30/11/2006

Baltasar Kormákur swept the floor of this year’s Icelandic Oscars or Edda Awards with six out of seven awards in the feature film category for his two films Jar City and A Little Trip To Heaven [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

The Icelandic Film and Television Academy gave four Eddas to the director’s latest film, Jar City, for Best Feature Film, Director, Actor (Ingvar E. Sigurðsson) and Supporting Actor (Atli Rafn Sigurðarson) while Kormákur’s first English-language film A Little Trip To Heaven won Best Cinematography and Editing (Óttar Guðnason). Music composer Mugison was awarded for his work on both feature films.

Based on the eponymous crime novel by Arnaldur Indridason, Jar City tells two stories. The first is about a man breaking into a genetic database storing medical information on the Icelandic people. After losing his daughter to a hereditary disease, he then tries to trace his own roots. The second story is about a murder investigation of an old man that leads to unusual forensic evidence, uncovering secrets that have been kept in the genetic bloodline of the whole nation. Playing alongside Ingvar E. Sigurðsson is Björn Hlynur Haraldsson (Eleven Men Out).

Jar City was produced by Kormákur’s production outfit Blueeyes Productions in co-production with Bavaria Pictures in Germany and Nordisk Film in Denmark. The film’s opening weekend (October 20-22) in Iceland through Sena was the biggest ever for an Icelandic film and it is still second in the top ten (after Casino Royale [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) with over $1.1m grossed. Trust Film Sales is handling world sales.

Other Edda winners include Ragnar Bragason's Children [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], awarded Best Script, which was written by the director with Gísli Örn Garðarsson, Nína Dögg Filippusdóttir, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson and the cast. The drama, sold internationally by The Works, is Iceland's submission for the foreign-language Oscar race.