Icelandic Glassriver ramps up feature film division

Since its launch in 2016, Glassriver has become a household name for quality Icelandic scripted drama, thanks to the strong pedigree of its co-owners-writer/director Baldvin Z (Case, Black Sands, Life in a Fishbowl), writer Andri Óttarsson (Black Sands, Thin Ice, Stella Blómkvist), and producer Arnbjorg ‘Abby’ Haflidadottir (Case, Black Sands, As Long as We Live).

Today Andri Omarsson, CEO, co-owner and producer, is the fourth pillar of Glassriver, following the departure of co-founder and producer Hordur Rúnarsson.

While Glassriver continues to deliver premium TV dramas, balancing 100% financed smaller local series such as Ordinary People, with high-end dramas for the international market, such as Black Sands or Fractures, the company is now stepping up the production of quality feature films.

Four feature projects are in development including three to be directed by Baldvin Z.

“What drives me is to tell good stories, whatever the format, but it’s more challenging to do a film-everything has to be well-calibrated,” said the writer/director whose earlier films Life in a Fishbowl and Let Me Fall garnered more than 48,000 local admissions in 2014 and 63,000 in 2018 respectively, on top of multiple national Edda awards.

Baldvin Z’s next feature project is In Dead Silence (working title), based on the director’s own original screenplay. The story with intertwining plots follows four Icelanders from diverse ethnic backgrounds, desperate to go on with their lives, in a country which no longer feels safe for them, as the search of a missing white teenage girl captures everybody’s attention.

“We touch upon racism, but the core is really the lives of those four characters,” said the socially-driven director, eager to promote diversity in Icelandic filmmaking.

His other projects are Dark Sea (working title), an original story about a group of sailors at sea for 17 days, which will explore toxic masculinity, and Cock Holding (working title) based on the best-selling debut novel ‘Kokkáll’ by Dóri DNA (grandson to Nobel Prize winner Hálldor Laxness).

Glassriver’s fourth feature project is the musical film Is This Love (working title), to be directed by Kristófer Dignus (My Funeral). It will be a darkly musical drama about toxic relationships, incorporating Icelandic musical hits of the past four decades.

On the TV side, Glassriver has half a dozen projects in different stages of development and production.

• Black Sands season 2 (Channel 2 Iceland) is due to start production soon. The crime thriller is directed by Baldvin Z, co-creator with Ragnar Jónsson, Andri Óttarsson and Aldís Amah Hamilton. The eight-part series is produced in association with All3Media which handles global distribution.
• As Long as We Live (Channel 2, C More/TV4) is a series about love, lust and longing, created by and starring top actress Anita Briem. The premiere is set for early 2023. Eccho Rights handles sales.

• Cold Haven (RÚV, RTP) is a crime drama co-produced by Portugal’s SPi.
• Flateyri (RÚV) is a disaster drama co-created by The Vallhalla Murders’ director Þórður Pálsson and head-writer Ottar Nordfjord.
• Magaluf (Channel 2) is co-created by Ragnar Bragason with comedian Snjolaug Ludviksdóttir. The 8x30’ romantic comedy set in 1979 stars Under the Tree’s Steinþór Hróar Steinþórsson.
• The Trip (Síminn) is a crime thriller about a female journalist, raised in the US, who arrives in a small Icelandic town to investigate the abduction of a local girl, 20 years earlier. The show co-created by Baldvin Z with Andri Ottarsson is due to start production in 2024.