The Reykjavík International Film Festival, RIFF, begins next week, Thursday, September 24th, with the premiere of The Third Pole by Anní Ólafsdóttir and Andri Snæ Magnason and ends on October 4th with the premiere of Against the Current, by Óskar Pál Sveinsson.
The RIFF festival is now in its seventeenth year and the selection of films has rarely been so diverse. Renowned program director Frédéric Boyer has left his mark on the program, including creating a new category called Insights into the Mind of an Artist. Films in this category connect cinema across other art forms.
This year the festival will be held in a slightly different way than before. Film lovers across the country, from Akranes to Raufarhöfn, will be able to enjoy quality films in the comfort of their own living rooms with online screenings. The very best films will be shown at Bíó Paradís and Norræni Húsin. Please note that limited seating is available. All tickets can be purchased through www.riff.is
The program includes brand new films, many of which come straight from major film festivals including Cannes, Venice, San Sebastian and Locarno. These are quality films of various kinds by renowned directors and featuring world-famous actors such as Frances McDormand, Mads Mikkelsen, Björk and Dylan Gelula.
The films cover everything from a fateful moment in history in a notorious prison in Ivory Coast, circus arts, psychosis and the tragic search for love to the dark side of social media and illegal logging. The films at RIFF arouse curiosity in the viewer, encouraging them to take the leap and see films both within and outside their field of interest.
Among the film gems at RIFF are Another Round, Thomas Vinterberg's latest film starring Mads Mikkelsen, Nomadland/Hirðingjaland directed by Chloe Zhao, which won the Golden Lion, the main prize of the Venice Film Festival, 200 metres/200 Metrar directed by Ameen Nayfeh, which won the Audience Award in Venice, and I am a Greta/Ég er Gréta directed by Nathan Grossman, which recently premiered at the Venice Film Festival.
The RIFF festival will screen 110 films, 61 feature films and 49 shorts. A bridge will then be built to the EFA Awards in December with special cinema weekends in October and November. The weekends will be dedicated to horror films, interesting documentaries about artists and Icelandic films that have been nominated for the EFA Awards. A number of Nordic premieres are on the program in addition to European and world premieres. This year, 55 of the % filmmakers are women and 45% are men. In the category of Visionaries, 3 of the 8 directors are women, in the category for Open Ocean, 5 of the 9 directors are women and in the category of Another Future there are 12 directors, an equal number of each gender.
The festival will feature films from 47 countries: Iceland, Palestine, Jordan, Qatar, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands, Spain, Argentina, Mexico, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Senegal, the United States, Lesotho, Denmark, Bulgaria, Norway, Israel, Poland, South Africa, Ukraine, Lithuania, Austria, Romania, Germany, Taiwan, Australia, Finland, Turkey, South Korea, Russia, Greenland, Luxembourg, Egypt, Greece, Colombia, Peru, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Estonia, Japan, Hungary, New Zealand and Malta.
The program includes a number of Icelandic films, from short films to documentaries and feature films. Premieres will include The Third Pole, directed by Anní Ólafsdóttir and Andri Snæs Magnason, The Circus Master, directed by Helgi Felixsson and Titti Johansen in collaboration with the Reykjavík Arts Festival, Against the Current, directed by Óskar Páll Sveinsson, Hatred, directed by Anna Hildur Hildibrandsdóttir, The Housewives' School, directed by Stefaníu Thor, and The Shadow Quarter, directed by Jón Gústafsson.
Special events at RIFF will be in place. Two exciting new features will be offered this year: Bílabíó RIFF and Bíóbíll RIFF.
RIFF Movie Theater with movie screenings on the giant screen at Grandi from September 25-28 with four exciting screenings – the blockbuster Hárið/Hair – Ég er Gréta/I am Greta – Sputnik- Hunskastu út/Get The Hell Out. RIFF Movie Theater starts today, Thursday, September 17. Children all over the country will be offered a special short film program, in the afternoon award-winning, European short films will be shown and in the evening the movie theater will be used to show the blockbuster Dancer in the Dark. Don't miss the movie theater in your town! In addition, there will be magnificent Bransadagar (Business Days). An extensive program will take place both in the Nordic House and online. Icelandic works in progress will be presented and panel discussions will be held, among other things, on women in television and filmmaking. The emphasis will be on Icelandic filmmaking.
A quality program will be available for children of all ages in collaboration with Art for All. Elementary school teachers will be offered special promotional materials with the films.
Ticket sales start today at www.riff.is and there are a limited number of seats available. A single movie ticket at Bíó Paradís and Norræna Húsið costs 1,690 kr. Each screening online costs 1,190 kr. the film and it will be possible to buy films together in a package at a lower price.
RIFF's partners are RÚV, Creative Europe –Media and the City of Reykjavík, as well as many other partners, and we would like to thank them for this.
