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OSCARS 2018 Iceland

Iceland sends Under the Tree to the Oscars

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- Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson’s third feature is Iceland’s official candidate for the Academy Award for Best Foreign-language Film

Iceland sends Under the Tree to the Oscars
Under the Tree by Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson

Icelandic director Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson’s Under the Tree [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson
film profile
]
, which was world-premiered in the Orrizonti programme of the Venice International Film Festival, was yesterday selected as Iceland’s submission for the Oscar nomination for Best Foreign-language Film, the Icelandic Film and TV Academy has announced. 

Pre-sold to China (Hualu), France (Bac) and Scandinavia (Scanbox), Sigurðsson’s third feature was picked up by Magnolia for North America when it was screened in the Contemporary World Cinema programme of the Toronto International Film Festival. It was released domestically on 6 September and is currently on top of the charts, with 18,000 admissions.

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Scripted by Huldar Breiðfjörð and the director – who also collaborated on Sigurðsson’s Paris of the North [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
 (2014) – Under the Tree follows Atli (Steinþór Hróar Steinþórsson), who is thrown out by his fiancée and is no longer allowed to see their four-year-old daughter. While fighting for custody, a bitter dispute with the next-door neighbours, revolving around a big and beautiful tree in the back yard and the shadow it casts, begins to escalate. 

Born in Reykjavik, Sigurðsson studied Screenwriting and Directing at New York’s Columbia University. His feature debut, Either Way [+see also:
trailer
interview: Hafstein Gunnar Sigurdsson
interview: Hilmar Gudjônsson - Shootin…
film profile
]
 (2011), was shown at more than 50 international film festivals and was remade as Prince Avalanche (2013) by US director David Gordon GreenParis of the North was also a festival favourite, making 39 stops on the circuit. 

Warsaw-based New Europe Film Sales handles international sales for Under the Tree, which was staged by Icelandic producers Grímar JónssonSindri Páll Kjartansson and Thor Sigurjonsson for Netop Films, in co-production with Poland’s Madants, Denmark’s Profile Pictures and Germany’s One Two Films.

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