[6][7] His films offer confrontational examinations of existential, social,[8][9] psychosexual, and political[4][10] issues, and deal in subjects[10] including mercy,[11] sacrifice, and mental health.

[23] In 1984, The Element of Crime, von Trier's breakthrough film, received twelve awards at seven international festivals[24] including the Technical Grand Prize at Cannes, and a nomination for the Palme d'Or.

[25] The film's slow, non-linear pace,[26] innovative and multi-leveled plot design, and dark dreamlike visual effects[24][failed verification] combine to create an allegory for traumatic European historical events.

[citation needed] Seeking financial independence and creative control over their projects, in 1992 von Trier and producer Peter Aalbæk Jensen founded the film production company Zentropa Entertainment, which has sold more than 350 million tickets and was nominated for multiple Academy Awards as of 2016.

[13][14] Named after a fictional railway company in Europa,[19] their most recent film at the time, Zentropa has produced many movies other than Trier's own, as well as several television series.

Breaking the Waves won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival and featured Emily Watson, who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

[citation needed] In 2000, von Trier premiered Dancer in the Dark, a musical featuring Icelandic musician Björk, which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes.

{[38]} The first two installments were shot with the same distinctive, extremely stylized approach, with the actors performing on a bare sound stage with no decoration, buildings' walls marked by chalk lines on the floor, a style inspired by 1970s televised theatre.

[citation needed] Both films feature an ensemble cast including Harriet Andersson, Lauren Bacall, James Caan, Danny Glover, and Willem Dafoe.

[citation needed] The thinly veiled portrayals include Jens Albinus as director Nils Malmros, Dejan Čukić as screenwriter Mogens Rukov, and Søren Pilmark.

[39] Antichrist follows "a grieving couple who retreat to their cabin in the woods, hoping a return to Eden will repair their broken hearts and troubled marriage; but nature takes its course and things go from bad to worse".

[41] Melancholia, released in 2011, is an apocalyptic drama about two depressive sisters played by Kirsten Dunst and Gainsbourg, the former of whom marries just before a rogue planet is about to collide with Earth.

The cast also included Stellan Skarsgård (in his sixth film for von Trier), Shia LaBeouf, Willem Dafoe, Jamie Bell, Christian Slater, and Uma Thurman.

[citation needed] In 2015, von Trier began work on a new feature film, The House That Jack Built, which was originally planned as an eight-part television series.

[49] In February 2017, von Trier explained that the film "celebrates the idea that life is evil and soulless, which is sadly proven by the recent rise of the Homo trumpus – the rat king".

[51][52] After the release of The House That Jack Built, von Trier planned to produce Études, an anthology film consisting of ten black and white segments, each ten minutes long, inspired by the musical form; though it never came to fruition[53] In December 2020, it was announced he would produce a belated third and final season of The Kingdom, titled The Kingdom Exodus, with Søren Pilmark returning as Jørgen 'Hook' Krogshøj, Ghita Nørby as Rigmor Mortensen, alongside a new cast including Mikael Persbrandt as Dr. Helmer, Jr.

[57] Von Trier's films deal with themes of religious imagery and his treatment of subjects[10] such as mercy,[11] sacrifice, and mental health,[12] confrontational examination of existential, social,[8][9] and political[4][10] issues.

Most of the films depicted in various forms of politics and religions, such as Nazism in Europa, Christianity in Breaking the Waves and The House that Jack Built, Atheism in Dogville, and Anti-bourgeois in The Idiots.

In Dancer in the Dark, he used jump shots[63] and dramatically different color palettes and camera techniques for the "real world" and musical portions of the film,.

[73] She stated of von Trier, who shattered a monitor while it was next to her, that "you can take quite sexist film directors like Woody Allen or Stanley Kubrick and still they are the one that provide the soul to their movies.

"[74] Nicole Kidman, who starred in von Trier's Dogville, said in an interview with ABC Radio National that she tried to quit the film several times in response to comments von Trier made on set, often while inebriated, "but I say this laughing...I didn't do the sequel but I'm still very good friends with him, strangely enough, because I admire his honesty and I see him as an artist, and I say, my gosh, it's such a hard world now to have a unique voice, and he certainly has that.

"[78] In 1989, von Trier's mother confessed to him on her deathbed that his biological father was not the man who raised him, but her former employer, Fritz Michael Hartmann [da] (1909–2000),[79] who was descended from a long line of Danish classical musicians.

"[81] During the German occupation of Denmark, Hartmann in fact joined a resistance group, actively counteracting any pro-German and pro-Nazi colleagues in his civil service department.

[92] In May 2011, known to be provocative in interviews,[93] von Trier's remarks during the press conference before the premiere of Melancholia in Cannes[94] caused significant controversy in the media, leading the festival to declare him persona non grata.

[98][99] He joked that since he was "no longer Jewish," having been told the truth about his biological father, he now "understands" and "sympathizes" with Hitler, that he is not against the Jews except for Israel which is "a pain in the ass" and that he is a Nazi.

[117] Von Trier has apologized for psychologically abusing her[118] but rejected Björk's allegation that he sexually harassed her during the making of the film Dancer in the Dark, and said "That was not the case.

[122] A donkey was slaughtered for dramatic purposes during production of Manderlay, an act that caused actors including John C. Reilly to quit the film in protest of its cruelty to animals.

[124] Although The House that Jack Built was praised by animal rights organization PETA for its use of realistic effects, a scene involving the main character mutilating a duckling was the subject of criticism from some audiences.

[125] In August 2023, Lars von Trier published on Instagram a critical entry against the delivery of F-16 fighters to Ukraine, ending his post by saying "Russian lives matter also!

Manon Rasmussen was the only crew member as a costume designer to collaborate with von Trier in all of his works (except Medea and The Idiots) since The Element of Crime (1984).