Winner – Grand Prize of the Jury, 1996 Cannes Film Festival

Nominee – Palme d’Or, 1996 Cannes Film Festival

Nominee – Emily Watson, Best Actress, 1997 Academy Awards®

Lars von Trier became an international sensation with this galvanizing realist fable about sex and spiritual transcendence. In an Oscar-nominated performance, Emily Watson stuns as Bess, a simple, pious newlywed in a tiny Scottish village who gives herself up to a shocking form of martyrdom after her husband (Stellan Skarsgård) is paralyzed in an oil rig accident. Breaking the Waves, both brazen and tender, profane and pure, is an examination of the expansiveness of faith and of its limits.

159 minutes, 1996, Denmark, Directed by Lars von Trier, Rated R

“There may be no way to prepare for the shock of Lars von Trier's Breaking the Waves, a film that accumulates moral momentum as it rolls on and bears down on you in its last half hour like a lightning strike.”
– Michael Atkinson, SPIN
“Watson’s luminous portrayal goes straight to the heart.”
– Peter Travers, ROLLING STONE
“Breaking the Waves is emotionally and spiritually challenging, hammering at conventional morality with the belief that God not only sees all, but understands a great deal more than we give Him credit for.”
– Roger Ebert, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
“Von Trier has forged a myth of modern romantic faith that could haunt almost anyone into believing.”
– Owen Gleiberman, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY