Tomas Alfredson came to prominence in the world film community when he directed the much-beloved 2008 feature Let the Right One In, which John Ajvide Lindqvist adapted from his novel of the same name. The film screened at over 30 international film festivals and won several dozen awards worldwide; received a BAFTA Award nomination for Best Foreign-Language Film; and was released theatrically in the U.S. by Magnolia Pictures to great acclaim, cited on many of the annual 10 Best lists.
Mr. Alfredson started his career as an assistant at Svensk Filmindustri, before moving on to the startup Swedish television channel TV4. There, he was a key part of building the entertainment department and initiating such long-term successes as Fort Boyard.
After his time at TV4, he spent the next few years at SVT, the Swedish public broadcaster. At SVT, he worked on such popular television series as Ikas TV-kalas and the entertainment show 7 till 9, alongside legendary television producer Bo Rehnberg. In the early 1990s, he directed his first television series for SVT's drama department, Bert. When the popular title character migrated to the big screen in 1995, in Bert - den siste oskulden [Bert – The Last Virgin], Mr. Alfredson was nominated for the Best Director Guldbagge Award (Sweden's official film award, given annually since 1964 by the Swedish Film Institute), also known as the Golden Bug Award.
By the close of the 1990s, he had become part of Killinggänget (a comedy group consisting of Sweden's most prominent comedians) when he worked on their Fyra små filmer [Four Little Films]. These were four hourlong films; the media satire Gunnar Rehlin [en liten film om att göra någon mycket illa], the romantic comedy Ben och Gunnar, the profile of the world's worst documentary filmmaker På sista versen, and the mockumenatry Torsk på Tallin [Screwed in Tallin]. The latter became a classic, winning both Swedish and international awards. In 2001, he was awarded the Swedish Film Critic Association scholarship by the Elisabet Sörenson memorial foundation.
The collaboration with Killinggänget continued with the stage production Glenn Killing på Grand - lite sång, lite dans, lite naket and the website Spermaharen. In 2004, Mr. Alfredson directed Killinggänget's first feature film, Four Shades of Brown. The film won four Guldbagge Awards, including Best Director.
He has also had a long collaboration with author Klas Östergren, which started with the critically acclaimed series Offer och gärningsmän and Soldater i månsken, and continued with the 2006 Christmas calendar television show En decemberdröm, for SVT.
During 2007, Mr. Alfredson directed the television concert filming of Hur tänker hon?, featuring comedian Johan Rheborg in a one-man show. In the fall of 2009, he made his stage debut as a director at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm together with Killinggänget.
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