The 2022 edition of the Reykjavík International Film Festival (29 September-9 October) came to a close with a joyously low-key awards ceremony, complete with a comedic duo of presenters and drum rolls before the announcement of each winner, performed by an actual drummer placed on the far side of the stage. The Háskólabíó was packed and the atmosphere celebratory on the evening of Saturday 8 October, as the ceremony began with the short-film categories. 

Given out by screenwriter and executive producer Torfinnur Jákupsson, director Óskar Kristinn Vignisson and actress Maria Thelma, the Golden Egg for Best Short Film from the 2021 RIFF Talent Lab went to the “poetic, minimalistic but epic” short called Send the Rain, by Haley Gray.

In the Icelandic Short Film category, the jury composed of filmmaker and producer Carlos Pardo Ros, artist Viktoría Guðnadóttir and producer Birgitta Björnsdóttir decided to give an Icelandic Student Short - Special Mention to The One Who Went South, by Steiní Kristinsson. They handed the Best Icelandic Student Short Award to The Paladins by Elín Pálsdóttir, while the Award for Best Icelandic Short went to Chasing Birds by Una Lorenzen. 

The jury for Best International Short, composed of film producer Mark Lwoff, CPH:DOX head of programme Mads Mikkelsen, and director of The One Minutes Foundation Julia van Mourik, bestowed a Special Mention upon Domy+Ailucha: Cenas Ket! by Ico Costa (which could have won a prize for best acceptance video, too), and the main award went to Jean-Sébastien Chauvin’s Exalted Mars, a film that they thought “embodies the reveries and eroticism of the night”.

In the A Different Tomorrow section, which focuses on films that shed light on environmental and humanitarian topics, Visions du Réel head of programming Astrid Silva, filmmaker Helga Rakel Rafnsdóttir and producer Joni Sighvatsson also decided to hand out a Special Mention: they found that Susanne Regina Meures’ Girl Gang [+lee también:
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entrevista: Susanne Regina Meures
ficha de la película] (which premiered at CPH:DOX earlier this year) “leaves the viewer with a true question about ourselves and the choices we have to make in the interconnected society we live in today”. The Different Tomorrow Award went to Sean Wang’s A Marble Travelogue [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] (revealed at IDFA last year), whose “filmic approach forces us to question our way of life, but also allows us to dream”.

Composed of film students, the Young People’s Jury selected a film from the New Visions section, which consists of debut and sophomore features. Rögnvaldur Brynjar Rúnarsson, Katla Kristjánsdóttir and Júlía Kristín Kamilludóttir awarded Jason Loftus’ Eternal Spring (winner of Audience Awards at both Hot Docs in Canada and Thessaloniki in Greece; selected as Canada’s Best International Feature Film entry for the upcoming Academy Awards), which “keeps the audience on the edge of their seats” just as it forms “an emotional connection between the activists and the viewers”.

Likewise, looking at the films in the New Visions category, the jury composed of Venice Days director general Giorgio Gosetti, MUBI development executive Ava Striker and actress Hera Hilmarsdóttir also struggled with the high quality of the selection. They were “happily forced” to hand out two Special Mentions: they found that Franciska Eliassen’s Sister, What Grows Where Land Is Sick? [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] offers “a feminine perspective on our collective anxiety about our planet and its effects on mental health”, and awarded I Have Electric Dreams [+lee también:
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entrevista: Valentina Maurel
ficha de la película] (a winner at Locarno and San Sebastián) for the way director Valentina Maurel captures “the intensity of a young woman’s adolescence, torn between the loyalties of childhood and the acceptance of the complex realities of adulthood."

Finally, the jury handed out the Golden Puffin to Rodeo [+lee también:
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entrevista: Lola Quivoron y Julie Ledru
ficha de la película] by Lola Quivoron (unveiled in the Un Certain Regard section at this year’s Cannes Film Festival), which takes the audience “on a powerful ride in search of freedom."

The ceremony was followed by the world premiere of the Icelandic title Summerlight, and Then Comes The Night [+lee también:
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ficha de la película], based on the best-selling novel by Jón Kalman Stefánsson and directed by Elfar Adalsteins. 

Here is the full list of award winners:

New Visions

Golden Puffin
Rodeo [+lee también:
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tráiler
entrevista: Lola Quivoron y Julie Ledru
ficha de la película] - Lola Quivoron (France)
Special Mentions
Sister, What Grows Where Land Is Sick? [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] - Franciska Eliassen (Norway)
I Have Electric Dreams [+lee también:
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entrevista: Valentina Maurel
ficha de la película] - Valentina Maurel (Belgium/France/Costa Rica) 

The Young People’s Jury Award
Eternal Spring - Jason Loftus (Canada) 

A Different Tomorrow

A Different Tomorrow Award
A Marble Travelogue [+lee también:
crítica
ficha de la película] - Sean Wang (Netherlands/Hong Kong/France/Greece)
Special Mention
Girl Gang [+lee también:
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entrevista: Susanne Regina Meures
ficha de la película] - Susanne Regina Meures (Switzerland)

Best International Short

Best International Short Award
Exalted Mars - Jean-Sébastien Chauvin (France)
Special Mention
Domy+Ailucha: Cenas Ket! - Ico Costa (France/Portugal) 

Icelandic Short Film

Best Icelandic Student Short
The Paladins - Elín Pálsdóttir (Iceland)
Special Mention
The One Who Went South - Steiní Kristinsson (Iceland)

Best Icelandic Short
Chasing Birds - Una Lorenzen (Iceland)

Golden Egg - Best Short Film from the 2021 RIFF Talent Lab
Send the Rain - Haley Gray (Canada)