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Buzzy Trine Dyrholm series “The Danish Woman” will be making its international debut at Series Mania’s International Panorama section in March.

Dyrholm, currently in the midst of the Oscar campaign for “The Girl with the Needle,” plays Ditte Jensen, who retires with honors from the Danish Secret Service. She wants to live a quiet life in Reykjavik, but Ditte can’t just stop being who she is: an elite soldier and a warrior. Now, she will try to help her neighbors. Whether they want it or not.

Directed by award-winning Benedikt Erlingsson, also behind “Woman at War” and “Of Horses and Men,” the six-episode show will premiere in January 2026. International sales are handled by The Party Film Sales.

“After ‘Woman at War’ I wanted to continue with this concept of ‘end justifying the means’ and look at it from a different angle. Ditte Jensen is the result,” Erlingsson told Variety.

Baltasar Kormákur is back directing — but this time it’s not a survival drama, it’s a romance.

The “Adrift” and “Everest” filmmaker directs Focus Features’ “Touch,” based on the bestselling novel by Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson. The film tells a romantic and thrilling story that spans several decades and continents, with one widower trying to find his first love who disappeared 50 years ago.

Director Kormákur co-wrote the screenplay with novelist Ólafsson. The original Icelandic novel was published by Ecco/Harper Collins in the U.S. in August 2022. The film was shot in Iceland and Japan.

The ensemble cast is led by Egill Ólafsson, Kōki, Pálmi Kormákur, Masahiro Motoki, Yoko Narahashi, Meg Kubota, and Tatsuya Tagawa, with Charles Nishikawa, Sigurður Ingvarsson, Benedikt Erlingsson, Kieran Buckeridge, Ruth Sheen, María Ellingsen, and Masatoshi Nakamura also starring.

Writer/director Kormákur produces along with Agnes Johansen and Mike Goodridge. Kormákur most recently directed 2022’s “Beast...

“After the Party” came from anger, says co-creator Dianne Taylor.

“It came from a lot of anger.”

“Robyn delivered an amazing audition for something I wrote, and the director said ‘no.’ He said she was ‘too mature’ for the role, even though it was written for someone her age. We decided to make something together, where a 50-year-old isn’t played by a 30-year-old.”

“For the longest time, we didn’t have a character and we didn’t have a story. All we had was this rage. Then we decided to use our own lives and own experiences, and in the meantime, this anger just went away,” Malcolm says at Series Mania.

Penny, played by Robyn Malcolm – who also co-created the miniseries – is a high-school teacher. Years ago, during a party, she accused her own husband of sexually exploiting her daughter’s drunk teenage friend. Now, he is back, and...

Exclusive: Focus Features we hear has set a July 12, 2024 limited theatrical release date for Baltasar Kormákur’s romantic-drama Touch.

Universal Pictures International is handling international distribution sans Iceland.

The movie is based on Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson’s bestselling Icelandic novel published by Ecco/Harper Collins in the U.S in August 2022. The movie follows one widower’s emotional journey to find his first love who disappeared 50 years ago before his time runs out. The story spans several decades and continents. Ólafsson and Kormákur co-wrote the movie.

Rvk Studios’ Kormákur and Agnes Johansen produced Touch alongside Good Chaos’ Mike Goodridge.

Touch stars Egill Ólafsson, Kōki, Pálmi Kormákur, Masahiro Motoki, Yoko Narahashi, Meg Kubota, Tatsuya Tagawa, Charles Nishikawa, Sigurður Ingvarsson, Starkaður Pétursson, Benedikt Erlingsson, Kieran Buckeridge, Ruth Sheen, María Ellingsen and Masatoshi Nakamura.

Focus Features’ 2024 lineup includes Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke’s Drive-Away Dolls, the Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black,...

Producer Marianne Slot will continue her successful collaboration with Icelandic director Benedikt Erlingsson, following 2018 “Woman at War” with TV show “The Danish Woman” and upcoming feature film “Normal Men.”

“It’s a comedy, as you can imagine. Benedikt Erlingsson and a feminist producer – that’s a good combination,” she laughs, recalling their previous film about an environmental activist going rogue.

“’Woman at War’ was so joyful to make. It is still being shown and used as a reference, even by politicians in many different countries.”

Slot talks to Variety in Locarno, when she is picking up the Raimondo Rezzonico Award, given to industry figures who have played a major role in international production.

A French producer of Danish origin, she has collaborated with such directors as Lucrecia Martel, Lisandro Alonso and Sergei Loznitsa and has been co-producing Lars von Trier’s films since 1995’s “Breaking the Waves,” including “The House That Jack Built.

Prominent Paris-based producer Marianne Slot, who has been instrumental to bringing works by auteurs such as Lars Von Trier, Lucrecia Martel, and Argentina’s Lisandro Alonso to the big screen, is being honored by the Locarno Film Festival.

Slot will receive the Swiss festival’s Raimondo Rezzonico prize for a producer who epitomizes the indie ethos. She will be bestowed with the award on Aug. 5 with a tribute that will include a screening of Icelandic director Benedikt Erlingsson’s environmental-themed black comedy “Woman At War,” followed by an on-stage conversation on Aug. 6.

Born in Denmark, Slot set up the Paris-based production company Slot Machine in 1993. She has been Von Trier’s French producer since 1995, starting with “Breaking the Waves.” Over the years Slot has shepherded works by a slew of indie auteurs at various stages of their careers. Besides Martel and Erlingsson these include Bent Hamer, Małgorzata Szumowska, Paz Encina,...

The producer of ‘Women at War’ and ‘Dancer in the Dark’ will receive the Raimondo Rezzonico Award

French producer Marianne Slot, known for her collaborations with Lars von Trier, will receive the Raimondo Rezzonico Award at the 76th Locarno Film Festival (August 2-12).

After working with Von Trier on his 1995 film Breaking the Waves, she became his French producer. Throughout her career Slot has worked with international directors and producers including Lucrecia Martel, Lisandro Alonso, Naomi Kawase, Sergei Loznitsa and Benedikt Erlingsson, specialising in auteur features.

In 1993, she set up her production company Slot Machine in Paris.

Slot will be...

Locarno Film Festival will honor French-Danish producer Marianne Slot with its Raimondo Rezzonico Award, given to figures who have played a major role in international production, at its 76th edition running from August 2 to 12.

Over the course of her 30-year career, Slot has worked with a host of internationally renowned auteurs including Lars von Trier, Lucrecia Martel, Bent Hamer, Malgoska Szumowska, Paz Encina, Lisandro Alonso, Sergei Loznitsa, Naomi Kawase and Benedikt Erlingsson.

Slot broke into producing on the early works of von Trier, taking co-producer credits on the original The Kingdom TV series as well as Breaking The Waves and The Idiots, and has since become a key figure on the international arthouse co-production scene.

The producer will be in Cannes this year with Lisandro Alonso’s ambitious historical drama Eureka starring Viggo Mortensen, which world premieres in the Cannes Premiere section.

“Marianne Slot’s approach to film production has...

There is romance in activism and fighting the good fight against the immoral powers of the establishment. In following a group of young environmentalist anarchists who yearn to make an impact and have their voices heard by any means necessary, Daniel Goldhaber’s searing eco-thriller “How to Blow Up a Pipeline” grasps this selfless passion at a visceral level.

Thankfully, romance doesn’t mean empty idealism in Goldhaber’s film, co-written by Goldhaber, Jorgan Sjol and Ariela Barer as a loose adaptation of Andreas Malm’s 2020 book. While the characters steering an act of terrorism around a Texan pipeline are all young and hotheaded, they aren’t out there to make some futile noise about climate change. There is a real point to the fatality-free disturbance these rightfully angry citizens of the world have carefully planned out, and what they have in mind is something a lot more significant than...

Foster took part in the Reykjavik festival’s panel discussion about women’s progress in the film industry.

Iceland’s ninth Stockfish Film Festival got a high-profile boost with Jodie Foster participating in the Reykjavik festival’s panel discussion about women’s progress in the film industry.

Foster, the US actress, producer and director, is in Iceland shooting the fourth season of True Detective, and she joined producer Marianne Slot and actress Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir in the discussion, led by the new artistic director of Stockfish, Lamb producer Hrönn Kristinsdóttir. Kristinsdóttir started the panel started by stating, “In year 2000 a study...

Exclusive: Focus Features has boarded Beast and Everest filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur’s romantic drama Touch, which begins principal photography Sunday in London. Focus will release domestically, with Universal Pictures International handling overseas distribution (excluding Iceland).

Touch is based on the bestselling Icelandic novel by Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson, which was published in the U.S. in August this year. Ólaffson co-wrote the script with Kormákur.

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The story spans several decades and continents as it follows one widower’s emotional journey to find his first love...

Loco Films has boarded international sales rights to actor-turned-helmer Dinara Drukarova’s feature debut “Woman at Sea” which will world premiere in the New Directors section at the San Sebastian Film Festival.

Produced by Marianne Slot and Carine LeBlanc at Paris-based Slot Machine (“Melancholia”), “Woman at Sea” stars Drukarova as Lili, who has left everything behind to travel to the end of the earth to fulfil her dream of fishing in the northern seas, in Iceland. She convinces Ian, a fishing boat skipper, to give her a chance and embarks on the Rebel. She is the only woman in the crew but she will win everybody’s respect thanks to her determination and courage.

“We are proud of this first film, shot on the harsh northern seas about a young woman seeking the fresh air of freedom. A beautiful and free film and the birth of a new director,” said Laurent Danielou,...

Andres Ramirez Pulido’s “La Jauria” won the Grand Prize at Critics’ Week, the Cannes Film Festival’s sidebar dedicated to first and second features. The Colombian film also won the Sacd prize.

The feature debut follows Eliú, a country boy who is wrongly accused of a crime and incarcerated in an experimental rehabilitation center for tough boys in the heart of the Colombian tropical forest.

Charlotte Wells’ “Aftersun,” which stars “Normal People” actor Paul Mescal, won the French Touch Prize of the Jury. The bittersweet drama revolves around a father and daughter who spend a summer holiday in a Turkish resort.

Emmanuelle Nicot’s “Love According To Dalva,” meanwhile, won the Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award for Zelda Samson. “Love According to Dalva” is a poignant drama about a 12-year-old girl growing up in foster care, alongside social workers and other children.

The Gan Foundation Award for Distribution went to Urban Distribution,...

UK director Charlotte Well’s buzzed-about debut Aftersun also features among the prize-winners.

Colombian director Andrés Ramírez Pulido’s jungle-set, coming-of-age drama The Pack (La Jauria) has scooped the top €10,000 grand prix of the 61st edition of Cannes Critics’ Week.

The film revolves around a boy who is sent to an experimental juvenile correction centre in the heart of the Colombian jungle after he commits a crime.

The Colombia-France co-production is Pulido’s first feature after a number of well-travelled shorts including Damiana which premiered in Competition in Cannes in 2017 and El Edén which played in the Berlinale in 2018.

Tunisian...

UK director Charlotte Well’s buzzed-about debut Aftersun also features among the prize-winners.

Columbian director Andrés Ramírez Pulido’s jungle-set, coming-of-age drama The Pack (La Jauria) has scooped the top €10,000 grand prix of the 61st edition of Cannes Critics’ Week.

The film revolves around a boy who is sent to an experimental juvenile correction centre in the heart of the Colombian jungle after he commits a crime.

The Colombia-France co-production is Pulido’s first feature after a number of well-travelled shorts including Damiana which premiered in Competition in Cannes in 2017 and El Edén which played in the Berlinale in 2018.

Tunisian...

Jesse Eisenberg’s “When You Finish Saving the World” will be the opening-night film at this year’s International Critics Week (Semaine de la Critique), an independent sidebar at the Cannes Film Festival devoted to first and second films from up-and-coming directors.

The film premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, which because of the Covid-19 pandemic was held virtually rather than in person. New Critics Week head Ava Cahen described the booking of Eisenberg’s movie as “an act of solidarity” with that festival to give the film an in-person spotlight.

The seven films in competition include Charlotte Wells’ “Aftersun,” Mikko Myllylahti’s “The Woodcutter Story,” Simon Roth’s “Summer Scars” and Ali Behrad’s “Imagine.” Three of the seven come from female directors.

International Critics Week, which launched in 1962, is the oldest independent section at the Cannes Film Festival, seven years older than Directors Fortnight. This year...

Critics’ Week, the sidebar dedicated to first and second films running alongside the Cannes Film Festival, will be kicking off with Jesse Eisenberg’s feature debut “When You Finish Saving the World” and showcase four female-directed movies.

Selected out of 1100 submitted movies, the full roster includes 11 feature films, seven of which will compete and four will play as special screenings.

“When You Finish Saving the World,” which is headlined by Julianne Moore and Finn Wolfhard, revolves around the relationship between a politically-engaged mother and her fame-obsessed teenage son, who is also a burgeoning musician. The A24 movie is based on Eisenberg’s 2020 audio drama of the same name and was part of the Sundance 2022 selection.

“We already adored Eisenberg as an actor and discovered him as a true auteur with this film that’s both tender and contemporary and exposes a generational gap between a mother and her son,” said Ava Cahen,...

Selection to be announced on Wednesday morning.

Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania has been named president of 2022 Critics’ Week, the Cannes parallel section for films by first and second-time films.

Ben Hania will be supported by a jury comprising French-Greek actress and director Ariane Labed, Icelandic director Benedikt Erlingsson, Belgian cinematographer Benoît Debie, and South Korean journalist, film programmer and director of Busan International Film Festival Huh Moonyung.

Ben Hania’s four features include her debut The Blade Of Tunis, 2017 Cannes Un Certain Regard entry Beauty And The Dogs, and 2020 Venice Orizzonti selection The Man Who Sold His Skin, the...

Critics Week (or La Semaine de la Critique), the selection dedicated to first and second films running alongside the Cannes Film Festival, will boast a jury presided over by Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania (“The Man who Sold his Skin”).

Ben Hania has directed four features, including “Beauty and the Dogs” which competed in Un Certain Regard in 2017, and “The Man who Sold his Skin” which played at Venice in 2020 and was the first Tunisian film nominated for the Oscars’ international feature film race.

The jury of the 61st edition will be completed by French-Greek actress and director Ariane Labed, Icelandic director Benedikt Erlingsson (“Woman at War”), Belgian cinematographer Benoît Debie, and South Korean journalist and Busan Festival’s topper Huh Moon yung.

Four prizes will be handed out by Ben Hania’s jury, the La Semaine de la Critique Grand Prize, the French Touch Prize of the Jury, the...

Former US Secretary of State to help create content with social impact.

US politician and diplomat John Kerry is moving into the film world, joining forces with newly launched, UK-based production company Fingerprint Content as senior advisor and executive producer.

“I’ve been in the business of communicating my whole life,” said the former US Secretary of State on moving from politics and activism to entertainment.

“There has always been a real synergy there been between politics and filmmaking. You’re trying to persuade people that something or have an impact and move people and get them to act and respond.

Prize transforms to become an audience award with screenings taking place in theatres and online.

The Lux Prize is being rebranded and transformed into an audience award under a new joint venture between the European Parliament and the European Film Academy (Efa).

The changes were unveiled at a special event during the Venice Film Festival on Saturday (September 5).

Under the revamp, the Lux prize has merged with the Efa’s People’s Choice Award to become the Lux European Audience Film Award. It will be presented jointly by the European Parliament and the Efa, in partnership with the European Commission and exhibitor organisation Europa Cinemas.

Venice Days pic “Beware of Children” and Sundance alumnus “Charter” are among the five Nordic films nominated for the coveted Nordic Council Film Prize.

“Beware of Children” was directed by Norwegian scribe/helmer Dag Johan Haugerud and produced by Yngve Sæther. The drama is set in the aftermath of a tragic event in a suburb of Oslo, where the teenage daughter of a prominent Labour Party member seriously injured her classmate, the son of a high profile right-wing politician, during a school break.

“Charter,” meanwhile, world premiered at this year’s Sundance festival and marks Swedish director/screenwriter Amanda Kernell’s second feature following “Sami Blood.” “Charter” is a character study of a flawed mother who impulsively embarks on a perilous attempt to reconnect with her children after leaving them with their father to start a new life in Stockholm. “Charter” was produced by Lars G. Lindström and Eva Åkergren.

The audience prize was won by Mika Kaurismäki’s Master Cheng.

Hlynur Pálmason’s second feature A White, White Day has won the top prize at Nordic Film Days in Lubeck in Germany.

The Ndr Film Prize includes a cash award of €12,500.

It is the second consecutive year an Icelandic film has won the award following Benedikt Erlingsson’s Woman At War win in 2018.

A White, White Day premiered at Cannes Critics’ Week and is a tale of grief and revenge, revolving around a former policeman in a small Icelandic town. International sales are handled by New Europe Film Sales...

Dok Leipzig’s International Golden Dove won by ‘Exemplary Behaviour’.

Hlynur Pálmason’s second feature A White, White Day has won the top prize at Nordic Film Days in Lubeck in Germany.

The Ndr Film Prize includes a cash award of €12,500.

It is the second consecutive year an Icelandic film has won the award following Benedikt Erlingsson’s Woman At War win in 2018.

A White, White Day premiered at Cannes Critics’ Week and is a tale of grief and revenge, revolving around a former policeman in a small Icelandic town. International sales are handled by New Europe Film Sales and...

Queen of Hearts has already racked up an impressive list of prizes.

May el-Toukhy’s Danish drama Queen of Hearts won the prestigious and lucrative Nordic Council Film Prize 2019 last night (Oct 29) in Stockholm.

She shares the $52,000 award with screenwriter Maren Louise Käehne and producers Caroline Blanco and René Ezra.

Trine Dyrholm stars as Anne, a lawyer, mother and wife who begins a dangerous affair with her stepson (Gustav Lindh).

The jury said: “Is it about a midlife crisis? About class? Or about desire and passion? Is she a sex violator? Or a psychopath? We are used to movies serving a clear point,...

The long list for the coveted best international picture prize at the British Independent Film Awards includes Cannes Palme d’Or and London Film Festival winners, as well as pictures from Pedro Almodovar, Robert Eggers and Noah Baumbach. Multiple titles that have been submitted to compete for the Oscar for best international feature film are also in the mix.

The long list for the Best International Independent Film at the BIFAs, shared exclusively with Variety, includes Bong Joon-ho’s Palme d’Or-winning “Parasite,” and Alejandro Landes’ child soldier saga “Monos,” which was named best picture at the London Film Festival.

Other titles that launched at Cannes and on the Bifa long list include Nora Fingscheidt’s “System Crasher” and Pedro Almodovar’s “Pain and Glory,” which are Germany’s and Spain’s Oscar entries, respectively. Other national entries to the Oscars that are also on the Bifa long list include...

16th festival under the direction of Hronn Marinosdottir also showcases new Icelandic works in progress.

The 16th Rejykavik International Film Festival (Riff) has awarded its top prize – the Golden Puffin - to Shahrbanoo Sadat’s The Orphanage, the Bollywood-tinged drama about an Afghan boy who is sent to a Russian facility which is enjoying a strong festival run after its premiere at Quinzaine in May. The winner of the sidebar Competition, A Different Tomorrow, went to the documentary Midnight Traveller, by Hassan Fazili, a documentary performer since its Sundance bow.

The Puffin awards capped a busy festival in which...

16th festival under the direction of Hronn Marinosdottir also showcases new Icelandic works in progress.

The 16th Rejykavik International Film Festival (Riff) has awarded its top prize – the Golden Puffin - to Shahrbanoo Sadat’s The Orphanage, the Bollywood-tinged drama about an Afghan boy who is sent to a Russian facility which is enjoying a strong festival run after its premiere at Quinzaine in May. The winner of the sidebar Competition, A Different Tomorrow, went to the documentary Midnight Traveller, by Hassan Fazili, a documentary performer since its Sundance bow.

The Puffin awards capped a busy festival in which...

To mark the release of Woman at War on 16th September, we’ve been given 3 copies to give away on Blu-ray along with a signed poster for each winner.

This funny, smart and engaging film from acclaimed director Benedikt Erlingsson (Of Horses and Men) is by turns heartwarming and hilarious featuring a stand-out performance by Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir in the role of feisty female protagonist Halla.

To her friends, Halla leads a quiet and routine existence. But her happy and upbeat exterior hides a secret double life as a committed environmental activist. Known to others only by her alias ‘The Woman of the Mountain’, she secretly wages a one-woman-war on the local aluminium industry to protect the stunning highland landscape that is under threat. Just as she begins planning her biggest and boldest operation yet, she receives an unexpected letter that will change everything. She will be forced to choose between...

Haugesund, Norway — Iceland’s “A White, White Day,” Denmark’s “Queen of Hearts” and Norway’s “Blind Spot” are among the five films that will compete for this year’s Nordic Council Film Prize, a prestigious film award aimed at promoting Nordic co-operation and environmental initiatives.

Sweden’s “Reconstructing Utøya” and Finland’s “Aurora” help round out the list, which was announced on Tuesday evening, during the opening of the New Nordic Films market at the Haugesund Film Festival.

Given on a permanent basis since 2005, the award includes a cash prize of Dkk 350,000 and will be attributed on October 29 as part of the Nordic Council Autumn Session in Stockholm. Previous winners include Joachim Trier’s “Louder than Bombs,” Benedikt Erlingsson’s “Of Horses and Men,” Thomas Vinterberg’s “The Hunt,” Dagur Kari’s “Virgin Mountain,” Pernilla August’s “Beyond” and Lars von Trier’s “Antichrist,” among others.

In order to qualify,...

The $52,750 prize will be shared equally among the screenwriter, director, and producer.

The five nominees for the Nordic Council Film Prize 2019 have been unveiled at the Haugesund International Film Festival in Norway today (August 20).

The $52,750 prize will be shared equally among the screenwriter, director, and producer.

The nominees are:

Aurora (Finland), Miia Tervo (director/script), Max Malka (producer) Blind Spot (Norway), Tuva Novotny (director/script), Elisabeth Kvithyll (producer) Queen Of Hearts (Denmark), May el-Toukhy (director/script), Maren Louise Käehne (script), Caroline Blanco, René Ezra (producers) Reconstructing Utøya (Sweden), Carl Javér (director/script), Fredrik Lange (script/producer) A White, White Day...

Festival will see Swedish Film Institute launch new funding for young voices.

The Carl International Film Festival, held in Karlskrona, southern Sweden from Aug 23-27, is planning to focus on sustainability for its third edition

Films addressing the theme include Benedikt Erlingsson’s Woman At War, which will close the festival with an open-air screening. Other films related to sustainability will include the documentary Acid Forest, about a dying forest on the Lithuania-Russia border that has become a tourist attraction.

The Baltic Sea Competition will showcase five films from the 10 Baltic Sea countries, with a prize worth $2,600.

They are: Levan Akin...

The Ukraine industry is steadily building, but serious challenges remain.

The need to support the development of the film industry in Ukraine through international ties was in sharp focus at the Odesa International Film Festival yesterday (July 17), with delegates arriving in the seaside city to attend a conference focused on the benefits of co-production.

“The most important issue for us today is to bring Ukrainian cinema to the international landscape,” said festival president Viktoriya Tigipko in her opening address. “Co-producing is crucial for us. We see the opportunity to do much more.”

One immediate boost to the industry would be...

The filmmaker was in town with his sophomore feature ’Light Of My Life’.

Oscar-winning Us actor and filmmaker Casey Affleck has predicted a “huge upswing” in the quality of independent film in the near future thanks to a new generation of content creators, in a discussion at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Kviff) on Sunday June 30.

Despite noting that “there have been better times” than the past 10 years in the independent sector, Affleck said, “the new wave of filmmakers who are now 18, 19, 20 – those kids are making great stuff, and there’s going to be a huge upswing.”

“We’re going...

Director Benedikt Erlingsson: "The industry should reduce its amount of air travel while films had to be made with greater green production credentials." Photo: Richard Mowe

Film Festivals need to wake up their ideas on carbon footprints and greenhouse emissions - and they will have to change their ways to become more sustainable.

So said Icelandic director Benedikt Erlingsson when he joined other speakers including Helga Trugel, member of the European Parliament; Linda Beath, an Italy-based industry observer; and Dylan Leiner from Sony Pictures.

Erlingsson, whose third feature, Woman At War, screened in Cannes three years ago, used colourful language to hammer home his points. “Festivals send scouts all over the world farting carbon. They invite guests - again carbon farting.” And there are all the associated paraphernalia such as taxis and meals.

Chair Michael Gubbin (left) and Sony’s Dylan Leiner at the talks session at Karlovy Vary...

Director said film festivals ”are part of the problem”.

Icelandic director Benedikt Erlingsson launched a passionate tirade against the wastefulness of the film industry, in a talk focused on sustainability at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Kviff) on June 30 (Sunday).

In a 10-minute speech Erlingsson described film festivals, including the one at which he was speaking, as “a carbon-farting crisis”.

“They send scouts all over the world farting carbon. They invite foreign guests, farting carbon. They eat meat, take taxis, turn up the air conditioning. Are film festivals part of our problem? Yes. Will they be able to continue this way?...

Ray And Liz Photo: Courtesy of New York Film Festival UK film Ray & Liz and the UK co-produced Cold Case Hammarskjöld were among the ten nominees for the Lux Priz announced at a ceremony at the Grand Hotel Pupp (used as a location for Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel) as part of the 54th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

The short list for the prize - supported by the European Parliament as a way of promoting European cinema within the European Union countries - was devised by 21 European film professionals, including fiction, documentaries and first features.

The official line-up was announced by the European Parliament´s Vice-Chair of the Committee on Culture and Education Helga Trüpel, Vice-Chair of the Committee on Budgetary Control Martina Dlabajová, Lux Prize coordinator Doris Pack, and Benedikt Erlingsson, director of 2018 Lux Prize winner Woman At War.

The selection of Richard Billingham's Ray & Liz,...

Mihály Schwechtje’s Democracy Work In Progress wins €20,000 Eurimages co-production development award.

Fifteen projects from Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, Hungary, Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey were presented at the Transilvania Pitch Stop (Tps) at the Transilvania International Film Festival (Tiff) in Cluj-Napoca in Romania last week.

The €20,000 Eurimages co-production development award went to Hungarian filmmaker Mihály Schwechtje’s Democracy Work In Progress. The project had been developed at the Nipkow Programme in Berlin last year.

Turkish director Selman Nacar’s Between Two Dawns was awarded €25,000 in postproduction services from Chainsaw Europe. The project is being co-produced by Romania’s Oana Giurgiu of...

In his new film Woman At War, Icelandic director Benedikt Erlingsson (Of Horses and Men) offers a funny, smart and thoroughly engaging story revolving around a woman’s solitary fight against the establishment in this politically charged drama comedy. Starring Halldóra Geirharõsdóttir (Sense8) and with a screenplay from Ólafur Egilsson and Benedikt Erlingsson, the film uses dry humour and a quirky style to tell an urgent tale about the importance of preserving Iceland’s natural beauty from the dangers of industrialism.

From the outside Halla (Geirharõsdóttir) leads a quiet and normal life as a respected choir conductor. In her spare time however, our heroine is a highly motivated and fierce eco-warrior who has been waging a singular war against a local aluminium factory by causing power cuts on regular sabotage missions. Known to others only by her alias ‘The Woman of the Mountain’, Halla soon has to choose between continuing her noble mission,...

The Marvel blockbuster has now grossed £73.5m, achieving the second-highest second weekend ever and breaking into the all-time top 10.

Today’s Gbp to Usd conversion rate: 1.31.

RankFilm (Distributor)Three-day gross (May 3-5)Total gross to date Week 1 Avengers: Endgame (Disney) £14.3m £73.5m 2 2 Long Shot (Lionsgate) £814,897 £1.1m 1 3 The Curse Of La Llorona (Warner Bros) £591,139 £769,626 1 4 Tolkien (20th Century Fox) £550,348 £742,771 1 5 A Dog’s Journey (eOne) £499,207 £813,320 1 Disney

Disney’s Avengers: Endgame dominated the UK box office, achieving the second-highest second weekend ever and breaking into the all-time top 10 for the territory.

The film grossed £14.3m from Friday to Sunday, with only Sam Mendes’ James Bond...

Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir is brilliant in this jet-black comedy about a woman fighting to save the planet and adopt a child at the same time

To describe Benedikt Erlingsson’s sense of humour as “dry” is a bit like saying that things can get “chilly” as we get up towards the Arctic circle. Having conquered the theatre stages and TV screens of Iceland as a writer, director and performer, Erlingsson turned to feature films in 2013, where his brand of deadpan tragicomic humour once again struck a national nerve. His directorial feature debut, Of Horses and Men, earned several Icelandic academy Edda awards as it veered from quirky observation to bleak contemplation via a string of arrestingly surreal vignettes including an accidental human/equine three-way, and the sight of someone being pulled out of the body of a frozen horse.

Like its dramatic predecessor, Erlingsson’s latest offering was Iceland’s official...

Endgame is already up to £55m after just eight days on release in the UK.

Last week’s remarkable opening for Disney’s Avengers: Endgame means even if the film suffers a relatively standard drop this weekend (50-60%), it will still dominate the chart for a second week.

Endgame kicked off with a three-day £31.4m, far ahead of the previous benchmark of £24.3m held by Star Wars: The Force Awakens. After midweeks, the film was up to a huge £55m after just eight days.

The Marvel title is expected to become one of the highest-grossing films in UK box office history.

‘Shazam!

New Line/DC Entertainment’s family superhero adventure Shazam! was the dominant title in Australia last weekend without matching the heights of its Us launch while Paramount’s horror remake Pet Sematary underperformed.

Despite the new entrants the national box office trailed the previous frame, weighed down by a lousy debut for Paramount’s animated fantasy adventure Wonder Park and steep second weekend drops by Disney’s Dumbo and Universal’s Us.

Among the specialty releases, Icelandic environmental comedy drama Woman at War had a decent start and Us coming-of-age film Mid90s opened impressively.

The top 20 titles’ takings dropped by 10 per cent to $13.5 million, according to Numero. Directed by David F. Sandberg (best known for horror films Lights Out and Annabelle: Creation), Shazam! conjured up $4.4 million on 507 screens and $4.7 million including previews for Warner Bros.

In the Us the movie starring Asher Angel as a teenager who transforms...

Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir in Woman At War, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.

In the Icelandic film Woman At War, a lively, independent middle-aged woman named Halla (Hallora Geirhardsdottir) lives a double life: as choral director with a secret identity as an environmental activist known only as “Woman of the Mountain.” In her secret identity, Halla uses her skill with a bow, like a real-life Katniss Everdeen, to knock out power lines. Her goal is to disable an aluminum smelter owned by multinational corporations, who plan to bring in more polluting heavy industry to Iceland.

After one attack on the power lines, Halla nimbly makes her escape across a starkly beautiful landscape. She passes by the three-piece band that has been providing the music for her daring action, although she doesn’t seem to see them. The police, hunting for the saboteur, stop a hapless Spanish-speaking bicyclist who happens into the area.

An artful fable that examines what it really means to save the world, Benedikt Erlingsson’s “Woman at War” is the rarest of things: A crowd-pleaser about climate change. Combining Paul Schrader’s dire urgency with Roy Andersson’s droll brand of despair — to cite two other filmmakers whose work has wrestled with the maddening, quixotic idea of a single person trying to redeem an entire planet — Erlingsson has created a winsome knickknack of a movie that manages to reframe the 21st century’s signature crisis in a way that makes room for real heroism.

Halla (Halldora Geirharosdottir) is a 50-year-old choir director with a song in her heart, a smile on her face, and a second life as Reykjavik’s peskiest eco-terrorist. The film’s playful and surprising prologue introduces us to Halla as she uses her bow-and-arrow to topple some of the power lines that stretch across the...

Here’s a list of what the Icelandic director Benedikt Erlingsson says is missing from his new film “Woman at War”: “No misery, no violence, no death, not even a gun, and no sex.”

Despite the absence of those mainstays, he said “Woman at War” is an action thriller with lessons for Hollywood films. It’s a tense, topical film of espionage, sabotage and personal demons about a lone eco-terrorist (Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir) being hunted by the Icelandic government and a massive corporation doing harm to the environment.

And because this is an Icelandic film, its hero has a trio of musicians who follow her across hill sides, rooftops and into her home providing the film’s brisk, invigorating score as she goes. At one point, a drummer seemingly tips her off to the danger awaiting her.

“I wish they would do more of this,” Erlingsson told TheWrap’s Steve Pond...

Female Misbehavior: Erlingsson Explores Ecofeminism in Entertaining Character Portrait

After exploring the defining social elements between humans and their horses in his homegrown debut Of Horses and Men (2013), Iceland’s Benedikt Erlingsson scores an equally droll success in a sophomore film about communal resistance to corporate intrusion with Woman at War. Reuniting with actress Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir, here on double duty as a set of twins, Erlingsson concocts a generous mix of social commentary, character development, and emotional pathos laced with a series of slapstick comedic turns. It’s a rare successful mixture of topical grandstanding and playful tonality headed by a winning lead performance by the flinty Geirharðsdóttir, which has already generated plans for a Jodie Foster led English language remake well before its Us theatrical premiere.…...

Iceland is one of the most interesting places in the world. For all intents and purposes, it can look and feel like being on another planet. At the same time, it’s not off-putting in any way. I’ve actually been to Iceland. It’s a really beautiful and unique place, and that’s putting it mildly. So, it’s a shame that more cinema isn’t coming out of the country. The potential for striking visuals and intriguing stories are almost endless. Luckily, opening this week is one Icelandic option in the comedy Woman at War. It won’t necessarily make you book a trip after seeing the film, but it is an amusing and well made bit of foreign cinema, something that’s always welcome in the early parts of any year. The movie is a comedy about the lengths that someone will go to stand up for what they believe in.

Woman at War (Kona fer í stríd) Magnolia Pictures Reviewed by: Tami Smith, Film Reviewer for Shockya Grade: B+ Director: Benedikt Erlingsson Screenwriter: Benedikt Erlingsson, Ólafur Egill Egilsson Cast: Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir, Jóhann Sigurðarson, Jörundur Ragnarsson Release Date: March 1, 2019 Legends and literature introduce us to some brave and exceptional women that went beyond the […]

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Paris-based Slot Machine is re-teaming with Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa, whose film “Donbass” won Cannes’s Un Certain Regard directing prize, on his long-gestating project “Babi Yar,” which will mark his most ambitious film to date.

The film will chronicle the September 1941 massacre of 30,000 Jews by Nazi troops over a three-day period. Marianne Slot, the founder of Slot Machine, said “Babi Yar” would be a testimonial film without protagonist and a politically engaged movie that resonates with contemporary issues, such as homophobia and anti-semitism.

“Babi Yar” will be a powerful and timely film, and it will also be artistically ambitious,” said Slot, who is working alongside veteran producer Carine Leblanc at Slot Machine.

“Babi Yar” is being set up as a co-production between France, Ukraine and Romania. It will mark the fifth narrative feature from Loznitsa, who not only has an impressive track record as a documentarian, but also his...