29/01/2007

Icelandic filmmaker Dagur Kári was awarded the prestigious 2007 Sundance /NHK International Filmmakers Award at the Sundance Film Festival last Saturday, alongside Lucía Cedrón from Agentina, Japan’s Tomoko Kana and Caran Hartsfield from the US.

The annual award is given by the Sundance Institute and NHK (Japan’s largest broadcaster) to emerging filmmakers from four areas of the globe: Europe, Latin America, the US and Japan. Each award recipient receives $10,000 in seed money and a guarantee from NHK to purchase the Japanese television rights once the project is completed.

Two other European filmmakers were among the 12 Sundance/NHK finalists: Jens Jonsson from Sweden, with his new project The Ping-Pong King, and Switzerland’s Ursula Meier with Home.

Born in France to Icelandic parents, Kári studied filmmaking at the National Film School of Denmark. His feature debut Noi Albinoi (in Icelandic) was an international hit in 2003 and his second film, Dark Horse [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (in Danish), screened in Un Certain Regard in Cannes 2005.

The Good Heart [+see also:
trailer
film profile], his first English language feature, tells the story of a bar owner (Tom Waits) who decides that, after suffering his fifth heart attack, he needs to find someone who will take over running his bar. His choice is a young homeless man named Lucas (Ryan Gosling).

The European co-production was produced in Iceland by Skuli Fr. Malmquist and Thor Sigurjonsson for Zik Zak Filmworks and executive produced by Icelandic/Hollywood maverick Joni Sighvatsson. The two other co-producers are Denmark’s Nimbus Film (already co-producer of Kári’s two previous films) and France’s Ex Nihilo, with financial support from Eurimages and the Nordic Film & TV Fund. Katapult Film Sales is handling worldwide sales.