The Stockfish Film & Industry Festival wrapped in Reykjavík on Sunday, after ten days of screenings, meetings with honorary guests – such as music-video whizz Floria Sigismondi – and industry initiatives. Now, its managing director, Dögg Mósesdóttir, talks about the future and explains why Stockfish isn’t exactly “normal”.

Cineuropa: You have just given out this year’s prizes for short films [see the news]. Will you ever consider awarding features as well?
Dögg Mósesdóttir: I don’t know what our festival board is thinking, but I would say the idea is to nurture grassroots filmmaking in Iceland and not make it too much about the awards or more established directors. We want to make it more about the people who really need it, you know?

Or the “trailblazers”, as you said during the ceremony, praising Floria Sigismondi and Dóra Einars. Is it something you want to bring to this festival? A bit of rock and roll?
I guess I’m continuing what I was doing with my short-film festival before, which was also very punk rock. What has always bothered me about the Icelandic film industry is that, sometimes, I feel like we haven’t really found our voice – we are always following other Nordic countries. I’m such a big fan of David Lynch and Floria’s work, and I really want to spotlight surrealist films and magical realism.

I used to travel in South America; I studied in Spain. Then I came back and realised that everyone was doing social realism, but that’s not who we are as a country. We have a lot of myths, fairy tales and magical creatures. I find it so much more fascinating. We’re living at the edge of the world, with a lot of darkness, which gives us space for imagination. I guess I’m just very egocentrically trying to bring that into focus. This eccentricity is what makes us unique. I’m fascinated by people who work across arts, who are at the edge of cinema. Cinematic language is so young – it’s open to creativity. I want this festival to be open to dialogue with other disciplines: painting, theatre, music…

That helps me understand why you decided to organise a master class about Lynch and surrealism. Or have a section called Physical Cinema [short films classified as visual art, installations, performances or sound art].
This Physical Cinema section was there before me, but this year, I wanted to invite the directors. They’re just as important as the directors who make bigger films. Claire Langan from Ireland has been working in Iceland for decades, and nobody knows about her. We need to lift these smaller formats up.

Despite all this playfulness, you still have the industry part. Why is it important to provide something for local filmmakers?
Cinema is a language, and it’s all about communication. It’s so important for us to talk to each other. During the panel about the state of the Icelandic film industry, for example, all of the heads of associations came together and agreed on something – for the first time in history! Afterwards, they told me it actually felt historic and that now they will start meeting on a regular basis. We must be united in times of crisis and budgetary cuts.

Were you looking for something specific when selecting the works in progress? There were quite a few creative documentaries, and even one VR project.
I know what “normal” festivals do. They don’t select shorts, and look for big, high-profile projects because they make them look good. I was wondering: do I want to look good, or am I going to take the projects that really need help, this extra push and exposure? That’s what Stockfish should be about. Documentaries are so badly funded. They need all the help they can get. I think these kinds of showcases should be about the filmmakers – not about the festival.

Your audience seems very young, and you use social media in a playful way. Are you trying to speak their language? Some events struggle with that.
I’m interested in finding new ways of getting to people, like TikTok. There’s an audience there and so many ways of promoting things. Some people of my generation are trying to get away from all of that, but I want to embrace it and use it as a tool.

We had a great team this year: they were so creative and came up with this sketch about an unhappy festival guest, for example. No one is above criticism – during the pandemic, I was also wondering what festivals are really for. I kind of got sick of them. It’s great to create an environment where people feel free to do stuff. We put a special emphasis on PR and social media, and we had a good outreach this year. We are so proud of that. You need to shake things up to make sure people notice you. I think they did because they were so positive towards this event. We got a yacht for free – we got a statue of David Lynch. This year, something really fell into place. Let’s see what comes up next: maybe we’ll have a permanent mascot for the festival? It’s good to always be on the edge of reinventing ourselves.