Norway attacks.^[5] Ree has said in interviews that making his first feature Magnus was his film school: "There I understood that I could transfer the interviews to a universal, nonverbal cinematic language."^[2]

Career

Magnus

His debut film, Magnus (2016), premiered at Tribeca Film Festival^[6] and was distributed to 64 countries.^[7] The film is a coming of age story about the world's best chess player Magnus Carlsen. Magnus received mostly positive reviews. It has an 81% average on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 21 reviews.^[8] The BBC praised the film and ranked it on its top ten list, but The New York Times gave the film a negative review.^[9][10] The film won several awards at festivals, including the Global Future Prize at the Oulu International Children's and Youth Film Festival, The Ray of Sunshine prize at the Norwegian International Film Festival, and the Audience Award at Docville.^[11][12][13]

The Painter and the Thief

His second feature film, The Painter and the Thief (2020), was one of the opening films at Sundance Film Festival^[14] where it won a Special Jury Award for Creative Storytelling.^[15][14] The film tells the story of an artist who befriends the thief who stole two of her paintings.^[16] NEON bought the world rights to the film after the Sundance Film Festival premiere.^[17] It received overall positive reviews, averaging 97% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 112 reviews.^[18]

The storytelling style of The Painter and the Thief has been met with some criticism. The Painter and the Thief jumps back and forth in time, which is unusual for a documentary using the Cinéma vérité technique. This storytelling style was criticized by some reviewers for weakening the trust between filmmaker and viewer. The A.V. Club wrote that "by scrambling his film’s chronology in ways that threaten to rupture any sense of trust between director and viewer."^[19]

The film has been named by Mubi as one of the best in film history,^[20] by New York (magazine) to have one of the best movie endings in movie history^[21] and as a film that has helped change the documentary film genre.^[22][23] Vanity Fair placed The Painter and the Thief at the top of documentaries that were changing the genre.^[24]

The film won over 30 film awards.,^[25] including the Audience Award for Best Documentary Virtual at the London Film Festival and the Golden FireBird Award at the Hong Kong International Film Festival.^[26] In addition the film got a Directors Guild of America nomination and two nominations at the Critics' Choice Movie Awards for best director and best film.^[27] It has been ranked as the best film of 2020 by The New York Times,^[23] Vox^[28] and Aftenposten.^[29] The film was named one of the year's best films by BBC,^[30] Washington Post,^[31] Boston Globe^[32] and The Guardian.^[33]

Ibelin

His third documentary feature film, Ibelin, premiered in competition at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the World Documentary Directing Award and the Audience Award.^[34] It was picked up for distribution by Netflix.^[1]

The film documents the life of "Mats Steen, a Norwegian gamer who died of a degenerative muscular disease at the age of 25".^[35] The title comes from the name of a character in World of Warcraft.^[36]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 100% of 20 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.2/10. Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 72 out of 100, based on nine critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Variety praised the film, stating "It’s a world unto itself, and a glowing example of how moviemaking — like a person’s digital footprint — can be a form of immortality that soothes even the most devastating loss." and calling it "[...]a moving, multifaceted masterwork"^[37]

Other projects

Ree researched and directed the TV documentary series Conversion Therapy with Morten Hegseth (2019) which uncovers how religious groups are offering Conversion Therapy for gay people in Norway.^[38] In the aftermath of the series, the Prime Minister of Norway Erna Solberg said that she would stop the practice of conversion therapy in Norway: "We have to ensure that the abuses we have seen documented by VG do not happen in the future", she said.^[39][40]

Filmography

Feature-length films

• Magnus (2016)
• The Painter and the Thief (2020)
• Ibelin (2024)

References

1. Grobar, Matt (2024-01-19). "Netflix Snaps Up Sundance Doc 'Ibelin' From 'The Painter And The Thief' Helmer Benjamin Ree". Deadline. Retrieved 2024-01-27.
2. Wissot, Lauren (23 May 2020). "'Should You Give the Person a Hug, or Should You Continue Filming?': Benjamin Ree on His Art World Crime Doc The Painter and the Thief". Filmmaker Magazine.
3. ‘CHECKMATE BENJAMIN REE
4. "The Painter and the Thief to be screened at Sundance". Norwegian Film Institute.
5. Koranyi, Balazs; Ree, Benjamin (March 26, 2012). "The ordeal of defending Norway's mass killer". Reuters.
6. "Magnus | 2016 Tribeca Film Festival". Tribeca.
7. "the-painter-and-the-thief". www.sundance.org. Archived from the original on 2020-04-27. Retrieved 2020-04-08.
8. "Magnus (2016) | Rotten Tomatoes". www.rottentomatoes.com. Retrieved 2024-08-15.
9. "Ten films to watch in November". www.bbc.com. Retrieved 2024-08-15.
10. Catsoulis, Jeannette (2016-11-17). "Review: 'Magnus' Delves Into the Life of a 'Mozart of Chess'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-08-15.
11. https://www.oulunelokuvakeskus.fi/assets/site/files/LIITETIEDOSTOT/LEF/Winners-2016.pdf
12. Jensen, Jorn Rossing (2016-08-26). "Norwegian Fest Honors Pernilla August as Doc 'Magnus' Takes Top Prize". Variety. Retrieved 2024-08-15.
13. Magnus (2016) - Awards - IMDb. Retrieved 2024-08-15 – via www.imdb.com.
14. "2020 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL: 118 FEATURE FILMS ANNOUNCED". www.sundance.org.
15. "award-winner-tba-12 | Sundance Institute". 2020-06-11. Archived from the original on 2020-06-11. Retrieved 2024-01-28.
16. "Now Streaming: 'The Painter and the Thief' Creates a Portrait of Two Lost Souls". www.sundance.org.
17. Barraclough, Leo (February 24, 2020). "Neon Takes Worldwide Rights on Benjamin Ree's 'The Painter and the Thief'".
18. "The Painter and the Thief | Rotten Tomatoes". www.rottentomatoes.com. Retrieved 2024-08-15.
19. "Twists and turns hijack the affecting true story of The Painter And The Thief". AV Club. Retrieved 2024-08-15.
20. "The MUBI Top 1000 - Movie list". MUBI. Retrieved 2024-08-15.
21. Willmore, Alison; Ebiri, Bilge (2021-02-22). "The 101 Greatest Endings in Movies History". Vulture. Retrieved 2024-08-15.
22. "IDA Staff Picks: Documentaries of the Decade | International Documentary Association". www.documentary.org. 2020-12-15. Retrieved 2024-08-15.
23. "At Home's Best of 2020". The New York Times. 2020-12-23. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-08-15.
24. Ansen, David (2021-02-24). "What's Up, Docs? A Year of Groundbreaking Nonfiction Movies". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 2024-08-15.
25. "Ibelin". NFI (in Norwegian). Retrieved 2024-08-15.
26. Benutty, John (2020-11-03). "'The Painter and the Thief': Art, crime, addiction and friendship explored in moving Norwegian documentary". GoldDerby. Retrieved 2024-08-15.
27. Thompson, Anne (2020-10-26). "'Crip Camp,' 'Gunda,' and 'Mr. Soul!' Lead Critics Choice Documentary Awards Nominations". IndieWire. Retrieved 2024-08-15.
28. Wilkinson, Alissa (2020-12-17). "The best movies you may have missed in 2020". Vox. Retrieved 2024-08-15.
29. "Dette er årets beste filmer". www.aftenposten.no (in Norwegian Bokmål). Retrieved 2022-07-15.
30. James, Nicholas Barber and Caryn. "The best films of 2020". www.bbc.com. Retrieved 2022-07-15.
31. "Perspective | Best movies of 2020: Diverse thrills, chills, Dickensian laughs and a pandemic-friendly trip to Greece". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2022-07-15.
32. "Here are 10 excellent movies (and 25 runners-up) from a not-so-excellent year". Boston Globe. 2020-12-18. Retrieved 2024-08-06.
33. "From corruption to summer camp: the best documentaries of 2020". the Guardian. 2020-12-30. Retrieved 2022-07-15.
34. "2024 Sundance Film Festival Announces Award Winners - sundance.org". 2024-01-26. Retrieved 2024-01-27.
35. "'Ibelin' Filmmaker Benjamin Ree on How to Make a Documentary With an Avatar as the Main Star". Variety. 2024-01-18. Retrieved 2024-08-06.
36. "Benjamin Ree • Director of Ibelin". Cineuropa - the best of european cinema. 25 January 2024. Retrieved 28 January 2024.
37. Adlakha, Siddhant (20 January 2024). "'Ibelin' Review: A Shattering Documentary About a Gamer's Secret Life". Variety. Retrieved 28 January 2024.
38. "Homoterapi". VG Nett.
39. Erna Solberg
40. Erna Solberg støtter homoterapi-utredning

External links

• Official website
• Benjamin Ree on IMDB
• BBC World Service interview with Benjamin Ree