Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
READY FOR ITS CLOSE-UP
Iceland has become a Hollywood darling for location shooting. Its immense alien beauty
and the government's 20% production rebate for film-makers have encouraged Holly-
wood directors to make movies here. Try to spot the Icelandic scenery in blockbusters
such as Tomb Raider(2001), Die Another Day(2002), Batman Begins(2005), Flags of
Our Fathers(2006), Stardust(2007), Journey to the Centre of the Earth(2008), Pro-
metheus(2012), Oblivion(2013), Star Trek: Into Darkness(2013), The Secret Life of Wal-
ter Mitty(2013), Noah(2014) and the HBO series Game of Thrones. The upcoming Star
Wars Episode VIIwas shot here too.
Film and TV directors aren't the only ones who ditch the CGI when they can get the real
thing in Iceland. Musicians shoot videos here too, from Björk and Of Monsters and Men,
to Sigur Rós. Don't miss Sigur Rós' inspiring concert film Heima(2007), starring the
Icelandic people and their roaring falls and towering mountains. Bon Iver's 2011 video Ho-
loceneis six minutes that the Icelandic Tourist Board should co-opt for their ad cam-
paigns.
For a list of the latest on Icelandic feature films, documentaries and animation, visit the
website
www.icelandicfilmcenter.is
.
Cinema
Iceland's film industry is young - regular production started around the early 1980s - but
it's created some distinctive work to date. Icelandic short films have received all kinds of
international awards. Full-length features are rarer, but they often contain the same quirky,
dark subject matter and superb cinematography, using Iceland's powerful landscape as a
backdrop.
In 1992 the film world first took notice of Iceland when
Children of Nature
was nomin-
ated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. In it, an elderly couple forced into a re-
tirement home in Reykjavík make a break for the countryside. The director, Friðrik Þór
Friðriksson, is something of a legend in Icelandic cinema circles.
Cold Fever
(1994),
An-
gels of the Universe
(2000) and
The Sunshine Boy
(2009) are well worth watching.
Another film that put Reykjavík on the cinematic map is
101 Reykjavík
(2000), directed
by Baltasar Kormákur and based on the novel by Hallgrímur Helgason. This dark comedy
