Lovísa Lára invited to The Winter Film Awards in NY  with her film Creep

Skjaldborg, the film festival of Icelandic documentaries, will be held shortly at Patreksfjordur. Information below is translated from the festivals website.

From May 18th-21st, Skjaldborg, the film festival of Icelandic documentaries, will be held for the 12th time at Patreksfjordur. Besides premiering new Icelandic documentaries, the festival is an opportunity for filmmakers and documentary enthusiasts to gather. At the end of the festival the audience award will be presented, Einarinn, which has been a staple of the festival from the beginning, as well as the jury choice, The Spotlight, first presented in 2017Skjaldborg shows documentaries that might otherwise not be seen by the public and equally respects the small, large, weird and expensive. The themes of the documentaries through the years have always been varied and all from shorts to full length films

All information about this wonderful event can be found on its website and this is a great opportunity to experience both the new comers and the veterans in Icelandic film making

Skjaldborg, festival of Icelandic documentaries

To celebrate the 25th year of The Icelandic Film School we will be showing 25 chosen graduation films from graduates of the past years. This time it will be the shortfilm  “Anima” from the spring semester of 2012

The short film “Anima” was the graduation project of Bjorgvin Sigurdarson that graduated from Creative Technology in the spring of 2012

Speaking with Bjorgvin, who was the cinematographer of the film, he said;

“Ever since I started taking photographs I have had a strong desire to look at life around me from a different perspective. The search for frames has followed me since and when I began my studies at The Film School I had an idea of what I wanted to do, but no idea on how I was going to do it. Thankfully there was a group of good people there that was always available to assist and taught me all I needed to know and so much I did not know that I needed to know. Since then I have enjoyed shooting music videos, visuals and short films, but my main passion is documentary making. After having finished my first full length documentary last year  with another former student, Hallur Orn Arnason, we are now working on the second one, a remake of a film I originally did at The Film School. Film making is such a beautiful art form, but it is only possible through quality team work and that is what makes it so amazing to me”

Frostbiter is an Icelandic horror film festival that will be held from November 10th to 12th in Akranes and among the films are projects from students of The Icelandic Film School

After a young woman wakes up in a decrepit hospital, it becomes clear that something terrible has happened. Only one thing is certain: She must get out

The film was written and directed by Guðni Líndal Benediktsson, a graduate from Screenwriting and Directing at The Film School. It was shot in Edinburgh last summer, with great support from other students.


The film is by Ásþór Aron Þorgrímsson who is a graduate from The Icelandic Film School from the Directing and Producing department.

We encourage you not to miss this exciting festival !

Frostbiter, the “worst” from Icelandic cinema

Our graduates and students have been involved in so many fantastic projects this year, and here are a few

Bolli Mar Bjarnason graduated from Acting at The Icelandic Film School in December 2015 and has just started a new program at RUV, called “Here we do not talk nonsense”. We caught up with him for some information.

Do you remember when films first enthralled you?

To be honest no, I am not a film nerd or had any interest in the classics the people at school talked the most about. I watched a lot of “Detroit Rock City”, “Ali G”, and “The Icelandic dream” when I was younger.

Why did you choose film making and chose Acting?

I wanted to learn acting and went in quite blind actually. I thought it was cool and enchanting. I did not have any base, just a feeling that this would be good for me. I was at a crossroads and saw an opportunity there.

The studies went a bit lala, I always regret not giving more into it. I am very thankful for many time periods in the school. In the end I have used the courses incredibly well to my advantage.

What were your first steps after graduation?

I worked at The Morning paper doing busy work as well as looking for acting assignments. I then started working at my old school, Laugalaekjarskola. It was all good and a bit beautiful, top people working there that also had to handle me when I was there as a student. I was a bit stressed meeting all my old teachers. With that I was getting different projects.Then I started working at Pipar/TBWA and that made all the difference. I have learned and grown so much there. Have been there for the last three years. There I get a chance to try so many different things and learn from the amazing people there, that today are of course my good friends.

It just kind of fell into my head at work, probably many factors that made this exact idea come, I will analyze that later. I immediately contacted Dori Gylfa, an actor I know through Throttur football club, and asked him to make a pilot with me. He was very willing, an absolute master. I look forward to that show being shown, really raw, but incredible fun.

Amazing untruths put forward in a believable way. Improvisation and the joy of acting. Anything goes and everything is possible. I have a topic that we fill in and then try to make it into the best possible story. But in between it is also an actual interview and people are being truthful until I lead them into fantasy.

It is easy, as they are all top people that I got, people I knew would take it forward. But it is still complicated, every show is only one take. We just sit down and start rolling, one take and one outcome. It is incredible fun, but of course also very stressing.

It is just Pipar / HEE-TV / life. I have so many ideas, and I will be bugging you with them.

At the start of the year a 5 year service contract with the Ministries of Education and Finance to run the educational aspect of film making began. The contract is valid until 2025. A minimum of 100 students shall be educated each year. Along with that the new year also included a certification from the Ministry of Education of our 4 departments, valid for the next three years.

The Film School signs a 5 year contract with the government

An idea kept in the drawer becomes real – Kári – a new film by Elsa G. Björnsdóttir

As we celebrate our 25 years, we will be showing 25 selected graduation films from our graduated students over the last years. This time it will be the short film “Gunna” from spring 2012.

The short film “Gunna” was the graduation project for Óli Jón Gunnarssson who graduated from Acting in spring 2012

Óli Jón says that the studies in The Icelandic Film School had a very good influence on him. “Even though I have not landed big parts, the Acting studies has given me so much more than that. I am more secure when dealing with other people. It is much easier to stand up in meetings and in front of a crowd and speak, which helps me a lot in my line of work. One often needs to be able to adjust ones character to connect with people and the education I have has been a great advantage in that.
I have landed some smaller roles in both Icelandic and foreign films since I graduated, and it has been both enjoyable and a good experience.
Today I am working on a script for a new short film and am very excited about it” says Óli Jón.

Gunna from Icelandic Film School on Vimeo.

The 2nd graduation short film we are showing to celebrate our 25th year !

CILECT, the association of the 130-140 of the best film and television schools in the world, yesterday announced the results of their annual student shortfilm competition. In the category of Fiction there were 120 nominees and the Film Schools contribution this year was “3 men”, the graduation film by Emil Alfred Emilsson,

It is with great pride that we announce that The Film School and its contribution, “3 men” landed in the 14th place out of 120, which is quite the success. It is 6 places above the last record placing of the school, when we entered the film “Heaven and earth” in 2016.

The film “3 men” has already entered 14 international film festivals in 12 countries and been awarded twice. On the schedule are 4 festivals; Nordisk Panorama, Jagran Film Festival, Helsinki International Filmfestival & Southampton International Film Festival.

The Film Schools contribution to the Cilect short film competition got to the 14th place out of 120 !

The semester is in full swing at The Film School and there are four diplomas available;

Directing and Producing, Creative Technology, Screen writing and Directing, and of course Acting.

These pictures were shot during the week to show you a glimpse into the school life

This picture was taken in TÆK, a collective Technical course for first year students, teaching the basics of film making

Here you see Thorsteinn Bachmann teaching Directing. LST 205, with special emphasis on working with actors

First semester students are here in TÆK 106, learning the basics of producing from the head of Producing, Hlin Johannesdottir

4th year students attending a script writing class, HHO 102, to prepare their graduation films under the tutelage of Kolbrun Anna actress and screen writer, who is also the head of Acting and movement in the Acting department .

Interested ? All the information you need is on this website

Future filmmakers studying hard at The Film School

Students that are currently finishing their first term  at the Icelandic Film School are these days finishing this terms final project – a first try-out in film making.

In the process one student in each group is made responsible for it´s expertise  and together with other the group develops an idea into script and production. On set each group takes care of it´s subject.  According to Sigrun Gylfadóttir the project is very ambitious.

It is important to IFS to start it´s hands-on work with students right from the start of their studies and we invite you to have a look at what this years first term students were up to.

First term students finishing their first film making experience

It’s a great pleasure for us at The Icelandic Film School to follow our graduates and see what they are up to. Freyr Árnason, who graduated from Department 3 – Screenwriting/Directing has made a good career working on music videos in the recent years.
His latest production is this video for the Icelandic band Agent Fresco.

Dadi Einarsson is a graduate of Screen writing and Directing from The Icelandic Film School and his graduation film “Hitters & Critters” will be shown in Bio Paradis on the 15th of April.

Daði has had a close relationship with fantasies and science fiction from a young age

“Lord of the rings” is my “Star Wars”. When I was 6 years old I would sit with my family in the living room and watch the extended version of “The lord of the rings”, one disc per night for a whole week. During that week reality got switched off and this other, unique world, took over and I believed it was real. I took notes and jotted down memos. This world had rules and worked in a special way. I then watched the films again and again. Endlessly. Nothing captured me as much as “Lord if the rings” and it might be pretty obvious that I draw a lot of inspiration from there and from “Astropia” and many similar television shows that did one role playing show. For instance “Futurama”, “Community” and “The IT crowd”. But I always thought that the form could be explored further. Now I might antagonize Otto a bit, but “Astropia” is not a perfect film. It spends too much time just rolling before they start the actual play, the fun part, half the picture even! Nonetheless, when I was a kid it grabbed the imagination. An Icelandic fantasy film ! The bravery that that it took Otto and Gunnar to do it ! I love “Astropia”, no matter what anyone says! It is a fantastic film ! I watched it twice when I was making my graduation film. Once to make sure that my film was, well its own film with different themes and characters… the second time was just for my entertainment.

The script for my graduation film took a long time to develop and went through many changes. In the draft there were 5 players and one storyteller. Teddi was not playing a wizard. The storyteller was a neutral character that had no effect on the story and one of the characters had guns and everything. But I kept developing the script long into the semester, to my co-workers great annoyance, especially Jana the producer. I think I put forth the last draft of the script 2 days before shooting started…. But it was set in stone before that time. I just kept changing and evolving it.  

In the editing process for instance, I moved the fight on the hill from the final chapter of the film to the beginning. It evens out the script structure, because now the film starts with a fun fight and ends with a dramatic fight. I also cut scenes where the characters of the film jump over a gorge, which was a big scene in the script and took half a day to film and the actors hated filming that as they stood on a cliffs edge at least fifteen meters from the bottom. But that happens, you keep rewriting the film.

This film is completely different from anything I have done before, when it comes to the scale of it. There are 41 names in the credit list, besides the special thanks. And when I was making short films by myself, it was only me recording, writing, producing, directing, sound recording and everything else that needed to be done. But at school I learnt to trust the people around me as much as possible and it is only due to the people around me that the film is a success and that is the way it should be.

The path is forward. I want young people to have more of a choice in watching. Films and television shows are far too often made serious and realistic, but there is a need for more fun and weirdness for the young people of Iceland. Let’s try to get young people in the cinema watching Icelandic films ! Fantasies and science fiction will hopefully make a strong entrance in the next few years !

Here you can enjoy a trailer for the film;

As mentioned before the film will be shown in Bio Paradis on the 15th of April and the price is only 1000 ISK, but further information is available on the Facebook event

We believe that Dadi has a bright future in film making and this is a great opportunity to enjoy from the beginning

“Hitters & Critters”, adventure and role play

Kristbjorg Sigtryggsdottir graduated from Acting in spring 2018 and here you can enjoy her showreel

We congratulate her and look forward to following her in the future

Kristbjorg Sigtryggsdottir, graduated from Acting 2018

Four of this springs IFS graduates have been invited to this year´s RIFF – Reykjavík International Film Festival.
Atli Þór Einarsson (Bergmál), Sigmar Ingi Sigurgeirsson (Rof) and Haukur Karlsson Hæ Pabbi, þótti við þekkjumst ekki neitt) all graduated last spring and their films were all their graduation projects. The invitation takes to the short film section of the festival.
Einarsson graduated from our Directing/producing department, Karlson from Creative Technology and Sigurgeirsson who played the leading role in his film, from acting.

Update: Since publishing our report on IFS graduates at this years RIFF we have also learned that Bardi Guðmundsson who graduated from Screenwriting/Directing was also invited to take part in thes festival with his film “Kattarmaðurinn”. We congratulate all of them on their success.

Graduates invited to Reykjavík International Film Festival

To celebrate the 25th year of The Icelandic Film School, we will be showing 25 different short films made by our students in years past. Now we will be showing the film “Stanislaw” from fall semester 2010

The short film “Stanislaw”, was the graduation project of Jón Már Gunnarsson that graduated from Creative Technology in the fall of 2010

I graduated from The Film School in 2010. I had before that finished studies at a digital entertainment school, where I specialized in 3D animation, but I felt that my arsenal was lacking something, as well as I felt that comp really called to me. Therefor I decided to study at The Film School, where I made most of my projects into special effects projects, even though they might not have been to begin with. That gave me a good place to practice my chosen trade and people to help me along. I soon got a better grasp of the art form and the technology, besides meeting a lot of people that helped me develop my knowledge.
I immediately got many projects and then a full time job at Pegasus and then RGB, where I am still working. I was lucky to be thrown directly into the deep end and got trusted to tackle big project straight from the beginning

Graduation booklet for fall semester 2017

Search results

Lovísa Lára invited to The Winter Film Awards in NY with her film Creep

Skjaldborg, festival of Icelandic documentaries

“Anima” by Bjorgvin Sigurdsson

Frostbiter, the “worst” from Icelandic cinema

A wonderful cinematic year for Iceland

Bolli Mar has a new program at RUV