Country Focus: Iceland
by Cineuropa
23/05/2010 - Articles, interviews, news, analysis on the Icelandic audiovisual sector.
Country profile: Iceland
International Film Guide 2012: Iceland
A survey of the film culture and output in Iceland published by the International Film Guide.
Iceland - International Film Guide Survey 2010
A survey of the film culture and output in Iceland published by the International Film Guide.
Admissions up 7% in 2009
Eager to be entertained during one of the country’s worst-ever economic crises, Icelanders flocked to cinemas in 2009. General admissions were up 7% last year, to 1.6 million, and average admissions per capita hit a record 5.3, three times the EU level according to Iceland Cinema Now (ICN), which used figures from trade association SMÁÍS. Local films kept a stable market share at around 10%. The biggest hit of the year was the US comedy The Hangover (60,569 admissions, SamFilm), followed by...
Industry fears 34% film budget cut
The Icelandic Film Producers Association is fighting off the government’s proposal to cut the 2010 film budget by 34%, a measure that would destroy a third of the filmmaking force in Iceland. When in early October the Icelandic government announced its intention to cut the 2010 film budget by ISK 2m (€1.07m) – from the current ISK 5.9m (€3.16m) to ISK 3.9m (€2.09) – the industry welcomed the news with disbelief and shock. Why should cinema, the most lucrative cultural activity for the...
Film tax credit increased to 20%
The Icelandic government approved early April the increase of the existing 14% filming tax credit to 20%, to make Iceland more competitive with other international shooting locations. Producers of film and television programmes can now apply for reimbursement from the Icelandic State Treasury for 20% of their production spend in Iceland. Since the country is a member of the European Economic Area, film and TV projects shot locally can receive European content status. The increase of the...
Caoz making CGI versions of two Icelandic sagas
Caoz, the only digital and animation studio in Iceland, has two major projects in the making, both inspired by ancient Icelandic sagas. The most ambitious, Thor: The Edda Chronicles, is co-produced by the partners of Niko and the Way to the Stars, Germany’s Ulysses GmbH and Ireland’s Magma Productions. Thor will be Iceland’s biggest ever fully animated feature film and the first feature-length CGI-animated film for Caoz. The €7.5m project will be directed by Oskar Jonasson (Reykjavik...
Iceland - International Film Guide Survey
No one’s lazy in Lazy Town, goes the Europop-y refrain of the vigorously surreal and immensely successful children’s television show of that name, produced entirely in Iceland. And that’s as apt a metaphor as any for 2008’s production slate from Reykjavik. The year began with writer-director Baltasar Kormàkur’s much-anticipated follow-up to the global hit Jar City, White Night Wedding. And emotionally vigorous adaptation of Chekhov’s first play “Ivanov”, it tells of a brooding professor who...
Creative boom explodes on world screens (2)
“The domestic release of so many Icelandic films in a short period of time is partly a coincidence, partly due to the fact that we’re in a real creative boom,” says Laufey Guðjónsdóttir, head of the Icelandic Film Centre (IFC). “Although our industry is still very young – less than 30 years old - we now have very interesting filmmakers from the third generation coming in, who can rely on older, more experienced producers. Also, filmmakers are more creative, making films based on original...
Creative boom explodes on world screens (1)
For a country whose film industry produces no more than a handful of films each year, having two to three films on domestic and foreign screens at the same time is an amazing hit rate. Pure coincidence for some, the fact is that Iceland, where film buffs are the most active in the world, is in a creative boom far outreaching its rugged and icy shores. Solveigh Anspach’s comedy Back Soon just won the Variety Piazza Grande Award in Locarno and is currently screening in Iceland and in France,...
Scandinavia - Coproduction in Nordic Countries (March 2005)
Coproduction in Nordic Countries The majority of feature films made in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland are co-productions between two or more of those territories relying heavily on production subsidies from the local film institutes and sometimes from the Nordisk Film & TV Fund. For films with budgets over €2.5m aiming at a wider international audience, Nordic producers have to look else where for co-financing as they cannot rely on the small local markets to recoup production...
