– At the documentary festival, Amongst the Birds has clinched the Audience Award while Plomb Culture took home the Award for Best Short
Return directors Titti Johnson and Helgi Felixson with their daughter, Tara Sól Helgadóttir (© Patrik Ontkovic)
Skjaldborg – the Icelandic Documentary Film Festival celebrated its 19th edition at the namesake Skjaldborgarbío (Skjaldborg Cinema) from 22-25 May in the fishing village of Patreksfjörður, located in Iceland’s Westfjords. The festival came to a close by announcing the winners of this year’s event after several days’ worth of screenings, talks, panels and community activities.
The programme also featured three filmmakers as guests of honour: Arina Kleist, Maria Tórgarð and Johannes Vang, from Greenland, the Faroe Islands and the Sápmi region, respectively. Before the formal ceremony, the festival also gave out an Award for Best Audience Member, which is presented to someone who has shown dedicated engagement and attendance at screenings and events.
The prize jury consisted of Hrafnhildur Gunnarsdóttir (Icelandic filmmaker), Kati Juurus (Finnish documentarian and former artistic director of DocPoint Helsinki) and Þóra Sigríður Ingólfsdóttir (director of the National Film Archive of Iceland). Before announcing the awards, Gunnarsdóttir made a comment on behalf of the jury by stating that, in today’s world, documentary is under threat – and that “we must continue fighting for our community”.
Return by Helgi Felixson and Titti Johnson was named as the winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Best Feature Documentary (a trophy also known by the Icelandic name Ljóskastarrin). The duo’s film follows Mike Årsjö, an artist adopted from Chile and raised in remote Papua New Guinea. While living his adult life in Sweden, he confronts the complex divide between his two worlds by returning to the place where he grew up. The jury called the film a “layered journey weaving together complex social and emotional issues that create a tapestry of identity, love, home and the quest for belonging”, which takes into account issues of “environmental change, and religious and capitalistic intrusion”.
The Jury Award for Best Short Documentary (Skjaldan) went to Plomb Culture by Línette, which uses the form of a vintage sex-ed film to interrogate the issue of mass tourism in Iceland. Depicting cruise ships entering fjords as a penetrative act, the film “challenges the documentary form by expanding the boundaries of observational filmmaking” via a “tongue-in-cheek fictional narrative”, as the jury stated.
Finally, Skjaldborg’s Audience Award (Einarinn) went to Amongst the Birds by Mika Kaurismäki, Ragnar Axelsson and Ingvar Þórðarson, which originally premiered in CPH:DOX’s NORDIC:DOX competition earlier this year. This warm, light-hearted documentary follows an Icelandic couple who have been taking care of a colony of eiders – a type of sea duck – in eastern Iceland’s remote Loðmundarfjörður. The group, along with their friends and family, set up thousands of nesting sites for the birds, year after year, while protecting them from predators.
Here is the full list of winners:
Ljóskastarrin – Grand Jury Prize for Best Feature Documentary
Return – Helgi Felixson, Titti Johnson (Iceland)
Skjaldan – Jury Award for Best Short Documentary
Plomb Culture – Línette (Iceland)
Einarinn – Audience Award
Amongst the Birds – Mika Kaurismäki, Ragnar Axelsson, Ingvar Þórðarson (Iceland)
