City Reykjavik Showbiz Latest News and Updates

European Film Academy will honor Italian director March Bellocchio for his mini-series Exterior Night at its 35th European Film Awards ceremony on December 10 in the Icelandic capital of Reykjavik.

Alissa Simon Film Critic Scottish auteur Lynne Ramsay and former Icelandic Film Center (IFC) chief Laufey Guðjónsdóttir received honors from the 10th anniversary edition of Reykjavik’s Stockfish Film & Industry Festival (April 4 – 14, 2024). The awards, presented during a reception on April 11th, celebrate outstanding contributions to the film industry both internationally and domestically.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Arte has boarded “Reykjavik Fusion,” the first series produced by ACT4, an Icelandic banner launched by award-winning industry veterans, including Ólafur Darri Ólafsson (“True Detective”), Hörður Rúnarsson (“Black Sands”), Jónas Margeir Ingólfsson (“The Minister”) and Birkir Blær Ingólfsson (“Thin Ice”). The high-concept show will be distributed internationally by Wild Sheep Content, led by Erik Barmack, a former Netflix head of international.

Air, Laurel Halo and Laurent Garnier are among the names that have been added to the lineup for 2024’s Sónar Festival in Barcelona. The music festival, which is known for highlighting dance and electronic music culture, is set to run from Thursday June 13 to Sunday June 15, 2024, and tickets are on sale here. In December, Kaytranada, Jessie Ware and Vince Staples were among the first raft of names announced for next year’s edition of Sónar Barcelona.

Shygirl, Bar Italia, Charlotte Adigéry & Bolis Pupul, Joy (Anonymous) and more have been announced as performers for Iceland Airwaves 2024.The festival will be celebrating its 25th anniversary this year and will take place from November 7 through 9 in downtown Reykjavik. Other acts set to perform at the music fest include Saya Gray, Magdalena Bay, Anish Kumar, Inspector Spacetime, Úlfur Úlfur, Klemens Hannigan and more.“We are incredibly proud to be celebrating not only 25 years of Iceland Airwaves, but 25 years of playing a key part in the careers of some of the world’s most talented artists,” said Ísleifur Þórhallsson, Festival Manager for Iceland Airwaves in a Press release.He continued: “Over the years we have seen many of our Airwaves alumni grow from strength to strength, often developing into some of the industry’s most acclaimed artists.

EXCLUSIVE: Picture Tree International (PTI) has acquired international sales rights for Icelandic box office hit Grand Finale (Fullt hús) for an EFM launch.

The Darkness is descending in Iceland.

Kaytranada, Jessie Ware and Vince Staples are among the first raft of names announced for next year’s edition of Sónar Barcelona. The music festival, which is known for highlighting dance and electronic music culture, is set to run from Thursday June 13 to Sunday June 15, 2024, and tickets are on sale here. Other names confirmed for the festival include Charlotte de Witte, who will bring her ‘Overdrive’ show to the site, Floating Points, Ben Böhmer live, Casisdead, Marie Davidson and Folamour.

Members of Extinction Rebellion and the Mothers Rebellion for Climate Justice were involved in a demonstration on Altrincham high street this morning.

K.J. Yossman It sounds like the plot of a classic Hollywood disaster movie: a quiet fishing town on the coast of Iceland is threatened when a long-dormant volcano suddenly awakens, causing thousands of earth tremors that have ruptured roads and wrecked houses while residents attempt to flee the impending lava.

Iceland is currently experiencing a wave of natural disasters and the question remains if it's still safe for tourists to visit the popular destination.

A man who evacuated from a town in Iceland after earthquakes put the region on alert for a volcanic eruption said he fears he might never see his home again.

Seeing the Northern Lights is something on the top of most people’s bucket lists and Iceland is one of the best places to spot them during the winter months. For a limited time Icelandair is offering a holiday package deal with flights, accommodation and tours all included for less than £500 per person.

With the summer holidays now in full swing, more and more people will be taking advantage of the free time by travelling to warmer climates.

Laufey has returned with a new single and details of a second studio album – watch ‘Bewitched’, from an album of the same name, below.The new album follows the Icelandic-Chinese artist’s debut LP, ‘Everything I Know About Love’, which came out last year. It is due out on September 8.“‘Bewitched’ is a love song,” she said of the album’s title track.

EXCLUSIVE: Deadline spoke to Nordic distributor Scanbox about why it made sense to join new European film and TV studio Vuelta Group, which we revealed earlier this morning.

EXCLUSIVE: New Europe Film Sales has unveiled fresh deals for Danish director Ulaa Salim’s sci-fi drama Eternal.

Naman Ramachandran Writer-director Jesper Ganslandt has signed with CAA for representation. Ganslandt made his debut with “Falkenberg Farewell” in 2006. The coming-of-age film followed a group of friends who grew up in the titular town of Falkenberg and spend a last summer there before moving to the big city. The film debuted at Venice and had a stellar festival run including Toronto, Reykjavik, Tallinn Black Nights and Goteborg. It was nominated for the Nordic Council’s Film Prize, chosen as Sweden’s submission for the Academy Awards, and was nominated in several categories at the Guldbagge Awards in 2007, including best film, best direction and best screenplay. It won the FIPRESCI Award at the IndieLisboa International Independent Film Festival.

Laufey has released ‘A Night At The Symphony’, a new live album from her shows at Reykjavik’s Harpa Concert Hall last year. Check it out below.The sold-out gigs took place in October as part of a world tour in support of the Icelandic-Chinese artist’s debut album, ‘Everything I Know About Love’.

Naman Ramachandran The Backstreet Boys, who have a massive fan base in India, will be returning to the country after 13 years for two concerts. The band’s world tour began after the release of chart topping 2019 album “DNA,” featuring the hit “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart.” BookMyShow and Live Nation are bringing the tour to India. The band will play at Jio World Gardens, Mumbai on May 4 and Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, New Delhi on May 5. Prior to that the Backstreet Boys have performances lined up in Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Auckland, Hong Kong, Reykjavik and Cairo. After India, the tour carries on in Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Jeddah, Tel Aviv, Cape Town and Pretoria.

After pleading not guilty to felony burglary charges back in October, The Flash star Ezra Miller has entered a guilty plea for a lesser charge of trespassing after being accused of stealing three bottles of liquor – gin, vodka and rum — from the pantry of Stamford, VT, neighbor Isaac Winokur on May 1.

Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson’s coming-of-age drama Beautiful Beings debuted in the Panorama section at the Berlin Film Festival, where it won the Europa Cinemas Label award. The film has also been selected as Iceland’s entry for the 2023 Oscars.

Iceland’s entry for the Best International Feature Oscar is a tense, tender portrait of teenage boyhood. The second feature from writer-director Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson (Heartstone), Beautiful Beings world premiered in Berlin Panorama, where it won the Europa Cinemas Label. 

The European Film Academy has unveiled a new public-facing event called the Month of European Film.

Naman Ramachandran Italian auteur Marco Bellocchio will be presented with the European Film Academy’s Award for European Innovative Storytelling for his miniseries “Exterior Night.” The director will be guest of honor at the 35th European Film Awards ceremony on Dec. 10 at Reykjavik. In “Exterior Night,” Bellocchio returns to the case of the kidnapping and assassination of former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro by the Red Brigades in 1978, a subject that he tackled in his feature film “Good Morning, Night,” for which he received the FIPRESCI Prize at the 2003 European Film Awards. The academy has also revealed nominations in several categories for the awards.

Issa Rae’s career is soaring, but even so she’s less optimistic about support for women in Hollywood now than she was in the immediate wake of #MeToo.

EXCLUSIVE: Focus Features has boarded Beast and Everest filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur’s romantic drama Touch, which begins principal photography Sunday in London. Focus will release domestically, with Universal Pictures International handling overseas distribution (excluding Iceland).

EXCLUSIVE: The Icelandic Film and Television Academy has selected Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson’s Beautiful Beings as Iceland’s official entry in the Best International Feature Film category for the 2023 Academy Awards.

Vanity Fair on September 18, comes after Miller apologised for their “past behavior” in August. The actor disclosed that they had begun treatment for “complex mental health issues” and was “committed to doing the necessary work to get back to a healthy, safe and productive stage in my life”.For the report, journalists Julie Miller, Anthony Breznican and Savannah Walsh spoke to more than a dozen people currently and formerly affiliated with Miller, including spokespeople, colleagues and ex-partners.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The European Film Academy will honor Palestinian auteur Elia Suleiman with its European Achievement in World Cinema Award. The Paris-based Suleiman, whose most recent work “It Must Be Heaven” premiered in 2019 at Cannes, is the first Palestinian director to win this prestigious prize. Suleiman will be an honorary guest at the 35th European Film Awards ceremony to be held on Dec. 10 in Reykjavik. Born in Nazareth, Suleiman started his career in New York where in the early 1990s he shot two short films, “Introduction to the End of an Argument” and “Homage by Assassination” which won several prizes.