Reykjavik Industry Days showcases 14 works in Progress - new Impact Days

The projects are among 14 works in progress from Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, but also Spain country focus - to be showcased at the Industry Days (October 5-7) of the Reykjavik International Film Festival (RIFF).

The programme for the industry event, organised in collaboration with the Icelandic Film Centre, is curated by Hrönn Marinósdóttir, RIFF founder and director, and programmer Frédéric Boyer.

Among the most anticipated Icelandic feature projects to be pitched October 5 is Óskar Þór Axelsson’s English-language Operation Napoleon, based on Arnaldur Indriðason’s eponymous best-selling novel.

Toplining the cast of the conspiracy feature are Vivian Ólafsdóttir, Jack Fox, Iain Glen and Ólafur Darri Ólafsson (see our separate story: CLICK HERE). The film backed by Nordisk Film & TV Fond is due to open in Iceland in January 2023. Beta Cinema handles sales.

Two projects to be pitched for the first time are produced by the new Faroese GRÓ Studios, joint venture between Trom creator Torfinnur Jákupsson and producer Jón Hammer.

• The series Tinganes (4x60’ returnable) is a geo-political thriller written by Jákupsson from a book by first ever Faroese public prosecutor, Bjørk Maria Kunoy. A series of seemingly unrelated events trigger an international crisis with the small island community of the Faroes Islands, suddenly at the heart of a geo-political power struggle that soon threatens to dissolve the Danish kingdom. The project is expected to go into production late 2023.
• The film Lý, also to be pitched by Jákupsson, is a Nordic neo-western. In a fit of fury, disillusioned local newsman Einar (45) has a nervous breakdown on national radio, causing a massive rush-hour car pile-up. Dressed up in a traditional Faroese suit, he subsequently flees his own birthday party on his teen daughter’s bike, with the local police on his trail. As we follow him on his breath-taking cross-country journey, we discover that his state of mind comes from his decision to confront and kill his father, before he dies.
  

Other Nordic Works in progress are the following:

• Natatorium (feature), winner of the Best Nordic Pitch at the recent Helsinki Finnish Film Affair. Helena Stefáns Magneudóttir’s feature is co-produced by Iceland’s Sunna Gudnadóttir of Bjartsýn Films with Finland’s Tekele Productions, and Heather Millard of Silfurskjár, Iceland. Delivery is set for spring 2023.
• In the Land of Meadows (feature) is co-directed by multimedia artists Þorbjörg Jónsdóttir and Lee Lynch. The genre-bending narrative set in the year 999 A.D. is based on the Vinland Sagas.
• Home Game (documentary) is the film debut of Smári Gunnarson and Logi Sigursveinsson. It’s a feel-good sports documentary about one man’s dogged attempt to finish his father’s mission - to finally stage the first home game, on the football pitch he made 25 years earlier in their small Icelandic fishing village. Silver Screen is producing.
• The Outlaw-The Story of Johnny King (documentary) is a music biopic about the Icelandic country singer. Árni Sveinsson directs based on a script by top radio host Andri Freyr Vidarsson. Republik is producing.
• Motherland (documentary) is co-directed by Sævar Guðmundsson (Inside the Volcano) and US/Albanian Kreshnik Jonuzi (Triumph). The Icelandic/US film follows a family, trying to adjust to their new life after a deportation.
• Taasilaq (TV series) is a Greenlandic-Danish co-production. Rising talents Christoffer Pedersen Stenbakken and Alberte Parnuuna Lings Skifte are co-directors, creating alongside Carl Taunajik Florian Sørensen.

The Industry Days also include the very first Impact workshop, set up to help documentary projects further develop their impact goals and strategies.

Six projects will be pitched during the two-day event: Skuld, Woolly, Songs of Earth, Lynx Man, The Whale Mystery and Palm Oil in the Land of Orangutans.

The panel ‘Backlash: What The F Is Going On?!’ will be attended by prestigious politicians including ambassador Lucie Samcová-Hall Allen, EU representative in Iceland, former President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson and academic Eirikur Bergmann, Professor of Politics at Iceland’s Bifrost University.

The Producers’ Day on October 6 will be an opportunity for Icelandic and Spanish industry people to discuss possible collaborations.

Meanwhile the Reykjavik International Film Festival is in full gear until October 9.

The closing film as world premiere will be Elfar Adalsteins’s Summerlight and Then Comes the Night.

For the full programme check: www.riff.is​