Brace Your Heart + Masterclass
Háskólabió
1.10.2026, kl 17:00 (5:00pm)
Director: Amanda Kernell
Swedish-Sámi director Amanda Kernell, whom RIFF 2026 is honouring as an Emerging Master,brings her latest film, Brace Your Heart (Garrat du váimmu), to the festival following an impressive run at major international film festivals. The film received a Special Jury Prize in the Platform Competition at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it had its world premiere, and Kernell was awarded the Silver Shell for Best Director at the San Sebastián International Film Festival.
Brace Your Heart is set in a remote Sámi mountain village and follows twenty-year-old Ejva, who inherits her father’s reindeer herd after his death and struggles to shape her own future and preserve her independence. The film is a co-production between Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, and Bulgaria. Following the screening, RIFF audiences will have the opportunity to meet Kernell in a masterclass and gain insight into her filmmaking process and the themes that shape her work.
Music and Magic: Reykjavík Queer Choir and Fado Bicha
Háskólabió
1.10.2026, kl 20:30 (8:30pm)
Fado Bicha is a Lisbon-based duo charting its own course as it redefines one of Portugal’s best-known and most beloved musical traditions: fado. Singer Lila Fadista and guitarist João Caçador give fado a new voice by weaving together tradition and modernity while exploring identity, gender and social change. The duo will be joined on stage by Reykjavík Queer Choir for a unique event that brings Icelandic choral tradition together with Portuguese folk music.
Paper Tiger
Háskólabió
1.10.2026, kl 19:35 (7:35pm)
Director: James Gray
In James Gray’s deeply felt and intense drama, two brothers become entangled in a scheme that turns out to be too good to be true. As they try to navigate their way through the dangerous world of the Russian mafia, family bonds begin to fray with life-altering consequences. Starring Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson.
Það sem hverfur + Samtal til áhrifa
Háskólabió
1.10.2026, kl 17:00 (5:00pm)
Directors:: Pepe Andreu, Rafa Molés
La Pietà is rooted in a landscape undergoing profound transformation. Beneath Vatnajökull, the story of Flosi Björnsson and his family becomes inseparable from the glacier itself—a place of memory, livelihood and identity that is now rapidly changing. Taking the film as a point of departure, this Impact Talk will explore what it means to live alongside environmental change that unfolds gradually but alters both landscapes and the communities connected to them. The discussion will look at glaciers not only as indicators of the climate crisis, but as places carrying personal histories, cultural memory and a sense of belonging. Filmmakers Pepe Andreu and Rafa Molés will be joined by Helga Ögmundardóttir, environmental anthropologist and Associate Professor at the University of Iceland, whose work explores human relationships with nature and environmental change, and Guðfinna Aðalgeirsdóttir, Professor of Glaciology at the University of Iceland and one of Iceland’s leading experts on glaciers. Together, they will discuss what is lost when familiar landscapes begin to disappear, how environmental change is understood both scientifically and through the lived experience of communities, and how cinema can make slow, often abstract processes such as climate change feel immediate and personal. Moderated by Elís Guðnason.
Panel: Film as a Weapon
The Nordic House
1. október, kl. 15:15 (3:15pm)
In a media landscape increasingly shaped by misinformation, propaganda and the strategic use of images, cinema occupies an uneasy position. Film can reinforce dominant narratives, simplify complex realities or become part of political messaging but it can also challenge misinformation, preserve memory and create space for perspectives that are otherwise pushed aside.
Bringing together filmmakers, producers, broadcasters and distributors, this panel will look at how politically charged stories are created, supported and circulated.
What responsibilities come with telling stories about conflict, social rupture or contested histories? How do funding, commissioning, distribution and audience expectations shape the way those stories are told? And when images are already being used as tools of persuasion, can cinema offer something slower, more complex and more accountable?
The conversation will move between the wider media environment and the practical realities of filmmaking, asking how cinema can respond to propaganda and misinformation without simply becoming another form of messaging itself.
Panelists are Baltasar Kormákur, Susan Wendt, Rémi Burah, Erik Hemmendorff, Hrafnhildur Gunnarsdóttir and Elfa Gylfadóttir. Moderator is Þorfinnur Ómarsson.
Two Brothers, My Sister + Intro
Háskólabió
1. október, kl 21:50 (9:50pm)
Director: Teresa Villaverde
Acclaimed actress Maria de Medeiros will introduce the screening.
Lisbon, mid-1990s. Maria, João and Mário live together, careless of the future, or even the present. They love each other but one day they go their separate ways. When Maria needs their help, the three brothers will reunite once again - but a trifle too late.
At the 1994 Venice Film Festival, Maria de Medeiros received the Best Actress Award for the film.
Sámi Blood + Q&A
Háskólabió
1. október, kl 19:40 (7:40pm)
Director: Amanda Kernell
Following the masterclass, we will screen Amanda Kernell’s Sámi Blood, followed by a Q&A with the director.
Elle Marja, 14, is a reindeer-herding Sámi girl. Exposed to the racism of the 1930's and race biology examinations at her boarding school she starts dreaming of another life. To achieve this other life she has to become someone else and break all ties with her family and culture.
The Dashed Lines + Q&A
Háskólabió
1. október, kl 17:30 (5:30pm)
Director: Anxos Fazáns
The film’s director will take part in a Q&A.
Bea, a 50-year-old woman navigating a divorce, and Denís, a 28-year-old trans man facing an uncertain future at work, are brought together by an unexpected incident. Their chance encounter will transform both of their lives forever.
Panel: From Festival to Audience
Háskólabió
1. október, kl 13:15 (1:15pm)
Finishing a film is one thing—what happens next is another. This session follows the real journey of Amanda Kernell’s new feature Brace Your Heart, represented internationally by TrustNordisk, with Managing Director Susan Wendt offering a behind-the-scenes look at how films travel through festivals, sales and distribution. How are festival strategies decided? What drives sales and distribution choices? Olivier Barbier brings a wider perspective from international sales, while Icelandic producer Tinna Proppé adds the producer’s perspective on navigating co-production, broadcasters and international distribution, connecting the case study to broader industry realities.
Panelists are Amanda Kernell, Susan Wendt, Olivier Barbier and Tinna Proppé. Moderator is Frederic Boyer.
Them, Fado Bicha
Háskólabió
1. október, kl 5:15 (5:15pm)
Director: Justine Lemahieu
In Portugal, the songs of Lila and João, the two artists of the band Fado Bicha, give body and voice to LGBTQI+ stories and struggles. In the intimacy of the dressing rooms, words and glances cross paths, questioning our relationship with appearances, gender norms, language and sexuality.
Dissociated Me + Intro
Háskólabió
30. september, kl. 21:40 (9:40pm)
Director will introduce the film.
Encouraged by editor Elísabet Ronaldsdóttir, a woman attempts a film about her chaotic past. Without a script, she casts actors, location scouts, relives childhood trauma until she is struck by a car mid-production. In the wreckage of the film’s unraveling, she lets go of the story she thought she had to tell to finally reclaim her life.
Light Pillar
Háskólabió
1. október, kl 22:15 (10:15pm)
Director: Xu Zao
The future. Winter. Space travel is no longer a dream. A lonely janitor looks after the grounds of a run-down, bankrupt film studio. One day, however, a romantic journey begins when he meets an actress in a breathtaking virtual world, where the boundaries between reality and imagination become increasingly blurred.
International Shorts I
Háskólabió
1. október, kl 22:15 (10:15pm)
As always, RIFF celebrates short films with an extensive programme featuring works from around the world. In short filmmaking, few - if any - rules apply: the form is constantly reinvented, allowing inspiration of every kind to flourish.
No Ghosts on Good Street
Háskólabió
1. október, kl. 19:15 (7:15pm)
Director: Emi Buchwald
Four siblings on the verge of adulthood try to build their independent lives without losing the bonds that connect them. The youngest, Benek, struggles with rejection from his older brother Franek, who was once his best friend but currently has problems of his own. Nastka is searching for love while Jana, the eldest, hopes her art project will bring relief to both herself and her siblings.
