The acclaimed film director, Claire Denis, will receive an Award for her Creative Excellence at the Reykjavík International Film Festival in the fall. Former receivers of this Award are, among others, Jim Jarmusch, Mads Mikkelsen, Susanne Bier and Aki Kaurismäki.

The festival takes place for the sixteenth time in Reykjavík, Iceland on the 26^th of September to the 6^th of October 2019. Main programmer is Giorgio Gosetti, artistic director of Venice Days Film Festival.

,,It is a great honour to welcome Claire Denis and to introduce her work to Icelandic audiences and the film industry,’’ says Festival Director, Hrönn Marinósdóttir.

Denis has earned widespread acclaim in the international film scene and won multiple awards; last one being the coveted SACD award  at Cannes for her movie Un beau soleil intérieur.  Among the most famous, creative and visionary artists in the world today, Denis is one of France‘s leading women in film. Her most notable work being the film Beau Travail which is considered as one of the best films of the nineties. Her last film High Life was screened in 2018 and starred Robert Pattinson and Juliette Binoche.

Claire is known for her unique perspective and artistic vision. Often her films represent lives of those who tend to fall in the shadows; colonised or culturally pushed to the sides. Her films combine her one of a kind storyline with a particular view where it seems she is determined to fulfil the needs of all the audience’s senses.

Her life growing up most definitely affected the way she sees the world. Living in different parts of Africa to the age of fourteen made her see the world differently than her peers.  Her first movie shows that quite clearly; Chocolat tells the story of the lives of people living in the colonised region of West- Africa in the 1950‘s. The storyteller is a young French girl that clearly represents Denis‘ experience as a child. For that film she earned a nomination for the Golden Palm at Cannes and also the notable French price César.