Baltasar Kormákur

Baltasar Kormákur is currently one of the most important film directors to come out of Scandanavia.

His debut film, 101 Reykjavík (2000), became an instant international hit and is still actively in circulation. It won the Discovery Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, and, subsequently, Variety selected him as one of the “10 Directors to watch,” along with Alejandro González Iñárritu, Lukas Moodysson, Christopher Nolan and other newcomers at the time. The film was sold to more than 60 countries, including the U.S., the U.K., Canada, France and many others, and it became a festival darling, winning numerous awards.

Since then, Kormákur has mainly worked as a film director/producer through his company, Blueeyes Productions, even though he has also established himself as an important director of stage plays. His background as an actor (he graduated from the Iceland Academy of the Arts in 1990) and director at the National Theatre of Iceland has left him with a soft spot for the theater. Kormámkur occasionally takes on a stage production, always with fantastic results.

His second film, The Sea, came out in 2002 and was a box-office hit with some 60,000 admissions sold domestically. This project was a daring move for Kormákur as a director, and its theme was very different from his successful debut. His other film credits as a director include A Little Trip to Heaven, starring Forest Whitaker, Julia Stiles and Jeremy Renner; Jar City; Brúðguminn; and Inhale.

All of Kormákur’s films have been very successful domestically. Jar City received record-breaking admissions at the box office, and all of his films have been sold abroad and received numerous awards.

Universal Pictures