A post-metal band performs at a screening of a classic Viking saga. Björk appears to check out the latest films by Pedro Almodóvar and Athina Rachel Tsingari. The filmmakers calm down in the warm, mineral-laden waters at the ocean’s edge. Business members are invited to the home of the President of Iceland to talk about the state of the film industry. It’s a typical day at the Reykjavik Worldwide Movie Pageant.
But Iceland isn’t just sizzling hot springs and Vikings – nestled neatly between Europe and North America, the country is growing as an attractive tourist destination. RIFF provides an important place for filmmakers to communicate and learn more about the industrial scene in the small country with big production incentives.
“The competition is a great place for people to meet,” says RIFF director Hrönn Marinósdóttir. “It is true that Icelandic trade is increasing. I believe we have a whole new generation of really talented filmmakers that can be easily tapped into at the biggest festivals, like Venice this year.”
Held in early October, when temperatures are still reasonable and it remains mild before 7pm, the festival has a distinctly Icelandic flavor. Annually, director Marinósdóttir and her team program events that will include swimming displays in one of the city’s many heated public pools, cinematic culinary experiences, and music-themed programming, such as this year’s live performance by steel band Sòlstafir at the retrospective of “ When the Raven Flies,” a popular Viking adventure from 1984. Most screenings take place in the Haskolabio building at the University of Iceland, which includes five auditoriums and a bar and lounge where festival-goers gather.
“We try to do weird things, we have swim-ins, drive-ins, an ice cave cinema, just to delight different types of people,” says Marinósdóttir.
Marinósdóttir has run the competition since he started it as a university project 21 years ago. “In the beginning, it was very small – 17 films dedicated to Icelanders living abroad, Canadians with Icelandic ancestry, for example,” she explains.
“There have been a lot of challenges in dealing with the budget and also with politics because I am not a filmmaker. Some filmmakers in Iceland were surprised to learn that suddenly a journalist, a woman, started an event like this”, recalls Marinósdóttir.
This year’s event included master’s courses and retrospectives with special guests Nastassja Kinski, Bong Joon-Ho, Swedish music video and director Jonas Akerlund and Greek filmmaker Tsingari. A screening of Daft Punk’s 2003 animated film “Interstella 5555” was attended by the filmmakers in attendance.
The Trade Days portion hosted discussions such as an AI masterclass, a wardrobe and makeup workshop, a panel on the future of commerce, and a work-in-progress exhibition. Trade members were also invited to a roundtable with Icelandic President Halla Tómasdóttir. At the president’s residence, Björk, perhaps the country’s most famous figure, along with Tsingari, Akerlund and others, discussed the importance of maintaining community areas like reporting agencies and independent cinemas – both to support artists, interact with young people and help combat the loneliness epidemic.
Trade Days members also teamed up on a themed trip to the beautiful Hvammsvik Hot Springs and a visit to Thorufoss waterfall, a major “Game of Thrones” filming location.
Head of programming Frederic Boyer, who also serves as creative director of the Tribeca Pageant and Les Arcs in France, says bringing filmmakers to the competition draws an enthusiastic response. “We have an incredible audience that loves music, that loves Bong Joon Ho, that loves Daft Punk and is ready to absorb,” says Boyer. After the screening of Tsingari’s “Harvest,” viewers were so engaged, Boyer says, that they solicited questions for an entire hour.
This year’s successful films included the Golden Puffin Award for Kohei Igarashi’s Japanese film “Super Glad Endlessly,” which the jury called “delicate and luminous.”
The Totally Different Tomorrow award, given to films that facilitate social dialogue and illuminate solutions to local and international issues, went to the documentary “A New Form of Wilderness”, by Silje Evensmo Jacobsen, a visually rich study of a British nature lover . Norwegian family adapting to a new life.
The Reykjavik Worldwide Movie Pageant ran from September 26th to October 6th.
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