Reykjavik International Film Festival is an eleven day film festival that takes place every year in September in the capital of Iceland.
T
he festival highlights independant films from all over the world and put the focus on up-and-coming filmmakers. But the festival isn’t just about herding people into cinemas as RIFF also organizes concert, photo exhibitions and special events, like swim-in cinema, ciné-concerts and a car cinema. The organisation even holds a stop-motion workshop for kindergarteners and a short film workshop for students. Each year the featured films are devided into ten categories and the festivals main prize, the Golden Puffin, is awarded to a director showing their first or second film. Other awards include the Church of Iceland Award, The FIPRESCI Award and the One-Minute Competition.
As 2014 marks the 100th year since the start of the World War I, War and Peace will be RIFF’s theme and films that display this subject are highlighted. The festival’s program includes discussions about the topic with journalists, scholars and film makers. These discussions are free and open to anyone.The program is in collaboration with the EU Info Centre, the University of Iceland’s Institute of International Affairs, Nordic Region in Focus, the Nordic House, the embassy of Finland, the Icelandic Centre for Investigative Journalism and the Union of Icelandic Journalists.
This year the honorary guests of the festivals are directors Mike Leigh, who is best known for such movies as Life if Sweet, Naked, Secrets and Lies and Vera Drake, and Ruben Östlund, a Swedish emerging master in the film industry.
So for those who are staying in Reykjavik from the 25th of September until October 5th; this is what’s on and it’s definitely worth checking out.
For more information about the festivals and ticket purchases go www.riff.is.
