Film directors Joachim Trier from Norway and Mia Hansen – Love from France will receive this year's RIFF Honorary Award for Outstanding Artistic Vision. The awards will be presented by the President of Iceland, Guðni Th. Jóhannesson, at a ceremony in Bessastaðir on the opening day of RIFF on September 30th, and on the same day they will have a masterclass in Gamlabíó with film directors Ása Helga Hjörleifsdóttir and Hafstein Gunnar Sigurðsson, which is open to all.

It is safe to say that Joachim and Mia are among the most interesting and sought-after young directors of our time, and it is therefore a great honor that they have accepted the invitation to come to RIFF. They both had new films in Cannes this summer that received excellent reviews and will be shown at RIFF along with their older films. Joachim's film The Worst Person in the World won the Cannes Award for Best Actress. Mia's Bergman Island received great attention and critical acclaim at Cannes this summer.

Worst Person in the World by Joachim Trier is the opening film of RIFF. BDirector Dagur B. Eggertsson will launch the festival with a ceremony in Gamlabíó on September 30th.

Joachim Trier

Joachim is considered one of the most interesting directors in the Nordic countries at the moment and is said to have a formative influence on modern filmmaking despite his young age. He took his first steps behind the camera making skateboard videos as a teenager. He later studied filmmaking in Denmark and the UK, where his short films immediately attracted a lot of attention. 

His first two feature films, Reprise (2006) and Oslo August 31 (2011), are set in the Norwegian capital and could be described as classic realist stories of young people at a crossroads. Both were highly successful at film festivals on both sides of the Atlantic. He followed them up with his English-language debut, Louder Than Bombs (2015), which stars Isabelle Huppert and Jesse Eisenberg, will be screened at the festival in addition to Joachim's latest film. The Worst Person in the World the opening film of this year's RIFF.

The third film from Joachim's workshop will be Oslo, August 31st and tells the story of a day in the life of Anders, a recovering addict, who takes a day off from his treatment facility to go on a job interview. 

Mia Hansen-Løve

Born in Paris in 1981, Mia studied acting and worked as a critic before finding her calling as a director. Her oeuvre includes seven feature films that have won awards (including the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival) and critical and audience acclaim. 

Her films are deeply personal, blending the autobiographical and the fictional in a remarkable way. A thoughtful and restrained style, which has been described as transparent, is characteristic of the films, leading the audience directly into the world of the story. The narratives, always intelligent, are characterized by a lot of dialogue and put characterization and atmosphere in the foreground. Her unique and emotionally profound films constitute the vanguard of French cinema today.

As previously mentioned, three films by Mia will be shown at the festival, and they are all meant to be descriptive of her style, which is Bergman Island about a couple who seclude themselves on an island in Ingmar Bergman's old hangout to finish a film script. Things to Come is about a passionate woman who is a philosophy professor, played by Isabelle Huppert. When her husband leaves her for another woman, she gains unexpected freedom. In the end, it is Eden A story about a teenager named Paul. He forms a DJ group with his friends, and together they indulge in nights of sex, drugs, and music.

Over the years, RIFF has selected artists in the film industry who have demonstrated a special artistic vision or have left a deep mark on the history of filmmaking through their contributions on an international stage. Previous recipients of the award include actor Mads Mikkelsen and film directors Milos Forman, Jim Jarmusch, Peter Greenaway and Susanne Bier. In fact, an entire category is dedicated to the award winners, and for example, three films by both Mia and Joachim will be screened at the festival.