The Platinum Egg 2020: Johan Renck.
Johan Renck was born in Uppsala in 1966. After growing up with a physician father whose work took the family around the world, returning to base to spend summers in the Swedish seaside town of Torekov, Johan moved to Stockholm and studied business and economics at the Stockholm School of Economics.... Not because he had any ambition to work in finance, but because his father Hans said, “Do whatever you want to do, but get an education so you don’t cut off any possible paths.” One path that presented itself to him led to 1990s club life in Stockholm, a music career under the name Stakka Bo and a directing debut with his own music video “Here We Go”, which became the most-played video of the year on MTV. Johan discovered that directing was closer to his heart than music-making, and together with a childhood friend from Torekov, Jonas Åkerlund, chose the production company Mekano as the place to grow. Starting in the 90s, Johan directed a succession of music videos for global stars like Madonna, Suede, Robbie Williams and Beyoncé. David Bowie’s “Black Star” from 2015 and “Lazarus” from 2016 are later-period masterpieces. With his unfailing feel for visually intricate narrative, he has also brought in many jobs from major fashion houses and international brands over the years. At home in Sweden, his Golden Egg-winning Karl Lagerfeld film for H&M in 2004 was probably the most talked-about, though the list includes work for many other clients, ranging from Audi to Diesel, Nike, Levi’s, Chanel, Armani, Fendi, Calvin Klein and Stella Artois. Johan made his feature debut in 2008 with “Downloading Nancy”. Since then he has directed successful TV series including “Breaking Bad”, “The Walking Dead”, “The Last Panthers” and last but not least, HBO’s series “Chernobyl”, which brought him a double Emmy, both as director and producer.