The Danish Girl

The Danish Girl is a 2015 biographical romantic drama film directed by Tom Hooper, based on the 2000 novel of the same name by David Ebershoff, and loosely inspired by the lives of Danish painters Lili Elbe and Gerda Wegener. The film stars Eddie Redmayne as Elbe, one of the first known recipients of gender-affirming surgery, Alicia Vikander as Wegener, and Sebastian Koch as Kurt Warnekros, with Ben Whishaw, Amber Heard, and Matthias Schoenaerts in supporting roles. The film participated in the main competition of the 72nd Venice International Film Festival, and it was shown in the Special Presentations section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival. The film had a limited release on 27 November 2015 by Focus Features in the United States. The film was released on 1 January 2016, in the United Kingdom, with Universal Pictures handling international distribution. In spite of criticism for inaccurate portrayal of historical events, Redmayne and Vikander's performances received widespread acclaim and nominations for all the major acting awards. Vikander won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and Redmayne was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, while the film received additional Academy Award nominations for Best Production Design and Best Costume Design at the 88th Academy Awards. It received five BAFTA Award nominations, including BAFTA Award for Best British Film at the 69th British Academy Film Awards. Plot In mid-1920s Copenhagen, portrait artist Gerda Wegener asks her husband, a popular landscape artist and closeted trans woman (then going by the name Einar Wegener), to stand in for a female model, who is late arriving at their flat to pose for a painting on which Gerda is working.