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The Finnish Line is premiering tonight at 6 p.m. Et!

The Hallmark Channel original TV movie centers around the character Anya who, inspired by her father’s legacy, competes in Finland’s Joulurauha race. Partnered with a new dog, she faces challenges, her father’s rival, and her own anxieties.

The new film, directed by Dustin Rikert, stars Kim Matula, Beau Mirchoff, Nichole Sakura, Benedikt Gröndal, Arnar Dan Kristjánsson, Tinna Björt Guðjónsdóttir, Hinrik Ólafsson, and Níels Thibaud Girerd.

You’ll already know Kim as Hope Logan from The Bold and the Beautiful from 2010 to 2016. Beau stars as Cash McMurray in Ride.

Keep reading to find out more…

This is one of many of the holiday offerings from Hallmark this season. In fact, there are 47 holiday movies this year from Hallmark Channel! See the full lineup.

Find out which Hallmark TV show is considered the best!

Watch the trailer and see...

Grímur Hákonarson finds more trouble brewing down on the farm in his follow-up to the Cannes Un Certain Regard-winning Rams. More of a low-key straight forward drama than his black comedy-inflected hit, The County tracks what happens to farmer Inga (Arndís Hrönn Egilsdóttir) after the unexpected death of her husband Reynir (Hinrik Ólafsson).

Suddenly in control of their farm, which was scraping by even with two of them working it, she finds herself locking horns with the local co-op after discovering the company has been strong-arming those who don't like its elevated prices in a move that cuts close to home.

Hákonarson's woman against corporate Mafia premise is solid enough but The County never manages to generate the emotional intensity that the feuding brothers brought to his previous film, perhaps because the bad guy, co-op chief Eyjólfur (Sigurður Sigurjónsson) gets less screentime than he might - although this does stop...

A farmer’s widow wages war against local power brokers in this bittersweet Icelandic drama

In his deadpan 2015 feature Rams, Icelandic film-maker Grímur Hákonarson breathed bittersweet life into a tale of feuding sheep-farming brothers facing a cull that risked destroying their ancestral stock and way of life. Here, he peels back another layer of dour Nordic culture, turning his attention to a woman finding her voice amid the often chilly silence of agrarian life, making her mark in a male-dominated industry. Like its predecessor, The County blends elements of heartfelt tragedy with absurdist comedy, conjuring a humanist portrait of life in which community and loneliness coexist in a landscape of contradictions – geographical, personal, and political.

In a scene that reminded me of the arresting opening of Andrew Kötting’s This Filthy Earth, we meet Inga (stage and TV veteran Arndís Hrönn Egilsdóttir) pulling a newborn calf from its mother’s...

A fiercely principled woman is rejuvenated by her battle against corruption in Grímur Hákonarson’s stirring drama

The spirit of Elia Kazan lives on in this tough community drama from Icelandic film-maker Grímur Hákonarson, who won golden plaudits for his 2015 picture Rams, about two sheep-farming brothers, which struck a clever tonal balance between comedy and tragedy.

The County is dourer than that, though from the same world of self-reliant and pugnacious souls who have made their way in life against tough odds, thriving in solitude and hardship amid a vast, remote, beautiful landscape. The action centres on farmers: Inga (Arndís Hrönn Egilsdóttir) who is married to moody, careworn Reynir (Hinrik Ólafsson).

In The County, Rams writer/ director Grímur Hákonarson gives us another slice of rural Icelandic life in this stunning, heartbreaking and at times deliciously playful drama. Written by Hákonarson and with a stunning cinematography courtesy of Mart Taniel, the film tells the story of a woman’s solitary fight against corruption and injustice in her farming community.

Middle-aged couple Inga (Arndís Hrönn Egilsdóttir) and Reynir (Hinrik Ólafsson) run a small dairy fam in one of the most remote areas of Iceland. Recently, however, the couple have struggled to keep afloat amidst mounting debts and a powerful local cooperative breathing down their necks. For years the local farming co-op has had a say on where farmers can buy or sell their produce, leaving them almost with no profit ands unable to prosper.

When Reynir dies suddenly leaving huge debts and a lot of unanswered questions behind, Inga learns of the true...

After the death of her dairy farmer husband, a middle-aged woman courageously sacrifices her livelihood to speak out against the corruption and injustice at work in her community in the audience-pleasing, humanist drama “The County.” Like writer-director Grímur Hákonarson’s previous film “Rams,” . The yin to that film’s yang, “The County” is full of feisty female energy and imagery, and sprinkled with rousing “you go girl!” comic moments. Niche arthouse play is a given for this appealing and endearingly modest tale.

Hard-working couple Inga (Arndís Hrönn Egilsdóttir) and Reynir (Hinrik Ólafsson) run Dalsmynni, a mom-and-pop dairy farm that has been in his family for generations. With money tight and their hours long, they haven’t been able to take a vacation for three years. At night, they are so fatigued that they can barely manage to mumble, “Did you call the inseminator?” or “Did you order the fertilizer?” before collapsing into bed.

The devolution of a worker-owned entity into that which it was formed to combat probably occurs much faster than you’d expect. Things initially work like they should with successful profits and happy members. The establishment itself is also pleased because it sees little threat of anyone going outside its economic reach when the whole point of forming it was to get out from under the exorbitant costs of external resources. Vote an incoming director with greed in his/her heart that sees how good things are, however, and they’ll start finding ways to personally capitalize on that implicit harmony. Executive salaries are slowly raised, prices are gradually increased, and a new monopoly is eventually formed. And when members finally catch on, they unfortunately realize they’re too late to escape.

It’s at this point in the lifespan of one such co-op that writer/director Grímur Hákonarson introduces...

Grímur Hákonarson landed on our radar with his last film, the heartfelt Un Certain Regard Cannes winner Rams. Four years later he’s now back with The County, which follows an Icelandic woman who rises up against her local co-op and the old ways of life in her small village. Described as David-and-Goliath story, we look forward to the specificity and splendor that Hákonarson will likely once again bring to screens in this chilly locale.

Ahead of an international premiere at Tiff starting this Friday, we’re pleased to debut an exclusive track from the soundtrack, from Icelandic composer Valgeir Sigurdsson. Titled “Burial Ground,” it’s an eerily beautiful, scene-setting piece of music.

“I wanted to make a film about an individual who stands up to change society,” the director recently said. “Then I had the idea of Inga, a strong woman, working in a modern farm, fighting a patriarchal society.

The County

Four years after his hit sophomore film Rams (2015), Iceland’s Grimur Hakonarson should at last be ready with his third feature, The County. His latest is an Icelandic-Danish-French-German co-production, comprised of Hakonarson’s returning producer Grimar Jonsson (also of 2017’s Under the Tree) plus co-producers Jamila Wenske and Sol Bondy. Starring Arndís Hrönn Egilsdóttir, Hakonarson also reunites with his Rams actors Sigurður Sigurjónsson and Sveinn Ólafur Gunnarsson, who are also joined by Hinrik Ólafsson, Hannes Óli Ágústsson, Ragnhildur Gísladóttir and Denmark’s Jens Albinus.…...

German co-producer joins anticipated new project from Grimur Hakonarson, which will start shooting in late February.

Source: Cannes Film Festival

‘Rams’

Sol Bondy and Jamila Wenske’s Berlin-based One Two Films, has joined as a co-producer on Grimur Hakonarson’s The County, the Icelandic director’s anticipated follow-up to 2015 hit Rams.

One Two joins alongside German broadcaster Sr/Arte.

Grimar Jonsson of Iceland’s Netop Films is the lead producer, with partners Profile Pictures of Denmark, Haut et Court of France and now One Two of Germany. Backers include the Icelandic Film Centre, Danish Film Institute, Nordisk Film + TV Fond and Sr/Arte.

As with Rams, Jan Naszewski’s New Europe will handle sales. Distributors already on board are Sena in Iceland, Scanbox for Scandinavia and Haut et Court in France.

The County will start shooting in late February in the countryside of northern Iceland, for delivery in early 2019.

The story is a drama set in rural Iceland...