Special Report - Iceland 1 - Record Number Of Films On Screens

29.08.2008 With three to four Icelandic films on domestic and foreign screens at the same time, several of them also successfully touring the festivals, Iceland is living a dream saga. Pure coincidence for some, the fact is that the smallest of the five Nordic countries is in a smooth creative boom far outreaching its rugged northern borders. For a country whose film industry produces no more than a handful of films each year, the hit rate of its output is rather impressive. Solveigh Anspach's comedy Back Soon just won the Variety Piazza Grande Award in Locarno and is currently screening in Iceland and in France, supported by raving reviews. Country Wedding, the directorial debut of established editor Valdís Óskarsdóttir (Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind) is hitting domestic screens on August 30 and will have its world premiere at Toronto's Contemporary World Cinema. And so will White Night Wedding, this year's biggest local success directed by national hero Baltasar Kormákur (photo).  The film maverick is still enjoying the international success of his 2006 domestic hit Jar City, which opens in Denmark this Friday (Scanbox), ahead of France (Memento Films, September 10) and the UK (The Works, September 12). Reykjavik, Rotterdam directed by Óskar Jónasson, in which Baltasar has the lead role, will open domestically in October, as well as festival hit The Amazing Truth about Queen Raquela by Olaf de Fleur, and Fridrik Thor Fridriksson's documentary Sunman. "The domestic release of so many Icelandic films in a short period of time is partly a coincidence, partly due to the fact that we're in a real creative boom," says Laufey Guðjónsdóttir, head of the Icelandic Film Centre. "Although our industry is still very young -less than 30 years old-, we now have very interesting filmmakers from the third generation coming in, who can rely on older more experienced producers. Also, filmmakers are more creative, making films based on original screenplays, not only book adaptation the way it used to be." The rise of television drama spearheaded by the creation of a new television Fund -run by the IFC- a couple of years ago, has also been very positive for the local industry. "Like in Denmark, we see a transfer of filmmakers (Oskar Jónasson, Ragnar Bragason) from film to TV and vice-versa. This has put a lot of new energy into the filmmaking community, "continues Guðjónsdóttir. Snæbjörn Steingrímsson, general manager of SMAIS, the association of film rights holders, partly agrees: "The amount of local films on domestic screens these days is no surprise as in recent times, local production has enjoyed great success at the cinemas, but also on television and DVD. For example last Christmas, the local TV drama The Nightshift (directed by Bragason, produced by Saga Film) was by far the biggest seller of the season. This has created great interest in local production and breeds a new level of confidence into Icelandic filmmakers." However for him, the unusual high number of local films on screens is no coincidence: "Late August until the beginning of December is by far the best period of the year to release a film in Iceland because holidays are over and the weather is turning bad, which is good for theatre owners." With so many attractive local films hitting Icelandic screens before Christmas, local films' market share this year, already above the 81,000 mark, thanks mostly to White Night Wedding (over 55,000 admissions) will easily pass last year's 9%. 2009 looks even brighter with the planned release of commercially-oriented films like Dagur Kári's English language The Good Heart starring Paul Dano and Brian Cox, Arní Ólafur Ásgeirsson's thriller Undercurrent (Brim), both produced by Zik Zak Filmworks, and Julius Kemp's Reykjavik Whale Watch Massacre, currently shooting in and around Reykjavik. All three films are supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond.