Scandinavia House – The Nordic Center in America in New York will screen Icelandic films every Wednesday and Saturday this upcoming fall (except October 14 to 24) through December 12.
101 Reykjavík (screened on November 11 and 14). Courtesy of the Icelandic Film Center.
The film fall kicks off with Fridrik Thór Fridriksson’s Oscar-nominated Children of Nature (1991) on September 16, doubled with Grímur Hákonarson’s 2008 short film Wrestling.
The project, entitled “Icelandic Film Retrospective,” presents a selection of the best feature-length and short films produced in Iceland over the past 30 years.
Icelandic cinema came into its own with the founding of the Icelandic Film Fund, now the Icelandic Film Centre, in 1979. The creation of the film fund had an immediate impact and led to new national productions, a press release states.
Scandinavia House is celebrating the fund’s 30th anniversary with its comprehensive 10-film retrospective paired with a selection of Icelandic short films. Spanning many styles and genres, these films reflect the excellence and diversity of Icelandic film.
Filmmaking reflects the role generally played by art—to mirror socio-cultural evolution and serve as a platform where questions are asked and experiments made.
In Iceland, the opposition between myths and modernity, and between traditions and globalization is a frequent theme in film of all categories: documentaries, literature and Saga adaptations, feature films, experimental films and short films.
Icelandic films have been presented at major film festivals around the world for years, regularly garnering high praise and winning top international prizes.
The Icelandic Film Retrospective is supported by Iceland Naturally and Iceland Air Cargo.
Films are screened at 6:30 pm on Wednesdays and 3 pm on Saturdays. Tickets for all films are USD 9 (USD 6 for ASF members) and are subtitled in English. A series pass costs USD 72 (USD 48 for ASF members).
Scandinavia House is located on 58 Park Avenue at 38th Street.
