Unspooling from 19-29 March, the 12th Stockfish Film & Industry Festival has wrapped in Reykjavík after 11 days of screenings, Q&As, events and workshops. The Icelandic capital endured its heaviest snowstorm since last October, but this never dampened the festival’s weatherproof spirit.

Stockfish crowned its winners at its lively awards ceremony and closing party at Bío Paradís (lit. “Cinema Paradise”), where all of the festival screenings took place. The theatre was recently named one of the world’s most interesting cinemas by Financial Times (among the “most breathtaking cinemas in the world”), Variety (one of the “coolest movie theatres in the world”) and Time Out (one of the “greatest cinemas in the world right now”).

The festival’s competitive programmes all comprise Icelandic short films, collectively known as the Shortfish competition. The first gong given out was the Eva Maria Daniels Award for Vital Filmmaking, named for and honouring the legacy of the eponymous late Icelandic film producer (Joe Bell, Reality), and presented by her partner Moritz Diller and son Henry. The award went to Katla Sólnes for her short film Embla, which also received 1.5 million Icelandic króna (approximately €10,500) and industry mentorship.

Sólnes called it a “poignant honour” to receive this prize named after Daniels, which is awarded annually – and now for the third time – to a producer or director in the festival’s Shortfish competition for short films. Embla “speaks to how embedded unequal power relations are in our culture” and is a short described as a fantastical feminist fable. The film also collected the Award for Best Narrative Short, with the jury lauding the filmmaker as a young director with a “unique and captivating style and voice”.

Sólnes is currently developing her first feature, Eruption, for which she was a 2025 Sundance Screenwriters Lab Fellow. Earlier in March, she was also announced as one of the prestigious Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 2025-2026 Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting for international talents.

The Best Experimental Short Award went to Smokebreak by Rakel Andrésdóttir, which “balances playfulness and precision” with “a masterful integration of diverse visual art forms”. For Icelandic Hercules, which follows the life of health influencer and social-media figure Gummi Emil, Orri Guðmundsson received the Best Documentary Short Award, with the jury highlighting the film’s “incredibly sincere portrayal of the human spirit”.

In a shoutout to the importance of music videos as part of the festival’s Shortfish competition, while accepting the Honourable Mention for the Award for Best Music Video, director Erlendur Sveinsson described such videos as “such an important platform for up-and-coming filmmakers to enter the industry” – and expressed his pride in being part of this effort.

Finally, Icelandic cinematographer and multihyphenate Ari Kristinsson was the honorary guest at this year's festival and was presented with a prize for his exceptional contribution to Icelandic filmmaking. He is one of the founders of the Icelandic Film and Television Academy as well as of Bíó Paradís, also serving as the cinema’s first chairman of the board.

Here is the full list of award winners:

Eva Maria Daniels Award for Vital Filmmaking
Katla Sólnes – Embla (Iceland)

Best Documentary Short
Icelandic Hercules – Orri Guðmundsson (Iceland)

Best Narrative Short
Embla – Katla Sólnes

Best Experimental Short
Smokebreak – Rakel Andrésdóttir (Iceland)
Honourable Mention
SAGES – Þóra Hilmarsdóttir (Iceland)

Best Music Video
“STÆLAR” (GKR) – Magnus Andersen (Iceland)
Honourable Mention
“Television Love” (Monsters of Men) – Erlendur Sveinsson (Iceland)

Honorary Award
Ari Kristinsson