As a teenager, he was a top Skateboarder who began shooting and producing his own skateboarding videos. His passion for film making furthered in his early twenties and this ultimately led to his studies at the European Film College in Ebeltoft from 1995 to 1996 and at the UK's National Film & Television School. His films focus primarily on memory and identity, which he regards as essential themes for cinema, and has expressed that Future projects would pertain mainly to his personal interests.
His debut film Reprise follows the story of two aspiring Writers and their volatile relationship. Released by Miramax films in 2006, it received several national awards, including the Amanda Award and the Aamot Statuette, as well as international recognition, with prizes at film festivals in Toronto, Istanbul, Rotterdam, Milan, and Karlovy Vary, and led him to be named one of Variety's "10 Directors to Watch" in 2007.
His 2011 film Oslo, August 31st premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. The film is regarded as an adaptation of Louis Malle's The Fire Within, but with the location changed from Paris to Oslo. The film received critical acclaim and was featured on several critics' 2012 Top 10 lists.
He was named as one of the jury members for the "Cinéfondation" and short-film sections of the 2014 Cannes Film Festival.
Trier's first English-language film, Louder Than Bombs (2015), starred Jesse Eisenberg, Gabriel Byrne, and Isabelle Huppert, and was critically well received. It was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. Trier's fifth feature, a supernatural horror-romance called Thelma, was screened at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival and was selected as the Norwegian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards, held in 2018.
His latest film Thelma (2017) has been sold to around one hundred countries and has been shown at forty festivals, winning fifteen awards.
