[1] He produced Ingmar Bergman's film Fanny and Alexander, which won four Academy Awards in 1984.

[2] He lived and worked for long periods in Sweden, and served as director of the Swedish Film Institute.

As of 2007[update] he was again a member of the Finnish parliament for a short while, after Eva Biaudet resigned to take a position at the OSCE.

[5] He died of lung disease at Meilahti hospital in Helsinki on 30 January 2020, six days before his 87th birthday.

[8] In 2023, Donner's widow revealed that she had thrown his ashes in the compost after discovering his history of infidelity.