Eddie Redmayne appeared in a film.
Eddie Redmayne . The following year , he played Lili Elbe , one of the first known recipients of sex reassignment surgery , in Hooper 's The Danish Girl , which saw him nominated for Best Actor in the three aforementioned awards . The Danish Girl is a 2015 British-American romantic drama film directed by Tom Hooper , based on the 2000 fictional novel of the same name by David Ebershoff and loosely inspired by the lives of Danish painters Lili Elbe and Gerda Wegener . The film stars Eddie Redmayne as Elbe , one of the first known recipients of sex reassignment surgery , Alicia Vikander as Wegener , Ben Whishaw as Henrik , Sebastian Koch as Dr. Kurt Warnekros , Amber Heard as Ulla Paulson and Matthias Schoenaerts as Hans Axgil . The film was released in a limited release on 27 November 2015 by Focus Features in the United States . The film was released on 1 January 2016 , in the United Kingdom , with Universal Pictures International handling international distribution . The film received some criticism for its inaccurate portrayal of historical events , but Redmayne and Vikander 's performances received widespread acclaim and nominations for all of the major acting awards . Vikander won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and Redmayne was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor . It was also nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best British Film .