2010 was the biggest year in Iceland's film history in terms of features released (nine in total) and 2011 looks set to be even bigger (at least ten). All seems well on the surface but that isn't really the case. Public funding for films was slashed by 35% in the…
With Iceland going through tough times and film funding especially badly hit, Icelandic filmmakers are however nothing if not resourceful. This is currently epitomized in two new features, Lýdur Árnason's Rising Moon (Vaxandi tungl) and Olaf de Fleur's City State (Borgríki), set to start filming very…
Director Ragnar Bragason (Mr. Bjarnfredarson) was selected the chairman of The Film Directors Guild Iceland at the Guild's annual General Meeting last Friday. Director Fridrik Thór Fridriksson steps down as chairman but stays on the board. Other board members are Silja Hauksdóttir, Hilmar Oddsson and Óskar Jónasson. Mr.…
Interviewed by Iceland on Screen's Ben Hopkins, director Einar Thor delivers a no-holds-barred analysis on the politics of Icelandic cinema affairs through the years. "When funding and vague policy review, in the course of two decades from 1979 onwards, eventually seemed to be tailored to fit the…
The latest issue of UK magazine Clash features an article on the state of Iceland's film scene, under the headline "Film & Fury In the Land of the Ice and Snow". In the article, Ben Hopkins, Clash's Film Editor and an ICN Cinephile, interviews several key…
Sagafilm, the production company behind the Shift series and Mr. Bjarnfredarson, has joined forces with the cast and crew to drum up support for the Icelandic film and TV industry. The team will create 8 short sketches set to happen at the gas station where The Night Shift…
A disrepancy appears between RUV Director Páll Magnússons' remarks in a radio interview recorded last Thursday and the statements of the Culture Minister and RUV's Chairman of the Board made later on the same day. The variance is about how much RUV spent on programmes from…
Today, as public broadcaster RUV holds its annual general meeting, pressure mounts on its Director, Páll Magnússon. A new report criticizes his handling of affairs and also RUV's form of business, a large meeting last night in the presence of the Culture Minister and…
A large meeting last night, held by the Left-Green Party, with party members the Culture Minister and RUV's Chairman of the Board present, demanded the immidiate removal of RUV Director Páll Magnússon from office. Many members of the film community attended the meeting and a number…
"RUV's recent cuts confirm RUV's moral bankruptcy towards its duties", says in a statement from the Actor's Union relased today, and it adds: "It's highly inappropriate, considering the current circumstances, that open and democratic governance does not apply at RUV, but only the will of a politically selected…
