Jörn Donner
Humanist of the day

Jörn Donner

Jörn Donner has had a many-sided career and he is known variously as a film director and producer, a member of both the Finnish and the European parliaments, and as a diplomat. He is a man of culture who is interested in the world. Above all of these things, however, Donner is a writer.

Jörn Donner

Jörn Johan Donner
Born February 5, 1933, Helsinki

MA 1958 (Political Science, Scandinavian Literature), University of Helsinki

Freelance writer, 1951–
Film director and producer, 1954–
Consul general of Finland in Los Angeles, 1995–96
Member of the European Parliament, 1996–99
Member of Finnish Parliament, 1987–95, 2007, 2013–15

Awards and honours
Concrete Jussi Lifetime Achievement Award, 2014
Commander 1st Class in the Order of the Polar Star, 2012
State Art Award, 2008
Doc-Point Festival’s Apollo Prize, 2008
Awarded title of honorary professor 2003 (granted by the President)
Honorary member of the University of Art and Design, 2002
Swedish Academy’s Finland Prize, 2004
Finlandia Prize, 1985
Producer of the Oscar-winning Fanny and Alexander (best foreign language film)
Best debut film at the Venice Film Festival, 1963

Photo: Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0.
Written by Heta Muurinen and Tero Juutilainen (ed.)
Translated by Joe McVeigh

A Life of Many Careers

In an article for Image magazine the writer and journalist Juha Itkonen describes Jörn Donner as a “Swedish-speaking Finn and an upper class European in a small and provincial northern country.” Itkonen writes that Donner also possesses characteristics that are compatible with the Finnish national identity, such as gruffness, irritability, obstinacy, and “nearly manic persistence and a working pace beyond belief.”

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Donner’s Works

Jörn Donner has written over 60 books and directed and produced several films. His directorial debut won an award at the 1963 Venice Film Festival, and he was awarded the State Prize for Literature in both 1971 and 1985.

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Dreams from the Back Row

In her own profile, Märtä Tikkanen discusses a seminar (LINK) she attended with Jörn Donner. Tikkanen remembers how Donner fell asleep at the seminar and slowly slid under the table. Donner himself confirms the story:

“I was working hard and staying up late. At the lectures on Scandinavian Literature…

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