Danish beauty Connie Nielsen consistently lights up the screen with an eclectic bevy of film roles. However it was her portrayal of Princess Lucilla, opposite Russell Crowe's Maximus in Ridley Scott's Academy Award-winning Gladiator, which first garnered a mass appeal. She most recently won Best Actress Awards from the Danish Academy Awards and from the San Sebastian Film Festival for her role in the Danish drama Brothers, which has been picked up for distribution by Focus Features and IFC Films. Up next, she will soon be seen in the World War II epic The Great Raid opposite Benjamin Bratt, Joseph Fiennes and James Franco for director John Dahl and produced by Miramax; the dramatic thriller Return to Sender directed by Billie August, which premiered at The Toronto Film Festival in 2004; and the black comedy Ice Harvest with John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton and Randy Quaid, directed by Harold Ramis for Focus Features. In 2003, Nielsen starred as an industrial spy in a corporate war in the critically acclaimed suspense thriller Demonlover, directed by Olivier Assayas and co-starring Chloe Sevigny and Gina Gershon.