RIFF 2025 Awards!
The Catalan film Kynlegt fljót Estrany Riu in catalan, Strange River in english), received The Golden Puffin at the awards ceremony of the Reykjavík International Film Festival 2025, while the Danish film Smákarl gegn Pútín (Mr Nobody Against Putin) received the award for Best Film in the category A Different Tomorrow programThe Canadian short film Fadeaway by Brendan Prost received The Golden Egg, a competition section dedicated to short films by up-and-coming filmmakers participating in the RIFF Talent Lab. Meanwhile Memory Traces by Gríma Irmudóttir won Best Icelandic Short Film. The Best International Short Film was Náman (The Mine / L‘Mina) by Randa Maroufi. The film Hinsta kveðja frá Gaza (Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk) by Sepideh Farsi receivedThe Young People’s Jury Award.
GULLNA EGGIÐ / THE GOLDEN EGG
Jury: Rúnar Guðbrandsson, Gunnar Björn Guðmundsson & Ólöf Birna Torfadóttir
Special Mention
‘7-10’ by Ana Pio
Jury verdict:
The jury wishes to give the short film 7–10 a special mention, as the competition between these filmswas very close. 7–10 is original, bold, and visually striking, well executed, and professional in every way.
The Golden Egg
‘Fadeaway’ by Brendan Prost
Jury verdict:
The jury agrees that the short film Fadeaway is the winner of the Golden Egg. It is a well-crafted and powerful film about a man at a difficult crossroads. The filmmaking is professional, and the style is marked by confidence and effortlessness. The acting is very strong and highly convincing. Fadeaway is well made in every respect and portrays the protagonist’s state of mind and emotions in a moving and painful way.
ICELANDIC SHORTS AWARDS
Jury: Francisco Dias, Lisa Hoen & Hjördís Jóhannsdóttir
Best Icelandic Student Short:
The Art of Giving directed by Karin Rós Wiium
Jury verdict:
This year's jury was very impressed by the ambition and quality of the short films submitted by the students. The future of Icelandic filmmaking is promising and exciting times lie ahead.
The winning film stood out because it is sculpted to the essence through precise directing. A delicate subject is portrayed in a simple but powerful way. Exposing the wounds passed on from mother to daughter, the film is an act of resistance which contributes to breaking this cycle of violence. Concise in storytelling, it still has many layers and leaves space for reflection.
Best Icelandic short film:
Memory Traces by Gríma Irmudóttir
Jury verdict:
The jury deeply appreciated this year’s selection of Icelandic shorts, with many strong films and candidates in the program.
In the winning film, we valued the relationship between landscape and the characters and how nature brought the family closer together in their grief.
With a powerful cinematic language and soundscape, the film invites us to experience loss alongside a mother and their daughters.
We cleary see a distinctive new voice emerging, with strong sense of identity and a desire to experiment with form and texture, taking risks in the storytelling at the same time. The award for best Icelandic short goes to MEMORY TRACES directed by Grima Irmudottir.
Verðlaunin fyrir bestu íslensku stuttmyndina hljóta MINNINGASPOR eftir Grímu Irmudóttur.
If you missed them earlier in the festival — or want to experience them again — now is your chance. Come celebrate the winners with us and take part in the final screenings of RIFF 2025.
INTERNATIONAL SHORTS AWARDS
Jury: Daniel Hadenius-Ebner, Erlendur Sveinsson & Kahina Asnoun
Best International Short
(The Mine / L‘Mina) by Randa Maroufi.
Jury verdict:
The jury would like to award a film that impressed us with its masterful balance of form and meaning, realized by a director of rare assurance and vision
With a cinematic language that is both essayistic and deeply physical, the fluid, gliding movement of the camera draws us into a space where time is suspended, and a single long take becomes a breathtaking distillation of the film’s essence, revealing how resistance emerges where existence slips away.
For these reasons, the jury presents the main award to The Mine (L’Mina) by Randa Maroufi.
Special mention:
Ramallah, Palestine, December 2018 by Juliette Le Monnyer
Jury verdict:
Sometimes, the greatest strength lies in simplicity. The camera captures a confrontation that lays bare both the fragility and the resilience of those facing it, transforming a single unedited long take into a gripping visual testimony of life under occupation.
For its courage and clarity, the jury awards a Special Mention to Ramallah, Palestine, December 2018 by Juliette Le Monnyer.
If you missed them earlier in the festival — or want to experience them again — now is your chance. Come celebrate the winners with us and take part in the final screenings of RIFF 2025.
YOUNG PEOPLE’S JURY AWARD
Jury: Elín C.H. Ramette, Brynjar Daðason & ísak Hinriksson
Hinsta kveðja frá Gaza (Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk) by Sepideh Farsi
Jury verdict:
We honor 'Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk' for transforming the difficulty of connection into a luminous act of resistance for the Palestinian people. Where shaky video calls, intimate conversations, photographs, and voice recordings become a testament to life under occupation. This urgent documentary's inventiveness and contrasts are reinforced by a soundscape that deepens the fragility and resilience. Culturally vital, it reminds us that justice is not only about laws and rights, but also about the right of being.
A DIFFERENT TOMORROW AWARD
Jury: Fiorella Moretti, Pipaluk K. Jørgensen & Jónas Margeir Ingólfsson
Smákarl gegn Pútín (Mr. Nobody Against Putin) by David Borenstein, Pavel Talankin
Jury verdict:
The jury had a very hard time selecting the film for the "A Different Tomorrow" award.
The voices in all the films are so important in the world we are living in. So thank you to all the filmmakers for having the courage to make these films. We thank you.
The jury has decided to award a film that gives a rare and authentic insight into a massive propaganda machine behind an entire war and the devices used by authorities to deceive an entire population. Told through the lens of a teacher who documents his students as the government works to distort their understanding of the world. It displays mass indoctrination by way of staying with a tiny school in a remote town.
The jury is happy to present the "A Different Tomorrow" award at RIFF to Mr. Nobody Against Putin.
If you missed them earlier in the festival — or want to experience them again — now is your chance. Come celebrate the winners with us and take part in the final screenings of RIFF 2025.
NEW VISIONS AWARDS
Jury: Mohsen Makhmalbāf, Gionna Nazzaro & Saga Garðsdóttír
Special mention:
SOLOMAMMA by Janicke Askevold
Jury verdict:
The Special Mention of the NEW VISIONS Jury is awarded to the film SOLOMAMMA by director Janicke Askevold, thanks to the extraordinary performance of actress LISA LOVEN KONGSLI.
In her portrayal of a woman who embraces the complex decision to experience single motherhood, the actress creates a multi-layered character that touches upon the realm of comedy without trivializing the protagonist’s anxieties, while at the same time casting an unflinching light on her personal hardships.
LISA LOVEN KONGSLI succeeds in bringing to life a complex, profoundly human character who engages with the audience critically—never seeking its approval, but rather its humanity.
The Golden Puffin:
STRANGE RIVER by Jaume Claret Muxart
Jury verdict:
The jury has unanimously decided—after a discussion in which the formal and poetic elements of the film were carefully evaluated—to award the NEW VISIONS prize to the debut work of the highly promising Catalan director Jaume Claret Muxart.
The coming-of-age story—embodied in a feeling of auroral and intimate attraction, while unfolding as an initiatory journey along an enchanted river—allows the director to reveal a precocious and accomplished talent, one that never indulges in mannerisms or formalism.
The discovery of desire, as the revelation of a world and a mode of feeling, enables the director to compose a complex symphony of unspoken yet deeply perceived words, epiphanies of a world still to be discovered.
For this reason, the jury warmly and movingly salutes the talent of Jaume Claret Muxart and the profound, radical, and revolutionary beauty of Strange River.
If you missed them earlier in the festival — or want to experience them again — now is your chance. Come celebrate the winners with us and take part in the final screenings of RIFF 2025.