- Father of eight children with five different women.
- Member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 2002.
- George Lucas persuaded him to direct two episodes of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (1992) even though he had first declined. The two have been good friends ever since.
- Walked out on a live interview on Danish television on 22 July 2003. He later said he was unable to concentrate because of a preceding program segment about the war in Iraq.
- Cites La strada (1954) as the film that first made him want to work in film when he saw it while still in school, and Family Life (1971) as one of his greatest influences.
- Twice winner of the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival for Pelle the Conqueror (1987) and The Best Intentions (1992). The other directors to have won the Palme d'Or twice are Francis Ford Coppola, Alf Sjöberg, Emir Kusturica, Shôhei Imamura, Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne, Michael Haneke, Ken Loach and Ruben Östlund.
- Directed one Oscar nominated performance: Max von Sydow in Pelle the Conqueror (1987).
- Graduated from Den Danske Filmskole (The Danish Film School). (1973)
- Graduated from Foto- og Dokumentarskolan in Stockholm, Sweden. (1971)
- Antalya International Golden Orange Film Festival, Antalya, Turkey (October 2009)
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