The 66-year-old has directed films such as Melancholia and Dancer in the Dark, which won the Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or in 2000
Lars von Trier, the director of films including Dancer in the Dark and Melancholia, has been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.
His production company, Zentropa, said it released the information to avoid any speculation about his health leading up to the premiere of his series The Kingdom Exodus at the Venice Film Festival next month."Lars is in good spirits and is being treated for his symptoms," producer Louise Vesth said in a statement.Von Trier has won several international film awards in his four decades as a filmmaker, including the Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or for Dancer in the dark.
His films and comments have sometimes caused controversy, and in 2011 he was banned from Cannes for seven years after he made comments sympathetic to Nazis during a press conference.