Icelandic Film Wins At San Sebastián Film Festival

Rúnar Rúnarsson’s film Sparrows (Þrestir) has won the Golden Shell award for Best Film at the San Sebastián International Film Festival.

Sparrows had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, and is Rúnar’s second feature-length film. His first, Volcano (Eldfjall), premiered in the Director’s Fortnight section of the Cannes Film Festival in 2011.

According to a statement to the press, Sparrows concerns “16-year-old Ari, who has been living with his mother in Reykjavík, is suddenly sent back to his hometown in the remote West Fjords to live with his father. His relationship with his father has become difficult, and his childhood friends have changed. In these seemingly hopeless surroundings, Ari must step up and find his way.”

Winning the Golden Shell could spell big things for the writer-director. In 2013 Benedikt Erlingsson’s Of Horses and Men (Hross í oss) won the Kutxa-New Directors Award, and has since gone on to greater fame.