RIFF 2019 - TALENT LAB BROCHURE

Dear 2019 RIFF Talent Lab Group, Velkominn til ReykjavĂ­kur!

We are thrilled to have you as participants of the 16th edition of the Reykjavik International Film Festival.

We hope that you will make the best out of the masterclasses, panels, talks and networking events.

This brochure will provide you with information about the Talent Lab program and practical information regarding your stay in Iceland.

RIFF Talent Lab The RIFF Talent Lab is for talents who want to meet up with other like-minded individuals in Reykjavík and make first-hand contact with film producers and other professionals for help and consulting on their first feature film. This year’s Talent Lab will run from the 1th of October until the 5th of October.

Four action-packed days during which you will participate in master classes and discussions with well-established names in the film industry. Education and entertainment will go hand in hand. The schedule is stuffed with great films, workshops, events and seminars.

The Golden Egg Participants have the opportunity of submitting their short films to The Golden Egg competition. The Golden Egg is an award given to young and aspiring talents. The films selected for The Golden Egg competition will be screened in the festivals official program.

The Process The threefold motto of the Reykjavík International Film Festival (Innovation – Networking – Dialogue) is perfectly manifested in the activities of the Talent Lab. The lab highlights and promotes the innovative works of young filmmakers and fosters as well as facilitates the networking necessary to promote their work to buyers and distributors. Further, the attendees gain the opportunity to participate in dialogue and exchange ideas and thoughts with young people from across the world.

The Program The program of Reykjavik Talent Lab varies between years. Last year we had a good combination of masterclasses, panels, workshops and fun. Among the ones who will talk this edition are acclaimed French director Claire Denis, awarded Icelandic director Benedikt Erlingsson, Danish producer Katja Adomeit and Director of Interactive Programs at Tribeca Film Institute Zeina Abi Assy.

The participants of the 2019 Reykjavik Talent Lab will get guidance on how to promote their works in the international market by held pitching sessions.

2019 TL will host 40 participants from 15 different nationalities all over the globe.

Program Schedule

RIFF 2019 Venues

1. Center Hotel Plaza – RIFF Guest Office /talent lab Aðalstræti 6, 101 Reykjavík TEL: +354 595 8500 2. Loft Hostel - Talent Lab Hub Bankastræti 7, 101 Reykjavík Tel: +354 553 8140 Loft@hostel.is 3. The Nordic House - Industry venue/talent lab Sæmundargata 11, 101 Reykjavík tel: +354 5517030 info@nordichouse.is 4. Bíó Paradís Cinema Hverfisgata 52, 101 Reykjavík tel: +354 412 7711 midasala@bioparadis.is 5. Miami Hverfisgata - Industry gathering venue Hverfisgata 33, 101 Reykjavík barmiami@barmiami.is tel: +354 699 1250

social event and screening

Social events and screening

Meet & Greet Talent lab // Kick Off Party @Miami Hverfisgata Tuesday Oct.1 16:30 - 18:30

Loft Shorts

Social gathering for short program filmmakers, talent lab participants and Industry guests. @Loft Hostel Wedneday Oct.2 19:30 - 21:30

Closing Ceremony & Party @Nordic House Saturday Oct.5 20:00 - 22:00

There is happy hour for Talent lab participants every day 4-6 pm at Center Hotel Plaza, and 6 - 8pm at Miami Hverfisgata :)

Screening Golden Egg program I & II screening + Q/A Wednesday Oct.2 @ Bíó Paradís 14:45 - 19:00

Golden Egg program I & II Screening + Q/A Saturday Oct. 5 @Nordic House 13:00 - 15:00 15:30 - 17:30

Austrian Focus Reception @ Bió Paradís Tuesday Oct.1 18:30 - 19:00 (reception) 19:00 - 20:30 (screening) Guest: Karl Markovics, Kelly Copper, Pavol Liska, Sara Fattahi, Sebastian Brameshuber, Clifford Agu. Austria is in focus this year! The Austrian embassy will provide light refreshments in Bíó Paradís on Tuesday evening to start the Austrian Focus at this year’s RIFF. After the reception, Talent Lab participants can stay at Bió Paradís for the screening of an Austrian film.

The Austrian Focus at this year’s Reykjavik International Film Festival is a very welcome opportunity to demonstrate that Austrian films come in all shapes and sizes. As dramas and documentaries, as genre films, essays and comedies, some add a bitter twist with relish, others clearly signal cult potential. What’s more, though: quite a few of them qualify as the right films for the right time and this should certainly not be misunderstood as another stale phrase or as some cheap excuse to grab your attention. The majority of RIFF’s rich sample of Austrian films are clearly trying to lure you out of your comfort zone, to surprise and challenge you. At any rate, expect to be served some serious food for thought. A great variety of different films with broad focus will be shown during the festival. (The screening info will be announced soon.)

Further Program Information

Introduction by Artistic Director Hilmar Oddsson @ Center Hotel Plaza Wednesday Oct.2 8:00 - 9:30 Born in Reykjavík, Hilmar studied at HFF - The Academy of Film and Television in Munich, Germany. He has extensively worked as Director, Producer, Screenwriter and Editor for feature and short films, both fiction and documentary, as well as for television. From 2010 to 2017 he was the Dean of The Icelandic Film School. Hilmar is also a film critic, musician and composer.

Benedikt Erlingsson - The Art of the Pitch @ Center Hotel Plaza Wednesday Oct.2 10:00 – 11:30 Born in Reykjavik, Benedikt Erlingsson is one of the most successful stage directors of the last decade in Iceland. He has been awarded for his work as a director, author and actor several times.

“Of Horses and Men”, his debut feature film travelled extensively on the festival circuit and received over twenty prizes, including the Kutxa-New Directors Award in San Sebastian; Best Director at the 2013 Tokyo Film Festival and the 2014 Nordic Council Film Prize. His latest film, “Woman at War”, had its world premiere in the Cannes Critics Week where it won four prizes, including the SACD Award.

The film has also won the prestigious Lux Prize and Nordic Council Film Prize and is the Icelandic Oscar contender as best foreign language film.

Claire Denis Master Class @ Nordic House Wednesday Oct.2 12:30 - 14:00

The acclaimed French director Claire Denis will give a master class on Wednesday. The master class will be moderated by the Icelandic author Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir.

RIFF Honorary Ceremony Lifetime Achievement Award for Claire Denis @ Bessastaðir Thursday Oct.3 15:30 - 18:00

On Thursday afternoon we will drive to Bessastaðir, the official residence of the President of Iceland (It is situated in Álftanes, not far from the capital city Reykjavík), to attend the RIFF Honorary Ceremony at 15:30 pm. Claire Denis, the acclaimed French film director, will receive her honorary award for Life time Achievement from the President of Iceland.

Talent Lab Meets Claire @Nordic House Friday Oct.4 12:30 - 13:30

Claire Denis is a Paris-based filmmaker and one of the significant artistic voices of contemporary French cinema. In 1988 she wrote, directed and produced her first film, Chocolat, that is showing at our festival this year. The film got its first nomination in 1988 at the Cannes Film Festival. She is most well known for Nenette and Boni (1996), 35 Shots of Rum (2008), Beau travail (1999) and High Life (2018), two of which are also showing at our festival.

She has received many nominations, such as her first two awards in 1996 for Nenette and Boni at the Locarno International Film Festival and a 3rd Award at the Namur International Festival of French-Speaking Film for the same film. She is currently working on The Stars at Noon which is set to premiere in 2021. Her work has dealt with themes of colonial and post-colonial West Africa, as well as issues in modern France, and continues to influence European cinematic identity.

Pitch Workshop @ Center Hotel Plaza Thursday Oct.3 8:30 - 10:00 am 10:30 - 12:00 In this workshop, talent lab participants have the opportunity to present their ideas and upcoming projects to these four film professionals and receive valuable feedback from them.

Hrafnkell Stefansson Born in Hafnarfjörður, Iceland on April 13, 1982, Hrafnkell Stefansson graduated with an MA in Screenwriting, from the London Film School in 2007. His earliest work was a script and story consultant for The Higher Force, a TV Movie. His first work was as a Writer was then a screenplay for the TV Movie Circledrawers in 2009. In 2012 he would be nominated for the Edda Award, alongside Olaf de Fleur Johannesson, for Screenplay of the year on the Kurteist fólk (Polite People) produced in 2011. He is currently the head of studies, at the Icelandic film school in Reykjavik.

Gabor Greiner Gabor Greiner is a sales agent. He studied Cultural Management in Vienna, Birmingham and Chicago and firstly worked as a journalist and film critic. From 2003 to 2009 he worked at the MEDIA program at the European Commission’s Film Fund, which was created to support the European audiovisual sector. In 2009 Gabor moved to Match Factory where he handled acquisitions. The films he supervised received two Golden Bears, a Golden Palm and two Oscars abroad. Since September 2010, he has been responsible for the acquisition of new projects for Films Boutique in Berlin. Founded in 2008, the company specializes in sophisticated art-house films that have won numerous awards from international film festivals including the Golden Lion, Golden Bear and Camera d’Or.

Grimar Jonsson Grimar Jonsson is the founder and owner of Netop Films. Grimar has worked on acclaimed Icelandic features such as The Good Heart and was one of the producers of Brim.

Grimar started working for Zik Zak Filmworks in 2006, then moved to Oslo working as Project Manager for fiction at the Nordisk Film & TV Fund in 2010. In 2013 Grimar left his job at the Nordisk Film & TV Fund to pursue his career as an independent producer to make great content for the discerning viewer.

Helga Rakel Rafnsdรณttir Helga Rakel completed her MA in Creative Documentary from Pompeu Fabra IDEC in Barcelona. She works mostly with documentary filmmaking and runs the production company Skarkala ehf.

Helga Rakel has won numerous awards for her works and taught documentary filmmaking and provided workshops for documentary filmmakers at various levels.

Breaking and Entering Film Scoring Symposium @ Nordic House Thursday, Oct. 3 13:00 - 16:00 An afternoon where professionals share their experience on how to break into the industry of composing music for films. Professional film composers as well as agents in the business will share their advice and have a meet and greet with guests at the event. This is a fantastic opportunity for anyone interested in scoring film and in films in general.

The event is a collaboration with Iceland Music (ÚTÓN), STEF (Composers Rights Society of Iceland) and Iceland Music Information Center.

13:00 - Welcome Symposiarch: Valgerður G. Halldórsdóttir, Managing Director of IMIC 13:10 - 13:50 Talk – and short Q&A Annette Gentz, agent (Annette Gentz Music and Film Arts, Germany) 14:00 - 14:45 Talk and short Q&A Benedikt Erlingsson & Davíð Þór Jónsson Moderator: Elísabet Indra Ragnarsdóttir

Rob Tasker Talk - VFX pipelines @ Nordic House Friday Oct.4 8:00 - 9:30 Rob Tasker is a visual effects supervisor and compositor based in Reykjavík, Iceland with experience working on feature films, television shows, commercials and corporate titles since 2009. With over 40 credits to his name, Rob has received a few nominations for his work, such as Primetime Emmy Awards Nomination of Outstanding Special Visual Effects in a Supporting Role for the television show ‘Hannibal‘ , Canadian Screen Award nominations of Achievement in Visual Effects for the feature film ‘Wet Bum‘ and Best Visual Effects for the television show ‘Copper‘.

In this talk, Rob Tasker will share his experience of breaking into the film business and working professionally in the visual effects(VFX) industry. He will give an introduction and valuable insight into what is VFX, the process of VFX, why VFX is needed, and what should be considered while working on VFX. This lecture is great for those who are interested in visual effects in films, or just anyone who is keen on learning about the film-making process and how to become a stronger filmmaker.

Festival Programmers Share Their Insights @ Nordic House Friday Oct.4 10:00 - 11:30 Helga Stephenson

Helga Stephenson is well known for her work as a producer on Hank Williams: The Show He Never Gave(1980), and as a Production Manager on Curtains(1983) and an Assistant Producer on Mr. Patman(1980). She has many credentials, she was also in two documentaries as herself, one in 2007 in the Manufacturing Dissent: Uncovering Michael Moore and then in 2015 in Being Canadian, she also appeared on Katie Chats in 2014. Her latest work was as Producer for the 2016 Canadian screen awards. She served as the Chairman of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television from 2011 to 2016.

Giorgio Gosetti

Giorgio Gosetti has been a professional journalist since 1989. In 1979 became head of permanent projects and activity at Biennale Cinema in Venice, a post he occupied up to 1984.He then became Vice-director of the Venice Film Festival from ‘92 to ‘96 under the Direction of Gillo Pontecorvo. In 2004 and 2005, he was appointed General Delegate of “Le Giornate degli Autori – Venice Days”, the independent new section of the Mostra di Venezia. Between 1999 and 2004 he was in charge like General Director of the Agency for the Promotion of Italian Cinema (first Italia Cinema, then Filmitalia).

As a festival director, after a long appointment for “Mystfest” (Mystery Film Festival in Cattolica), he became director in 1988.In 1991 he founded NOIR IN FESTIVAL, which currently takes place in Courmayeur. He co-founded and has been General Manager of the Rome Film Festival and Business Street from 2006 to 2008 when he resigned coming back to Venice. Gosetti is now again General Delegate of the Giornate degli Autori - Venice Days at the Mostra di Venezia, where the three films of the LUX Prize are premiered and is the main partner of the initiative “ 28 Times Cinema”.

Connections Outside the Screen @Nordic House Friday Oct.4 14:00 - 15:30 An open conversation between Icelandic producer Kristinn Thordarson and Icelandic director Thordur Palsson, regarding the process of the pre-production of feature films.

RIFF Talks @Nordic House Friday Oct.4 16:00 - 19:00 A series of concise scripted, polished, well-designed, well-produced and edited presentations, by the hand of remarkable contemporary filmmakers. They are 18 minutes long talks, enough for the speakers to flesh out an idea but short enough that the listeners could take in, digest, and understand all of the important information. It is a series of personal talks about a theme that feels passionate so that the sense of purpose from the speaker will create an energy boost for the audience. It will take us on a journey focused on the desired outcome, also about the process of realizing how we’re going to get there and what it feels like to break through our minds. Detailed info will be announced soon.

WHAT ARE RIFF’s talks?

A series of concise scripted, polished, well-designed, well-produced and edited presentations, by

Case Studies with Zeina Abi Assy @ Nordic House Saturday Oct.5 8:30 - 10:00 Zeina Abi Assy is a writer and media artist from Lebanon. She is the Director of Interactive Programs at Tribeca Film Institute where she blends her background in graphic design, digital media and creative writing to create programs that focus on the power of incubation in emerging media. With experience in the Middle East and North America, her work moves between cultural criticism and fictional poetry to investigate the complexity of culture, technology and politics and their effects on our lived experiences. Her work has appeared in the printed anthology “Arab Women Voice New Realities.” She is a mentor at NEW INC, The New Museum’s cultural incubator.

On Saturday, Zeina Abi Assy will carry out case studies of successful projects that have pushed the industry forward will be presented along with different models of funding and distribution.

New Wave Distribution with Katja Adomeit @ Nordic House Saturday Oct.5 10:30 - 12:00 Katja Adomeit is a German producer, based in Denmark and Germany.

She loves the creative and financial side of producing and is in a constant search of new ideas that matter and different processes during development and production, that allow for new and different results.

Katja is known for, just to name a few, Wolf and Sheep, The Orphanage, The Weight of Elephants, Pine Ridge, Loving Pia, Force Majeure, Team Hurricane and The Square and many more, and have worked in numerous countries including Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Germany, France, Russia, Ukraine and New Zealand.

She established and owns Adomeit Film in Denmark and in Germany, where she produces international fiction films, focusing on arthouse projects by young filmmakers from all over the world. For the future, Katja wants to combine arthouse with entertainment.

More information about the program will be announced soon.

Practical Information

A few words on Reykjavik...

Reykjavik is a relatively small city, and everything is within walking distance. Make sure to bring comfortable shoes as well as warm wind-and-rain-friendly clothes. The weather can be quite unpredictable, so please be prepared for sunshine, rain and lots of rainbows!

You can check the weather forecast here: (you can also check Northern lights forecast here) https://en.vedur.is/weather/forecasts/areas/ A big part of Icelandic culture revolves around outdoor swimming pools, which offer sauna, steam baths and hot tubs. For example, Sundhöllin swimming pool locates downtown and has been the venue for the swim-in cinema events for the past years for RIFF. Make sure not to forget your bathing suit or miss out these fun events!

Sundhöllin Barónsstígur 45a, 101 Reykjavík +354 411 5350

Transportation Transportation from the airport is not included in your Talent Lab fee. Three bus services connect Reykjavik and the airport, and are the best transport option. The bus takes approximately 45min.

You may book ahead or just hop on at the airport.

Airport Direct - www.reikjaviksightseeing.is/airport-direct (They provide 10% discount for Talent Lab participants with the code: RIFF2019) The Reykjavik city bus Stræto is another convenient way to travel within the city. You can purchase the bus ticket through the app, by cash on bus (note that Bus drivers do not carry any change), or at various vendors. more info: https://straeto.is/ There are also several 24-hour taxi companies in Reykjavik.

Hreyfill Tel: +354 588 5522 BSR Tel: +354 561 0000

Accreditation and Tickets The Talent Lab accreditation grants you access to any regular film screening.

With your Festival Pass you may reserve tickets online for up to 4 screenings in advance, 24 hours in advance.

Entrance to special events during the Talent Lab will be covered without reservation (excluded are screenings and Q&As) . If you are arriving before the start of the Lab and wish to make a reservation for a special event, please send us an e-mail with the respective information.

More information regarding tickets will be announced soon.

Meals Meals are not provided, but there is a kitchen in Loft Hostel (where Talent Lab Participants will be staying during the festival) and it is free to use. There are several supermarkets around the city, such as Bónus, Krónan, Nettó, Super 1, Krambúð and Haukaup.

Contact Information

Contact information Hilmar Oddsson

Talent Lab Artistic Director hilmaroddsson@gmail.com T: +354 898 0209

Carolina Salas

Industry coordinator and Talent Lab project manager talentlab@riff.is industry@riff.is T: +354 771 6781

Malwina Bieniawska Industry assistant industryassist@riff.is T: +354 623 0574

Sihan Yang

Festival Assistant Festivalassist1@riff.is T: +354 781 2128

Don’t forget to follow us for the latest #riff2019 news: Facebook https://www.facebook.com/rvkfilmfest/ Instagram @reykjavikfilmfestival

Look forward to meeting you soon!