After almost a year without funding for local films, a restructured Icelandic Film Centre has been put back into business by the new managing director Laufey Gudjonsdottir. The first projects should be getting backing from mid-June.

'We have just appointed the new film commissioners and the first projects arrived just before Cannes,' says Gudjonsdottir. 'We have been working hard to get the rules set, but these things take time. Among the undecided issues are what our funding policy on international co-productions will be.'

The new feature commissioners are Sveinbjorn I. Baldvinsson and acclaimed editor Valdis Oskarsdottir (Festen, Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind). They will have $1.8m to divide on the 5-6 films Iceland produces annually. The restructure came about because of Jan 1 legislation which split up the former Icelandic Film Fund into the Icelandic Film Centre and the National Film Archive.

Among the new projects expected to get funding from the new fund are Fridrik Thor Fridriksson's Niceland from Zik Zak Films, Okar Jonasson's The Silent Magician from The Icelandic Film Corporation and Robert Douglas' Eleven Men produced by Julius Kemp.

Icelandic films screening in Cannes include French-Icelandic Solveig Anspach's Stormy Weather and Dagur Kari's multiple-award winning Noi Albinoi.

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