Distribution of European films in Iceland

2026-07-22

"The objective of this project is to help with the distribution of European films in Iceland. In Iceland, more than 95% of all films screened in the cinema and distributed commercially are from Hollywood. 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. The activities will consist of marketing and distributing 10 - 12 European films for the general public in Iceland. The persons benefitting from that, are possibly Icelanders as a whole, but we are 350.000 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. We had a ""good"" year last year despite covid with one film producing over 10.000 in admissions, which is unheard of, but other titles suffered from the pandemic. We hope to revive our turnout to pre-pandemic numbers which should be around 15.000 people seeing our films in the next 24 months."

Iceland

2025-12-15