‘Casino Royale’ Star Mads Mikkelsen to Receive European Achievement in World Cinema Award

COLOGNE, Germany – Danish star Mads Mikkelsen, who has made a career both with Hollywood action films such as Casino Royale and The Clash of the Titans and in European arthouse including Open Hearts and After The Wedding, will be honored this year with the European Film Academy’s European Achievement in World Cinema Award.

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Mikkelsen, who currently appears as the evil Rochefort in Paul W.S. Anderson’s The Three Musketeers, said he accepted the honor “with great humbleness and a big smile.”

The actor, who turns 50 this year, made his debut in the Copenhagen crime film Pusher (1996) from Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn. He hasn’t taken a break since, appearing in such award-winning Danish dramas as Open Hearts and Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself before his star-making turn in Susanne Bier’s Oscar-nominated After the Wedding put Mikkelsen on the international map.

Playing the Bond villain in Casino Royale made him a bankable name worldwide. But Mikkelsen has stayed true to his Danish roots, acting in Ole Christian Madsen’s WWII drama Flame and Citron and the upcoming A Royal Affair from Nikolaj Arcel, the screenwriter of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

Mikkelsen is currently shooting the French period drama Michael Kohlhaas from director Arnaud des Palleres, in which Bruno Ganz and Sergi Lopez also star.

Among his upcoming projects are the western horror film Cut Throat Nine from director Rodrigo Gudino co-starring Harvey Keitel and the mystery thriller Voice from the Stone with Maggie Gyllenhaal.

Mads Mikkelsen will accept his prize at the 24th European Film Awards ceremony in Berlin on December 3.