Film and TV experts in Iceland have spoken about an increasingly desperate need for more funding for local storytellers, as part of a panel during the annual Stockfish Film Festival & Industry Days, a Reykjavik-based festival organised in collaboration with Iceland’s film guilds.
Anton Máni Svansson of Still Vivid, producer of films including Hlynur Pálmason’s Icelandic Oscar entry The Love That Remains, spoke on behalf of the association of local film producers and noted how disappointing it was that, due to current funding levels, even a three-time Cannes veteran like Pálmason wasn’t able to structure his bigger projects as Icelandic majority productions.
In late 2022, the Icelandic government raised the reimbursement scheme from 25% to 35% for certain qualifying projects, partly in response to HBO’s decision to shoot the entirety of True Detective: Night Country in Iceland. But the qualifying conditions of that boost are not typically helping local filmmakers – a minimum spend of ISK 350m ($2.1m) means a lot of smaller Icelandic productions aren’t eligible.
The local industry has been lobbying ever since to have this floor lowered for Icelandic film and TV projects. Other promises made in a 10-year film policy proposed for 2020-2030 haven’t been actioned or funded by a new coalition government comprised of three parties – the Social Democratic Alliance, the Reform Party and the People’s Party – which was elected in late 2024.
“Everyone in the Icelandic industry agrees that 35% was needed to stay competitive,” Svansson said. “It has been extremely valuable for building up the industry, the infrastructure, studios, etc. Every area of this business has grown, experience has multiplied and more people have worked on films all year round. But there has been an imbalance between the foreign projects and the local productions as the film fund was cut once again, and now things have seriously slowed down and we are at a risk of losing many people and projects from the Icelandic industry.”
The reimbursement scheme floor isn’t local producers’ main focus, however – they are increasingly calling for more direct funding of local projects through the Icelandic Film Fund, administered by the Icelandic Film Centre. Svansson said he would like to see the film fund’s annual budget raised from ISK 1.3bn ($10.4m) to about ISK 2.5bn ($20.1m) in order to keep up with salary and price rises.
A 10-year plan
The 10-year plan for the culture sector announced in autumn 2020 came under a different coalition government and set up 10 stated actions to support the film and TV industry to reach by 2030. But many of those ideas – including the establishment of a new TV fund – have not been funded by the new government.
Hrönn Sveinsdóttir, president of the Directors Association and managing director of the country’s arthouse cinema, Bio Paradis, agreed that uncertainty on government funding levels was the biggest problem.
“It seems like the film industry has become the victim of short-sightedness or opportunistic approaches to industries,” Sveinsdóttir said on the panel. “Creative industries are very often not understood by politicians, but they like to use it as a part of their image. We are an easy victim when people are either campaigning for a new office or coming into office and need to make budget cuts… We don’t have a film industry without funding.”
Sveinsdóttir urged Icelandic politicians to look at the example of Norway, where decades of support for local filmmakers helped pave the way for Sentimental Value’s recent Oscar win.
“There’s never been more opportunity for international filmmaking, and this is something we should be using to our advantage by investing in our own filmmaking, our own film culture,” she said. “Instead, we are just throwing away the investment that has taken place in the last 20 years.”
Screenwriter Sveinbjörn Baldvinsson represented the scriptwriters’ association. In addition to reduced funding, he’s also concerned by “a lack of vision for this industry. We have colleagues in Denmark and Norway who have been fortunate enough in both countries to have some visionary leaders.”
Jóhannes Tryggvasonn, an editor, director and cinematographer representing the Icelandic filmmakers’ association on the panel, said many of his peers were being forced to leave the industry due to the lack of a stable income.
“I see a brain drain; we are now losing a lot of talented people in this industry because it’s not a reliable source of income year in, year out. We’ve been building up this resource, these talented crews, for 20 years and now people are dropping out.”
As well as more government support, other ideas proposed by the industry panel included encouraging more local private investment and increasing the living wage.
Sources also said that streaming levy plans in Iceland have been discussed for years without being implemented, which has also not helped the situation.
Waiting for the government response
The government’s independent commission is currently in a consultation period with the film industry about what measures to take next, and what levels of financial commitment to put in place for film and TV.
Several sources told Screen they are worried about the commission, claiming that its appointed members don’t understand the intricacies of the film and TV industries, and noting the delay in publishing its findings.
Speaking on a separate panel at Stockfish, Gisli Snaer Erlingsson, director of the Icelandic Film Centre, said, “There’s a lot of frustration being expressed. We have to be aware that there is a dialogue between the authorities and the Ministry and the filmmakers’ movement. Of course, we all want things to come quicker to some kind of conclusion, but we are aware there will probably be some compromise. The world is in a state it hasn’t seen for a long time, and there are consequences to these things. If I could choose, obviously I would spend much more money on culture than war. But this is the reality.”
Erlingsson added that Iceland had much to be proud of: “It’s a bit disappointing to hear that the work that we are doing and the projects we are supporting are not considered any kind of a positive thing. Even though the money is little, it is still being channeled into projects, and we try our best to use that money as we are supposed to do, by a very competitive, selective process.”
Speaking to Screen after Stockfish wrapped, Leifer Dagfinnsson, CEO of Iceland’s leading production services company Truenorth, said he had spoken to the independent commission looking into the government’s film policy and had urged them to keep the raised rebate but remove the spending thresholds.
“It’s fundamental for the survival of the film industry in Iceland to have the 35%, whether it’s for international productions or local productions, and there should be just one rebate, no ceiling, no floor.”
Dagfinnsson noted that a 2024 Olsberg SPI report found that for every Icelandic krona spent, the incentive generated approximately 6.80 kronur in additional value in the country.
“If True Detective spends $100m in our system, that multiplier is nearly $700m in the economy, but then you only pay back the $35m [in the reimbursement scheme]. That’s a pretty good business.”
Upcoming highlights
There have been some bright spots recently in inward-investment Hollywood shoots, with Christopher Nolan shooting for 12 days in summer 2025 for The Odyssey, and Denis Villeneuve returning for Dune: Part Three, in addition to an ending scene for Netflix’s Stranger Things. Truenorth worked on all three shoots.
There are also bright spots in the local film scene, including global distribution of Pálmason’s The Love That Remains and Runar Runarsson’s When The Light Breaks; an award-winning festival run for Yrsa Rosa Fannberg’s documentary The Ground Beneath Our Feet; healthy local box office for psychological thriller Disturbed, directed by Bragi Thor Hinriksson and sold by LevelK; and Reykjavik’s arthouse cinema Bio Paradis recently landing on “best cinemas in the world” lists from Time Out and the Financial Times.
Rams writer/director Grimur Hákonarson and producer Grímar Jónsson plan a late May start of shoot for A Favour, a co-production between Iceland, Luxembourg, France and Denmark that has backing from Eurimages.
Pálmason is one year into a two-year shoot for his next feature, On Land And Sea, while two other Cannes alumni, Runar Runarsson (When The Light Breaks) and Valdimar Johansson (Lamb), are working on short-form projects.
On the TV front, notable forthcoming series include Truenorth’s Cold War-era-set Top Of The Rock; serial killer drama Hildur sold by Cineflix; eco thriller Volcano from ACT4, Drugi Plan and Upgrade; and Glassriver’s crime story Reykjavik Noir set up with streamer Siminn.
One rising star to watch out for is Katla Sólnes, who won Stockfish’s Eva Maria Daniels award for her short film Embla and is in development on her debut feature, Eruption. She’s already been a Sundance Screenwriting Fellow and is currently a Nicholl Fellow with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
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