Rúnar Rúnarsson‘s drama premiered at last year‘s San Sebastian.

Sparrows

Members of Iceland’s Film and TV Academy have selected Rúnar Rúnarsson‘s Sparrows as its candidate for the 2017 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

The drama, about a 16-year-old boy whose big city lifestyle is disrupted when he is sent to live with his father in a small fishing village, premiered at San Sebastian Film Festival in 2015, winning the event‘s main prize, the Golden Shell.

The Iceland-Denmark-Croatia co-production was also nominated for 12 Edda Awards, Iceland‘s primary film awards.

Director Rúnarsson was previously Oscar-nominated in 2008 for his short film The Last Farm. His feature debut Volcano played at Cannes Film Festival‘s Directors‘ Fortnight in 2011.

Last year, Iceland submitted Grímur Hákonarson’s Rams to the Oscars, though the film did not receive a nomination.

Iceland has previously had one Oscar-nominated film in the Best Foreign Language category, Fridrik Thor Fridriksson‘s Children Of Nature in 1992.