27/09/2010

Two high profile US personalities – filmmaker Jim Jarmusch and philosopher/linguist Noam Chomsky – will provide food for thought at the 7th Reykjavik International Film Festival (RIFF), which opened its doors on Thursday.

Jarmusch, who received a Lifetime Achievement Award on the festival’s opening night from the president of Iceland, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, will discuss his work at the festival’s Talent Laboratory. Chomsky will speak on Tuesday via a video conference, about environmental, economic and political issues, with a special focus on Iceland’s “lessons to be learnt”.

Approximately 140 films from 29 countries are screening across 14 sections over the 11-day festival. The New Visions programme of emerging talent has 12 films competing for the Golden Puffin, among them Germany’s At Ellen’s Age [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and Marian Crisan’s French/Romania/Hungarian co-production Tomorrow.

In the new sidebar Better World, eight documentaries are drawing attention to human rights, including Denmark’s Armadillo [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Janus Metz, director of Arm…
film profile] and France’s The Arrivals.

Palestine and Afghanistan are in Focus, as well as Poland and Sweden. Five Icelandic films are screening in the Icelandic Panorama, including the festival’s closing film, Undercurrent by Árni Ólafur Ásgeirsson, produced by Zik Zak Filmworks (The Good Heart [+see also:
trailer
film profile]).

For the first time, RIFF is organising a five-day workshop for the local film industry. Speakers include Magnolia Pictures International’s Laird Adamson and The Match Factory’s Philipp Hoffmann.