Half Elf won the grand jury award at Skjaldborg – Icelandic Documentary Film Festival this past weekend. Director Jón Bjarki Magnússon and Producer Hlín Ólafsdóttir where at the award ceremony at Bíó Paradís art-house cinema on Sunday evening where they received Ljóskastarinn, the award prize. Director Kristín Andrea Þórðardóttir won the audience award, Einarinn, for her film, Er ást.
The jury, which consisted of director Grímur Hákonarson, director Ugla Hauksdóttir and radio journalist Vera Illugadóttir, describe Half Elf as strong and solid story with a narrative that is unpretentious and sincere. A film that grabs the viewer from the first minute and makes him both laugh and cry.
Skjaldborg, Icelandic Documentary Film Festival normally takes place during the Whitsun weekend (a holiday weekend in Iceland celebrated fifty days after Easter Sunday with dates varying from May to June each year), but was postponed this year due to covid, until the first weekend of August (July 31st – August 2nd).
The festival was then postponed again one day before it was supposed to be held due to the rise of covid cases in the country. New dates where set for the 18th-20th of September, but during the days before the festivals, covid cases started to rise rapidly again. For some time it looked like the festival might be cancelled/postponed yet again, but this time around organizers managed to get it through till the end with the help of cinema goers who mostly attended the festival with their masks on.
Founded in 2007, the festival is the only specialised platform for the premiere of Icelandic documentaries and the home of the Icelandic documentary scene. The Icelandic documentaries premiering at the festival compete for the the coveted audience award Einarinn and Ljoskastarinn, the grand jury award. Half Elf is one of fourteen films selected for this years festival. More information about the festival here.
