Distribution of European films in Iceland 2023

ended

This project is about the distribution, both online and digitally, of European non-national films in Iceland, one of Europe's most isolated countries. Historically, Hollywood films have ruled the film market in Iceland, providing around 90- 95% of all film releases in Iceland. The distribution of films from Europe would be practically non existent if it were not for Heimili kvikmyndanna - Bíó Paradís, a non-profit organization owned and operated by filmmakers in Iceland, which is founded to enhance and support film culture and film education in Iceland. To meet it's objectives, Heimili kvikmyndanna runs Bíó Paradís, the country's only art house cinema and distribution. We distribute around 10 - 12 European films every year, providing the Icelandic public with access to the most notable and awarded films from Europe every year. If these films were commercially viable, they would be distributed by the commercial distributors in Iceland. Therefore the support of the MEDIA program is crucial to our distribution and to ensure that European film is seen and remains a part of the culture in Iceland. In the years that Bíó Paradís has been operating, the number of films from Europe released in Iceland has more than quadrupled. The activities will consist of marketing and distributing 10 - 12 European films per year for the general public in Iceland. The persons benefitting from that, are possibly Icelanders as a whole, but we are 370.000 total on the island. The expected results are to sell anywhere from 5.000 to 20.000 tickets, depending on how many films we have and how large the titles become that come out from the big festivals. In the latter part of 2022, we have returned to our pre-pandemic numbers which should be around 15.000 people seeing our films in the next 24 months.