09/02/2015 - “She was on the threshold of realising the full potential of an already impressive career,” wrote Henrik Bo Nielsen, managing director of the Danish Film Institute

Danish director Kathrine Windfeld has died suddenly after a short illness, aged 48. According to local press, she was suffering from a brain tumour, which was first diagnosed last month (January). 

“With her insistent power and energy, she was on the threshold of realising the full potential of an already impressive career,” wrote Henrik Bo Nielsen, managing director of the Danish Film Institute. “Her infectious humour and sometimes furious energy will be remembered and missed.”

Windfeld’s latest television series (as conceptual director), The Team – a European DR-ZDF-SVT-ORF-ARTE co-production starring Danish actor Lars Mikkelsen – will be premiered by Danish pubcaster DR on 22 February. She left her mark on feature films and television drama, both in Denmark and Sweden. 

Educated at the National Polish Film School in Lodz, adding an MA in Film Production at the Northern School of Film & TV at the University of Leeds, Windfeld made several shorts and documentaries while working as assistant director on DR series including Emmy winner Unit One (2003) and The Eagle (2003).

Her directorial break came with Swedish pubcaster SVT’s series The Crown Princess (2007), followed by the rest of Danish author Hanne-Vibeke Holst’s trilogy; she also made two episodes of the Wallander thriller series, with Swedish actor Krister Henriksson in the lead, based on Swedish author Henning Mankell’s novels.

She then returned to Denmark, where – for DR – she directed episodes of The Killing (2012), Rita (2013) and The Bridge (2013). She also found time to make two feature films: The Escape (2009), in Denmark, about a Danish journalist (Iben Hjejle) taken hostage by a group of terrorists in Afghanistan; and Agent Hamilton: In the Interest of the Nation [+see also:
trailer
making of
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Windfeld leaves a 14-year-old son.