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Espen Sandberg (born 2 June 1971) is a Norway film director and advertising producer, well known to work with his childhood friend and director Joachim Rønning on several projects such as Bandidas (2006), (2008), Kon-Tiki (2012) and (2017). He received a nomination at 85th Academy Awards as well as 70th Golden Globe Awards for Best Foreign Language Film for directing 2012 movie Kon-Tiki with Rønning.
In 1992 they both attended Stockholm Film School in Sweden, and graduated in 1994. Later that year they served their mandatory time in the military making propaganda films for the Royal Norwegian Army. In 1995 they founded their own company. They called it "Roenberg", which is their last names put together. Early in 1996 they began directing commercials and music videos professionally in Oslo. Their extensive and award-winning work in commercials in Scandinavia led to major international commissions such as ads for Airbus, Nintendo, Coca-Cola, GE and Nokia. Sandberg and Rønning established themselves in the American market with their spots for Capital One, Labatt's and especially with their USA Today Super Bowl 2001 Viewer's Poll-winning spot Rex for Budweiser. Together with fellow Norwegian director, Harald Zwart, they own and run Motion Blur, a production house for commercials. Founded in 2002 it is now one of the largest and most award-winning productions companies in Scandinavia.
In 2012, Sandberg and Rønning became involved in a movie based on Thor Heyerdahl and the Kon-Tiki expedition. The development of this new film was shown in an exhibition at the Kon-Tiki Museum in Oslo. The film was released in 2012 to great reviews; Rotten Tomatoes reported that 83% of the critics gave a positive review, writing: "A well-crafted retelling of an epic true story, Kon-Tiki is a throwback to old-school adventure filmmaking that's exciting and entertaining in spite of its by-the-book plotting." The picture went on to be nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 85th Academy Awards and 70th Golden Globe Awards, along with several other high-profile accolades such as the Satellite Awards and the Norwegian Amanda Award.
Sandberg and Rønning directed the fifth installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean series, (2017).
| 1997 | Dag 1 | Short film |
| 2006 | Bandidas | |
| 2008 | Nominated- Amanda Award | |
| 2012 | Kon-Tiki | Palm Springs International Film Festival for Directors to watch Nominated- Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film Nominated- Amanda Award Nominated- Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film Nominated- Satellite Award for Best Foreign Language Film |
| 2014—2016 | Marco Polo | Television series Directed episodes "The Wayfarer" and "The Wolf and the Deer" Executive produced 20 episodes + special episode "One Hundred Eyes" |
| 2017 |
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