Lukas Moodysson, Laurent Cantet and James Gray to receive honorary awards; focus on Greece and environmental docs

This Is Sanlitun

The Reykjavik International Film Festival is to open on Sept 25 with This Is Sanlitun by the Icelandic-Irish director Robert Douglas and will end Oct 6 with the Nordic premiere of Palme d’Or winner Blue Is The Warmest Colour.

RIFF will honour three filmmakers with an award for creative excellence. They are the Swedish filmmaker Lukas Moodysson, US director James Gray and France’s Laurent Cantet.

RIFF’s main award, the Golden Puffin, will be awarded to a film in the category New Visions, which screens debut and sophomore films of up and coming filmmakers.

The 12 films are:

  • Bethlehem, Yuval Adler 
  • Coldwater,Vincent Grashaw 
  • Free Fall, Stephan Lacant
  • La Jaula De Oro, Diego Quemada-Diaz
  • Les Apaches, Thierry de Peretti 
  • The Lunchbox, Ritesh Batra 
  • Miss Violence, Alexandros Avranas 
  • One Shot, Robert Orhel
  • Salvation Army, Abdellah Taïa 
  • Spaghetti Story, Ciro De Caro 
  • The Geographer Who Drank His Globe Away, Alexander Veledinsky 
  • White Shadow, Noaz Deshe

The Open Seas category contains exciting works by both established and new directors and includes:

  • A Touch Of Sin, Jia Zhangke 
  • Blue Is The Warmest Colour, Abdellatif Kechiche 
  • Bright Days Ahead, Marion Vernoux 
  • Celestial Wives Of The Meadow Mari, Aleksey Fedorchenko 
  • Gerontophilia, Bruce Labruce 
  • Only Lovers Left Alive, Jim Jarmusch
  • Sex, Drugs And Taxation, Christoffer Boe 
  • Still Life, Uberto Pasolini 
  • The Hour Of The Lynx, Sören Kragh-Jacobsen
  • The Missing Picture, Rithy Panh 
  • Tom At The Farm, Xavier Dolan 
  • When Evening Falls On Bucharest Or Metabolism, Corneliu Porumboiu 

RIFF will have a focus on Greece this year, screening five new films from the country.

Another focus RIFF this year is documentaries about environmental issues, competing in the Different Tomorrow category. Films include Greedy Lying Bastards and Pandora’s Promise.

For more information about RIFF’s film program visit: http://en.riff.is/Films2013

For information about juries and categories visit: http://en.riff.is/juries

For information about RIFF’s panels and discussion program visit: http://en.riff.is/content/specialevents

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