Jar City (Mýrin), Baltasar Kormákur's local hit and winner of a Crystal Globe for Best feature in Karlovy Vary last July, has been sold by Trust Film Sales to Memento Film Distribution in France and IFC in the US. Multi-talented Kormákur in post on next film, directing theatre and set to act in new comedy film.
The deals were closed following the film's very successful screenings in Telluride, Colorado earlier this month and in Toronto where it was shown last week as part of the Contemporary World Cinema programme. According to Christof Wehmeier, Festival Manager for the Icelandic Film Centre, the Icelandic thriller received several standing ovations and has now been invited to 18 world festivals including the upcoming London Film Festival (October 17-November 1, 2007).
IFC Distribution in the US will release Jar City via its day-and-date label First Take. Previous Nordic films acquired by IFC include Susanne Bier's After the Wedding, Aki Kaurismäki's Lights in the Dusk and Lars von Trier's The Boss of it All.
Jar City was produced by Agnes Johansen, Lilja Pálmadóttir and Baltasar Kormákur for their production outfit Blueeyes Productions, along with German co-producers Oliver Huzly and Reinhard Kloos (Bavaria Pictures) and Danish executive producer Kim Magnusson (Nordisk Film). It is the biggest Icelandic movie of all time with over 80,000 viewers.
The extremely busy Kormákur has just wrapped another film, White Night Wedding, loosely based on Anton Chekhov's play Ivanov which the director will bring to the stage simultaneously at the National Theatre of Iceland. The €2m produced by Blueeyes was supported by the Icelandic Film Centre. Theatrical distribution through Sena is set for January 2008.
Kormakúr will then play the lead in Reykjavik Rotterdam for his partner Oskar Jónasson (Remote Control). ‘It will be a smuggler comedy about guys who make petty crimes", says Kormákur. The film will be produced by Agnes Johansen with Kormákur and Fridrik Thór Fridriksson acting as executive producers.