DEVIL'S ISLAND

He was born in Iceland, in 1954. Almost totally self-educated in cinematography, he started making 16mm films while still in high school. He ran the University's film club, founded Iceland's first film magazine and helped set up the Reykjavik Film Festival, which he chairs at present. Fridriksson directed non-conventional documentaries, such as Rock in Reykjavik ('82) and Icelandic Cowboys ('84), before his first feature, White Whales ('87). He then directed several films for Icelandic television before making Children of Nature ('91), which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1992, apart from receiving no less than twenty-three other international prizes. Movie Days ('94) followed up on the success of Children of Nature with a wider cinema release abroad. It was awarded the «Nordic Amanda» prize as the best Scandinavian film of 1994. Cold Fever ('95), his most international production, has earned a world-wide distribution and been enthusiastically received by critics and audiences alike. Fridriksson's Icelandic Film Company has been involved in almost every Icelandic film made in recent years, as well as co-producing several international productions.