'Kanarí', by Columbia Filmmakers, Shortlisted for Shortfish Award at Stockfish Film Festival

Kanarí, a short film co-written & directed by alumnus Erlendur Sveinsson '18, co-written by current student Connor Simpson, co-produced by alumnus Daniel Raiffe '18, and edited by current student Brúsi Ólason, was shortlisted for the Shortfish award at the Stockfish Film Festival in Iceland.

Kanarí follows a couple, Vala and Benni, as they make their way out of Reykjavik, hoping for a simpler life in the countryside. Along the drive, they struggle to find common ground about what their future holds. Their journey comes to a violent stop when they get into a head on collision with another vehicle. The Volvo spins off the road and tumbles to a stop, upside down at the bottom of a hill. Vala wakes up in the wrecked vehicle with pounding pressure in her head only to find out that she is stuck in her seatbelt and Benni is nowhere to be seen. Now she must find a way out of the wreckage and come to grips with what has happened.

Kanarí was screened at the Columbia film festival in May, 2018 and received Faculty Honors, the Audience Award and the Richard Brick Award for special destination in line producing. Kanarí had its world premiere at the Foyle film festival, an Academy Award and BAFTA qualifying festival in Northern Ireland. In Europe it was selected at the 31st Minimalen short film festival in Norway, Festival Du Cinemá Européen in Lille, and the Landshuter Kurzfilmtage in Switzerland, and Mecal short film festival in Barcelona. In the United States it will show at the Aspen Shortsfest and the Speechless film festival in Minnesota.

Erlendur Sveinsson is an Icelandic director & screenwriter with a passion for exploring the human condition in extreme circumstances. He received the Fulbright scholarship to attend Columbia University. He is currently gearing up to shoot his first feature film, Seven Balconies, an ensemble piece with intertwined stories set in the suburbs of Reykjavik. Erlendur is a member of the creative studio, NORÐUR.

Connor Simpson is a director, writer, and editor based in Los Angeles. He was born and raised in the South. In 2018, Simpson was an Emerging Filmmakers Production Grant winner, chosen as a Filmmaker-to-Watch at the 2018 Atlanta Film Festival, and received an IFP Audience Award for Kanarí. He previously was a Miloš Forman Directing Fellowship winner, a Holle Award for Excellence in Filmmaking grant winner, and an alum of the Transatlantic Talent Lab in Reykjavik, Iceland.

Daniel Raiffe is a producer with nearly a decade of experience in film and television, focusing on work that dives to the heart of characters in both documentary and narrative alike. Raiffe co-produced the critically acclaimed documentary Sexy Baby, which premiered at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival and screened at Hot Docs, IDFA before it was broadcast on Showtime and Netflix. More recently, Raiffe associate produced the highly publicized Hot Girls Wanted, which premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film festival and currently streams exclusively on Netflix. He is currently finishing up post-production on his first scripted feature Progress and Unrelated Things.

Stockfish Film Festival was founded in 2015, as a reincarnation of the Reykjavík Film Festival, which was established in 1978. The festival aims to create a platform in Reykjavík to encourage collaboration between domestic and international film communities and gives the general audience an opportunity to see some of the most up-and-coming art-house films in the world.