HRÖNN MARINÓSDÓTTIR'S FILM PICKS
We asked Hrönn Marinósdóttir, the festival director, which films are her favorites on the RIFF 2025 program. We managed to narrow the list down to 15 films – but she would have liked to name more.
Below, you can get to know Hrönn’s 15 favorite films (in no particular order).
(US)
113min
Director: Eva Victor
Eva Victor’s acclaimed and darkly comic drama about Agnes, a young professor in rural Massachusetts, navigating the aftermath of a sexual assault. Told in nonlinear chapters, the film weaves humor, resilience, and emotional nuance into a powerful portrait of trauma, friendship, and healing.
(US)
123min
Director: Benny Safdie
The story of legendary UFC fighter Mark Kerr, whose brutal strength in the ring hid a far more complicated battle outside it. A portrait of dominance, vulnerability, and the fight to confront what lies beyond glory.
(NO, LT, LV, FI, DK)
100min
Director: Janicke Askevold
When Edith becomes single at 40, she embarks on solo motherhood with a sperm donor. Solo parenting proves harder than expected, and doubts about being enough creep in. When the donor’s identity surfaces, she seeks him out, unaware of the consequences her actions will have on those around her.
(IS, PL)
82min
Director: Yrsa Roca Fannberg
A soft, meditative gaze falls on the final years of life inside a Reykjavík care home, where time folds in on itself. Gentle rituals become poetry; memory flickers like light on water. Yrsa Roca Fannberg captures a tender reverence for the everyday. The film will also be screened for residents of Grund on October 3rd.
(SI, RS)
96min
Director: Miha Hocevar
Guti and Sig wake up dazed and handcuffed together on a riverbank near Ljubljana. What ensues is a fairy-tale dramedy about new beginnings and unexpected friendships that can help us find our place under the sun—even if we must travel 4,000 kilometers to find it.
(IS, CA, CZ)
90min
Director: Jon Einarsson Gustafsson
World Premiere at RIFF 2025. When a volcanic eruption grounds all flights, two stranded strangers form an unlikely alliance in Iceland. Desperate for escape—or maybe something more—they steal a car and head toward the volcano. What begins as a reckless road trip erupts into a journey with life- altering consequences.
(FR)
156min
Director: Olivier Assayas
Vadim Baranov, once an artist and TV producer, becomes the spin doctor behind Vladimir Putin’s rise, shaping the myths of a new Russia. Years later, he breaks his silence, revealing a world where truth and illusion blur.
(SK, CZ, PL)
103min
Director: Tereza Nvotová
This searing new feature from Tereza Nvotová unfolds in a single, unbroken take as a devoted young father reels from the unthinkable. With unflinching intimacy and formal daring, the film confronts grief, accountability, and the fragile weight of forgiveness.
(SE, DK, NO)
87min
Director: Simon Klose
A journalist goes undercover in Nordic far-right communities online, infiltrating networks that thrive on hate. Her work reveals how deeply the groups are woven into online culture, and the personal risks she faces. One woman’s fight against a toxic underground.
(AT)
80min
Director: Natalie Halla
Afghan ambassador Manizha Bakhtari remains in Vienna after the Taliban takeover, representing a nation that no longer officially exists. In defiance of the regime, she courageously continues her fight for Afghan women’s rights.
(NO)
90min
Director: Åse Svenheim Drivenes
Two doctors in Tromsø, Norway, endeavour to treat young people with undiagnosable illnesses. An examination of how we reckon with the unknowable, and what role the teenagers have in a society that struggles to understand them.
(ES, FR)
115min
Director: Oliver Laxe
A young woman vanishes at a rave in southern Morocco. Luis, her father, and Esteban, her brother, journey into the desert in search. A sensory, minimalist road movie blending trance rhythms with grief, found family bonds, and a spiritual trek across stark, inhospitable terrain.
(US)
110min
Director: Kelly Reichardt
Suburban family man J.B. Mooney, a struggling carpentry dad in 1970s Massachusetts, plans a daring art heist from his local museum. But his amateur approach leads to unraveling consequences—quietly gripping in Reichardt’s understated, character driven style.
(AT, DE)
115min
Directors: Elsa Kremser, Levin Peter
Masha, a Belarusian model is chasing a dream career in China, while Misha, is a brooding painter who works in a morgue. Their fragile romance—set amid mortality, identity, and outsider art—turns each other's worlds upside down. Premiering in Locarno’s international competition in August 2025.
(ES, FR, PT)
126min
Director: Albert Serra
Tardes de Soledad offers an immersive, unfiltered portrait of matador Andrés Roca Rey across fourteen bullfights, through stark close ups and silent rituals. Director Albert Serra was awarded the RIFF 2022 Honorary Award for Creative Excellence.
