Festival director Hrönn Marinósdóttir says RIFF’s growth in popularity over the last decade has been quicker than anticipated. “Visitors love the fact that besides the festival they can attend other related events such as concerts and photo exhibitions. Plus people find very entertaining our unusual ‘Cave-cinema’ (screening in a cave near Reykjavik) or ‘Swim in cinema’ (screening in an indoor pool with live music).”
Scandinavian films selected for the festival’s main sections include Daniel Dencik’s Expedition to the End of the World, screening in the competitive Different Tomorrow’ section, plus Sören Kragh-Jacobsen’s The Hour of the Lynx and Christoffer Boe’s Sex, Drugs and Taxation screening in ‘Open Seas’.
The Icelandic Panorama will showcase shorts and five feature lengths: Robert I Douglas’ This is Sanlitun that opened the festival on Wednesday, Sólveig Anspach’s French film Lulu femme nue, Herbert Sveinbjörnsson’s documentary Ash, Árni Gunnarsson’s The Shop and the experimental US/Icelandic film Days of Gray by Ani Simon-Kennedy.
Other new Icelandic films - Ragnar Bragason’s Metalhead and Benedikt Erlingsson’s Oscar entry Of Horses and Men - will screen at RIFF Industry Days (October 2-4) as part of the Icelandic Film Centre’s ‘invitation only’ preview of Icelandic projects to watch out for. Works in Progress confirmed at press time include Fúsi by Dagur Kári , the comedy Paris of the North (previously known as Cold Spring) by the director of Either Way Hafsteinn Sigurðsson, the drama Life in a Fishbowl by Baldwin Z, the actioner Brave Men’s Blood by Olaf de Fleur (co-produced by Celluloid Dreams), the animated film Ploe, You Never Fly Alone by the creators of Legends of Valhalla-Thor, the TV dramas Hraunið, loose sequel to the crime series The Cliff, and High Rise People by Kristófer Dignus.
For RIFF full programme, check: www.riff.is