04/02/2014 - Ragnar Bragason’s third feature and Benedikt Erlingsson’s first considered in 16 and 14 categories for the national film prize

While it was screening in both Rotterdam’s and Göteborg’s international film festivals, Icelandic director Ragnar Bragason’s Metalhead [+see also:
trailer
film profile] was nominated for 16 Edda Awards – Iceland’s national film prize – which will be announced at a Channel 2 televised ceremony in Reykjavik’s Harpa Music Hall on February 22.

Starring Thorbjörg Helga Thorgilsdóttir, and produced by Árni Filippusson and David Óskar Ólafsson for Mystery Ísland, Bragason’s own story is set at a rural farm, where Hera’s brother is killed in an accident. Blaming herself for his death, she finds solace in the dark music of heavy metal, dreaming of becoming a rock star.

The Icelandic Film & TV Academy only had two candidates for Best Film, Metalhead and Icelandic director Benedikt Erlingsson’s feature debut, Of Horses and Men [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Benedikt Erlingsson
film profile], a country romance about the human streak in the horse and that of the horse in the human, which has already won seven prizes on the international festival circuit.

Icelandic director Marteinn Thorisson’s third feature, XL [+see also:
film review
interview: Marteinn Thorsson and Ólafu…
film profile], which was launched internationally at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, received 11 Edda nominations; starring Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, it follows a politician – an ex-family man and a heavy-drinking womaniser – who is forced into rehab after a public scandal.