Winners at Reykjavik International Film Festival

RIFF 2015 Comes to an End, the biggest festival to date.

Reykjavik International Film Festival opened for the 12th. time on Sept. 24th. and closed on Sunday Oct. 4th. The festival was a big success and never before has have more people attended the festival’s events and screenings.  From the opnening film, Tale of Tales, through the concerts, swim-in cinema, cave-in cinema, 300 screenings of about 100 films, numerous panel discussions, about 50 Q&As, Masterclasses and finally the closing night’s film, first episode of Baltasar Kormákur’s Trapped, RIFF ran smoothly.  The staff and volunteers of about 100 came from all over the world and a big number of international guests came to RIFF, from other large film festivals like Toronto, Cannes and Tribeca, from large sales- and distribution companies like Hanway films and Memento.  Quite a few members of foreign press from for instance Screen, Variety and Indiewire came to Reykjavik this year.

This years guests of honour were Canadian director David Cronenberg and German director Margarethe von Trotta.  As well as showing a collection of their films they both gave  Masterclasses and Q&A after screenings of two of their films each.  They both also received RIFF’s Lifetime Achievement Award from Icelandic President, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson at Presidential residence Bessastaðir.

• The festival is in close co-operation with the Cultural Ministry of Iceland, Reykjavik City, the town of Kópavogur and Creative Europe. RIFF also is supported by numerous firms and companies and embassies.  The main sponsors this year are; RÚV TV and Radio, Reykjavík Excursions, DHL and The Nordic House. 
• RIFF has grown quite a lot since it started in 2004. In the last few years almost 30.000 guests have seen it’s events yearly.  RIFF’s goals are the same as before, to introduce international films to Icelanders and Icelandic films to the international community.  To raise awareness on matters that are relevant on the world’s stage and news through films and to connect the Icelandic and international film industries through discussions and seminars. RIFF is a fixture on the map of international film festivals, sought by industry people and tourists from all over the world.
• This year Iceland celebrates the 100 years anniversary of womens right to vote, which was reflected in a special focus on films made by women or with a female point of view.  Quite a few documentaries on this year’s program focus on matters concerning women and we’re proud to say that about 50 films are directed be women in various categories, so it’s very close to being a perfect gender equality on the RIFF program this year. 
• Like in the last years there were special Industry Days at RIFF this years, with a special program for our foreign guests.
• The Talent Lab was also in it’s place this year where 50 young filmmakers from all corners of the world came together in Reykjavik in workshops and discussions to get to know each other and introduce the projects they’re working on.

Winners at RIFF 2015:

It was the Iranian film “Wednesday May 9th.” (IRA) by director Vahid Jalilvand, that won Discovery of the Year and received the Golden Puffin in tonight in RIFF’s Award Ceremony 2015.

The distinguished Fipresci award, from the International federation of film critics was awarded to Krisha (USA) by director Trey Edward Shults. 

RIFF’s Environmental Award was presented for the sixth time to a film from our category A Different Tomorrow.  The winner this year was How to Change the World (CAN/GBR) by Jerry Rothwell.

The documentary Cartel Land (MEX/USA) by Matthew Heineman won the Audience award.  Audience voted for their favorite film from the Documentaries category.

The Best Icelandic Short was chosen and this year two shorts were joint winners, Heimildarminnd/Docyoumentory by Jón Ásgeir Karlsson and Regnbogapartý/Rainbow Party by Eva Sigurðardóttir.

The Golden Egg was awarded to a participant in RIFF’s Talent Lab.  The recipient this year was Canadian directors Harry Cherniak and Dusty Mancinelli for their project Winter Hymns.