Johan Renck

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As a music video director, Johan Renck has worked with some of the world's biggest stars, including Beyonce, Kylie Minogue and Robbie Williams.

But he is probably best recognized for his work with Madonna -- one of the first artists to recognize the importance of visual imagery in creating the perfect pop record.

The pair first teamed up on the video for the 1999 single "Nothing Really Matters," in which Madonna dressed up as a geisha girl and re-united for last year's "Hung Up," an Abba-sampling tribute to the gaudy disco glamour of 1970s New York.

Renck launched his career as a director in 1994, setting up a Stockholm-based production company in partnership with fellow Swede Jonas Akelund.

At the same time he was achieving musical success of his own as dance act Stakka Bo, releasing three albums before giving up music to focus on his work as a director.

Renck has also worked with brands such as Nike, Nintendo, H&M and Levi's, prompting French magazine CB News to call him "the number one director of commercials and music videos in the world right now."

Having turned his creative talents to video, commercials, art and music, Renck describes his varied career as "re-formatting emotions."

He is now in pre-production for his first full-length feature film, "Downloading Nancy," starring Holly Hunter and William Hurt.

Renck says: "It's about a relationship gone completely wrong and a woman who wants to kill herself. It's quite dark."

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