Vanessa McMahon

Reykjavík Fest Opens Thursday with Queen of Montreuil

Reykjavík International Film Festival opens on Thursday with a screening of Queen of Montreuil by Sólveig Anspach in Harpa Music Hall. The festival runs for eleven days, until October 7th. The award ceremony takes place on October 6th. RIFF was founded in 2004, making this its ninth edition. Honorary guests include Dario Argento, Susanne Bier and Marjane Satrapi. Geoff Gilmore leads jury.

The competitive section ‘New Visions’ is limited to progressive debut and sophomore works like The Interval by Leonardo di Costanzo (Italy) and Eat Sleep Die by Gabriela Pichler (Sweden), while ‘Open Seas’ focuses on successful films from the festival circuit like Lore by Cate Shortland (Germany/Britain/Australia) and Everybody in Our Family by Radu Jude (Romania).

On the doc front, ‘A Different Tomorrow’ foregrounds environmental concerns with pics like Jeff Orlowski’s Chasing Ice (USA), while a general ‘Documentaries’ section is arranged by topics ranging from ‘digital’ (Indie Game: The Movie, Five Star Existence) to ‘world’ (China Heavyweight, Italy: Love it or Leave it) to ‘music’ (Freddie Mercury: The Great Pretender, Searching for Sugar Man) and ‘art’ (Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present).

German filmmaking is given special prominence this year with a special screening of Metropolis with music performed live by Damo Suzuki, former singer of the legendary psychedelic rock group CAN, and an exhibition of photography by Ulrike Ottinger, whose latest film Under Snow is also playing. Christian Petzold’s Barbara – Germany’s representative at the Oscars’ – is screened, and newcomer Pola Schirin Beck has her world premiere of Breaking Horizons.

Icelandic Panorama is a selection of new Icelandic shorts, docs and features.

Honorary guests this year are Susanne Bier and Dario Argento. She receives the festival’s ‘Creative Excellence Award’ and attends a screening of her latest film, Love Is All You Need. He is awarded for his lifteime achievement and attends Q&A screenings of Suspiria, Inferno and Dracula 3D while also giving an open masterclass. This year’s ‘Emerging Master’ is Marjane Satrapi, who attends screenings of Persepolis and Chicken With Plums and speaks about her work alongside her editor Stéphane Roche.

Leading the RIFF jury this year is Geoffrey Gilmore, the director of Tribeca Enterprises and former director of the Sundance Film Festival. He is joined by Cedomir Kolar, producer of No Man’s Land (2001) and Erna Kettler, acquisitions manager from the Icelandic National Television.

RIFF is Iceland’s major annual film event, focusing on quality independent cinema and progressive filmmaking from all over the world every year. It is well attended by a number of international guests, including press, media and film personalities. RIFF’s past honorary guests include Jim Jarmusch, Milos Forman, Peter Greenaway, Costa-Gavras, Hanna Schygulla, Béla Tarr, Aki Kaurismäki, Hal Hartley, Shirin Neshat, Atom Egoyan, Abbas Kiarostami and numerous other names from the international film scene. Acclaimed Icelandic filmmakers Fridrik Thor Fridriksson (Children Of Nature, nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars in 1992), Valdis Oskarsdottir (BAFTA winner for Best Editing, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and Baltasar Kormákur (Little Trip To Heaven, Jar City, Contraband) are members of RIFF’s festival committee.

-OFFICIAL RIFF 2012 PRESS-