Celebrating darkness in all its forms, Iceland Noir is held in Reykjavík around the darkest time of year. Founded by bestselling Icelandic authors, Ragnar Jónasson and Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, the festival was initially a platform for celebrating crime fiction in 2013. It has evolved and grown since then, welcoming writers from all genres and including events exploring darkness in film and TV through screenings and panels.
- See also: Icelandic Literature – Where to Start?
The Background of Iceland Noir
Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, Ragnar Jónasson and Quentin Bates were having a curry at an Indian restaurant in Reykjavík and started wondering why Iceland never had its own crime fiction festival. After that dinner, the idea simmered in their heads for a while until they met again at the annual crime fiction convention CrimeFest in Bristol a few weeks later, then Iceland Noir was born on the spot.
Ann Cleeves agreed to appear at the initial festival six months later. The first Iceland Noir took place in the Nordic House in Reykjavík in November 2013 as a one-day event.
Another Icelandic crime fiction author, Lilja Sigurðardóttir, joined the organizing team in 2014 to add new energy and ideas. Reykjavík Unesco City of Literature and Promote Iceland also chipped in a few years later. However, Iceland Noir is run mostly without subsidies and funded by participants.
Óskar Guðmundsson joined in 2018 and Eva Björg Ægisdóttir took Lilja’s place in 2020, both crime authors as well. In 2022, Hattie Adam-Smith joined as Festival Manager, and then 225 guests participated in the event, alongside 82 authors and moderators for the biggest festival until then. In 2023, Dan Brown and Louise Penny were among the speakers.
The Theme of Darkness
Icelanders have developed a unique relationship with darkness through the ages, living on an island famous for rough weather, active volcanoes and moon-like landscapes. Darkness covers the country for much of the year.
Iceland Noir celebrates darkness in all its forms, held in Reykjavík at the darkest time of year. The programme includes events exploring darkness in film and television through screenings and panels.
What’s On at Iceland Noir This Year?
The line-up for Iceland Noir this year includes Sara Blaedel, David Baddiel, Brenda Blethyn, Ann Cleeves and David Walliams. Below, we take a look at some of the speakers this year.
Sara Blaedel is known for the bestselling series about detective Louise Rick and the Family Secrets trilogy. Her books have been published in 37 countries and she has been voted Denmark’s most popular novelist four times and won the Golden Laurel, Denmark’s most prestigious literary award.
Ann Cleeves has written 35 critically acclaimed novels and won the CWA Diamond Dagger 2017, the highest accolade in crime writing. She created popular detectives Vera Stanthorpe, Jimmy Perez and Matthew Venn, known from ITV’s Vera, BBC One’s Shetland and ITV’s The Long Call respectively. These TV series and the books they are based on have become international sensations, reaching millions of people worldwide.
Brenda Blethyn is an English actress who has worked in theater, television and film. Blethyn has received two Academy Award nominations, two SAG Award nominations and two Emmy Award nominations, winning one. She has also won a BAFTA, an Empire Award and a Golden Lion. Her most recent leading role in TV drama was in Vera (2011), playing Detective Chief Inspector Vera Stanhope.
Marc Levy has written 25 novels, translated into 50 languages and sold over 50 million copies worldwide. Marc started writing at the age of 37 and his first book, If Only It Were True, was adapted into the film and box office hit Just Like Heaven in 2005, directed by Steven Spielberg.
Robert Zemeckis was the director of Forrest Gump, winning an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and several more awards. The American director and screenwriter studied filmmaking at the University of Southern California, where he met fellow student Robert Gale, who became his longtime collaborator in screenwriting. Time-traveling teen comedy, Back to the Future (1985), and Cast Away (2000) with Tom Hanks are among other highlights of Zemeckis.
Leslie Zemeckis is a best-selling author, actress and award-winning documentarian. Showtime documentary, Behind the Burly Q, based on her book is a true story of old-time burlesque in America and the upcoming Grandes Horizontales. Her other two best-sellers are Goddess of Love Incarnate and Feuding Fan Dancers. As an actress she has worked in films alongside Tom Hanks, Steve Carell and Jim Carrey.
David Walliams is a comedian, actor, writer and TV personality. He is the biggest selling children’s author to have started writing since the year 2000, with his books selling in 50 million copies worldwide and published in 54 languages.
David Baddiel is a comedian, author, screenwriter and TV presenter, who has made several acclaimed documentaries, including 2016 travel documentary David Baddiel On The Silk Road (Discovery) and in 2017 The Trouble with Dad for Channel 4. More recently he created and presented Confronting Holocaust Denial and Social Media, Anger and Us on BBC 2.
Anthony Horowitz is a prolific writer in the UK and has worked across various media. He is a born polymath; writing books, TV series, films, plays and as a journalist. He has written over 50 books including the bestselling teen spy series Alex Rider, turned into TV series by Amazon Freevee.
Harlan Coben is a #1 New York Times bestselling author. His suspense novels have been published in 46 languages and been bestsellers in more than a dozen countries. His Myron Bolitar series has earned the Edgar, Shamus, and Anthony Awards, and several of his books have been developed into Netflix original series, including the #1 global hit Fool Me Once, The Stranger, The Innocent, Gone for Good, The Woods, Stay Close, and Hold Tight, as well as the Amazon Prime series adaptation of Shelter.
Lena Olin is a Swedish actress who has received nominations for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, a BAFTA Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award. She made her international breakthrough playing the role of an artist in The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988). On TV, she starred as KGB agent Irina Derevko in spy thriller Alias (2002-2006), receiving a nomination for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a drama series.
See the full line-up here.
The People Behind Iceland Noir
Ragnar Jónasson is a bestselling author who has sold over two million copies in thirty-two countries around the world. Born in Reykjavík, he started translating Agatha Christie’s novels at the age of seventeen (fourteen of her novels to date) alongside his own prolific writing and working as a lawyer. Ragnar founded Iceland Noir in 2013 with Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, his friend and another bestselling author, and translator Quentin Bates. In 2022, he published a book co-written with the prime minister of Iceland at the time and long standing crime-novel enthusiast Katrín Jakobsdóttir. He is also the author of the bestselling Dark Iceland series, set in and around Siglufjörður, where he grew up. His Hidden Iceland series of three novels were simultaneously in the top 10 of the Spiegel bestseller list in Germany several years ago.
Yrsa Sigurðardóttir works as a senior partner in one of the country’s largest engineering consultancies, alongside being an author, organizer and co-founder of Iceland Noir with Ragnar. Her work has been translated into 30 languages and her stand-alone horror novel I Remember You (Ég man þig) was made into a film in 2017 and Cold (Kuldi) came out last year. She has also written a few books of children’s fiction and that is where she started her writing career before venturing into crime fiction. Since writing Last Rituals in 2005, which was the first book in the series about detective Þóra Guðmundsdóttir, she has gone on to write a number of acclaimed standalone thrillers.
Sverrir Norland is an Icelandic author of 12 books to date, translator, publisher, and public speaker. Besides writing novels, he has made programs for radio and television. His best known book to date is War & Noise (Stríð og kliður) from 2021, a personal essay on nature, technology and human imagination. He runs a small publishing house called AM forlag, along with his wife, Cerise Fontaine, with the aim of presenting Icelandic readers to beautifully written, illustrated and designed books for children and adults.
Ólafur Darri Ólafsson is an actor and one of the founders of Vesturport Theatre Company and the production company ACT4. He was born in Connecticut in 1973 but grew up in Iceland from the age of 4. After graduating from The Icelandic Drama School, he has been fortunate enough to work full-time as an actor from graduation.
Iceland Noir 2024 in a Nutshell
Iceland Noir 2024 might turn out to be the best one so far, with renowned authors like Sara Blaedel, David Baddiel, Brenda Blethyn, Ann Cleeves, and David Walliams part of this year’s lineup.
What started out as a celebration of crime fiction and darkness has grown to welcome writers from various genres and film and TV writing as well.
Tickets to the festival are available here.
