The Icelandic film festival held at the arthouse venue Bio Paradis opened last Thursday with Aki Kaurismäki’s The Other Side of Hope. A total of 45 films are screening until March 5, such as The King’s Choice, A Day Will Come, A Serious Game, Sami Blood, The Yard, the Palme d’or winning film I Daniel Blake and Best Foreign Language Oscar winner The Salesman.

The Danish film Antboy: Revenge of the Red Fury - the only title in the Children’s Screening programme - will be shown with an Icelandic voice-over.

Four films are part of the Environmental Awareness programme including Glacial Land by Gunnlaugur Þór Pálsson, Anna Dís Ólafsdóttir and Jóhann Sigfússon, and High Voltage by Ólafur Rögnvaldsson.

The Icelandic/French film Carcasse by Clementine Roy and Gustav Geir Bollason is one of six titles in the East Meets North sidebar. Special guests comprise directors Rajko Grlic (Croatia), Alain Guiraudie (France) and Måns Mårlind (Sweden), co-director/creator of the TV series Midnight Sun who gave a masterclass.

Other festival highlights include panels about Gender Gap on the Big Screen, What’s on TV, about the surge of Icelandic TV Drama, and The Future of Storytelling: Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Other New Forms. The festival’s ISK1 million Shortfish Award for Best Icelandic Short Film will be awarded on Saturday.

For further information, check: www.stockfishfestival.is