19/11/2002 - Baltasar Kormákur’s second feature film Hafid (The Sea) won eight prizes at the Edda Awards in Reykjavik. The movie is Islandic candidate for Oscar 2003 Best foreign film

The Icelandic Edda awards were given out in Reykjavík last week with the triumphal presence of one of Iceland’s most talented film director Baltasar Kormákur. The 800 members of The Icelandic Film & TV-Academy seemed to have come to an unanimous conclusion this year by given all the main prices to Baltasar Kormákur’s second feature Hafid (The Sea) being as well Iceland’s candidate for the Oscar’s. With eight awards in his hands at the end of the night, leaving hardly any to his competitors, The Sea arose to the expectation of the Icelandic public after the triumphal debut Baltasar made with his first feature film 101 Reykjavík. The Dollars 2m film, a family drama set place in a small coastal village, produced by Kormákur’s Blueeyes Productions has proven to be a big success at the Icelandic box-office outdoing Rob Cohen's XXX on its opening weekend despite it being screened on two fewer screens.
The distribution of the film has already been secured in some twenty territories including both the US and UK through Palm Pictures. Hafid was the first Icelandic film to be chosen as a candidate at the San Sebastian film festival.

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