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Sections 2021

Discover the selection of RIFF 2021: browse through the sections to find out all the details of the films to see. For your convenience, they are arranged in a number of different categories.

New Visions

In New Visions, up-and-coming directors present their first or second feature films and compete for our main prize, the Golden Puffin. These films challenge cinematic conventions and pave the way for tomorrow’s cinema.

Open Seas

Every year a few distinct films make the headlines on the festival circuit. These are exciting and masterful works by established filmmakers and newcomers alike. Here we have the cream of this past year’s crop.

Dutch Focus

The Netherlands is in focus this year. We will screen a great variety of different films with a broad scope.

Creative Excellence In Cinema Award - Joachim Trier

Joachim Trier is one of Scandinavia’s leading modern filmmakers. His work revolves around character-driven stories with existential themes, commonly told with rich emotional sensitivity.

Creative Excellence in Cinema Award - Mia Hansen-Løve

Mia Hansen-Løve’s film are at the forefront of contemporary French cinema. Always striking an interesting blend between fiction and the autobiographical, they are defined by an understated transparent style.

HONORARY GUEST TRINE DYRHOLM

Trine Dyrholm is one of Denmark’s leading screen actors and record-holder of seven Bodil Awards (the country’s main film award), known for roles in In a Better World (2010), The Commune (2016) and Queen of Hearts (2019).

HOMAGE TO DIMITIRI EIPIDES

Program section dedicated to the memory of our friend, Dimitri Eipides, programming director at RIFF 2005-2010 and Toronto Film Festival, Thessaloniki Film Festival among many. His lifetime contribution to cinema is a great one.

HOMAGE TO ÁRNI ÓLAFUR ÁSGEIRSSON

Retrospective of Árni Ólafur Ásgeirsson's films, who sadly passed earlier this year. He directed four feature films and made an essential contribution to the Icelandic film community as an artist and as a person.

A Different Tomorrow

Our future has always been unknown, but never so unsafe. The planet will not handle our abuse any longer. We turn against one another. But we are learning. In A Different Tomorrow a light is shed on environmental and humanitarian topics. Cinema can change the world!

Documentaries

Our documentary programme aims to educate and inform, but also to mediate knowledge in new and exciting ways. A great documentary ignites our imagination and can have a profound impact on its viewer and society by presenting unexpected viewpoints or new information.

Cinema Beats

Music plays a key part in our lives and popular culture. Cinema Beats focuses on documentaries that provide insight into the lives of musicians and their cultures, and furthermore, transport audiences to a specific time and place.

Animated!

From pencilstrokes came Bugs Bunny, Moomin Valley and Akira’s motorcycle gang, creations that live and breathe in our minds. Animation as a form of storytelling encompasses vast possibilities of filmmaking that share the ability to allow the imagination free rein.

Icelandic Panorama

RIFF is the meeting point of Icelandic and international cinema. Icelandic Panorama presents new films that have strong Icelandic connections.

Icelandic Shorts

This program includes Icelandic short films, many of whose directors have attracted well-deserved attention at film festivals around the world.

Icelandic Shorts Student Competition

Icelandic Shorts Student Competition includes films from students in filmmaking.

International Shorts

A finely curated selection of brave, artistic and delicate voices. With urgency and determination, these talented filmmakers make us travel beyond the borders of reality, expanding the scope of our imagination, and continue the evolution of cinema.

EFA Young Audience Awards

RIFF screens the three nominated films for the EFA Young Audience Award 2021. The winner, The Crossing, was selected by 12-14 year olds from all around Europe. Primary school students from the greater Reykjavík area are invited to screenings of the nominated pictures at Bíó Paradís.

The Golden Egg

The Golden Egg Competition is a selection of films from up-and-coming directors participating in the 2021 RIFF Talent Lab.

EFA Shorts Program

The European Film Academy’s short film tour brings the short films nominated for the European Film Awards to a series of film festivals across Europe and beyond.

CHILDREN’S PROGRAM

This section consists of fun and interesting films for all ages. RIFF provides all Icelandic preschools and primary schools access to these specially curated programs, with teaching materials. Enquire at skolar@riff.is

The One Minutes

The One Minutes Foundation produces and distributes one-minute videos from an artistic point of view, offering an international stage for people to create and connect. Every two months a new series is released. Participate at theoneminutes.org
See also: List of all Films
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