Few films can boast such raw and gritty realism as VOLCANO (ELDFJALL, Iceland, 2011). While the film is set in its native Iceland, it is a far cry from the expansive Nordic Eden we have been...

  The first time I had heard about Béla Tarr was from a Serbian filmmaker friend who told me that if I wanted to know some real avant-garde plucky cinema, I hadn’t lived until I had seen a Béla Tarr...

In Retrospect... From RIFF 2010 to MIPCOM 2011... Last year the film at RIFF 2010 which stirred up quite a debate was this documentary, WHEN THE DRAGON SWALLOWED THE SUN (2010), which threatened to...

  BELA TARR receives Lifetime Achievement Award at RIFF, 2011    The legendary, exemplary, unconventional and inspiring filmmaker Bela Tarr traveled from his native Hungary to...

                                photo from Venice poster at La Biennale, 68. This past week I attended the 8th...

 ADALBERT'S DREAM by Romanian filmmaker Gabriel Achim  When I met Romanian director Gabriel Achim, we had just pruned together for hours in Iceland's famed Blue Lagoon thermal baths, so needless to...

THE PIPE!  When director Risteard O'Domhnaill (aka Richie O'Donnell) accepted his award for the RIFF ENVIRONMENTAL AWARD in Reykjavik on October 01, 2011, Richie stood up confidently in front of...

Olga Dykhovichnaya (Marina)  Sergei Borisov (Andrei)This was indeed the welcome surprise of the Reykjavik International Film Festival (RIFF) this year. Newcomer Director/Writer/Producer Angelina...

It’s a noteworthy irony that one of the eco-documentary films awarded at this year’s Reykjavik Film Festival is ECO-PIRATE: The Story of Paul Watson (2011), a film that focuses on the notorious...

RIFF 2011 Awards   New Best Icelandic Short Film Award established to honor Thor Vilhjálmsson Record festival attendance nears 27,000 admissions RIFF 2012 September 27 –...