Skip to Main Content

Hours & Login Menu

  • Hours
  • Login
    • Library Search Login
    • Interlibrary Loan
Dartmouth Libraries Dartmouth Libraries

Global dropdown menu

    • Borrow and Request
      • Who Can Borrow
      • What Can You Borrow
      • Loan Periods and Renewals
      • Borrow from Other Libraries
      • Request Materials
      • All Borrow and Request
    • Collections
      • Digital Collections
      • Media Collections
      • Oral Histories
      • Collections Care
      • All Collections
    • Course Reserves
      • Find Course Reserves
      • Create or Add Course Reserves
      • All Course Reserves
    • Off-Campus Access
    • Records Management
      • Retention and Disposition
      • Confidential Monthly Destruction
      • Electronic Records
      • Physical Records
      • Retention Schedules
      • All Records Management
    • Search and Browse
      • Library Search
      • Databases
      • Journals
      • Research Guides
      • Maps and Atlases
      • Newspapers
      • Dartmouth Digital Commons
      • Music Scores
      • BorrowDirect
      • Archives and Manuscripts
      • All Search and Browse
    • Design and Produce
      • Audio and Video
      • Book Arts
      • Design and Digital Art
      • Equipment and Hardware
      • Software
      • All Design and Produce
    • Data Services
      • Research Data Management
      • Data Analysis and Visualization
      • Data Repositories
      • Data Workshops
      • Datasets at Dartmouth
      • All Data Services
    • Digital Scholarship
    • Publishing and Copyright
      • Copyright
      • Open Access
      • Publisher Agreements
      • Publishing for Faculty
      • Publishing for Students
      • All Publishing and Copyright
    • Research Help
    • Teaching and Workshops
    • Print, Copy, Scan
    • Locations
      • Baker-Berry Library
      • Book Arts Workshop
      • Evans Map Room
      • Feldberg Business and Engineering Library
      • Health Sciences and Biomedical Libraries
      • Jones Media Center
      • Library Collections and Services Facility
      • Rauner Special Collections Library
      • Sherman Art Library
      • All Locations
    • Accessibility
    • Events
    • Exhibits
    • Hours
    • Study Spaces
    • About Dartmouth Libraries
      • Council on the Libraries
      • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
      • Friends of the Libraries
      • Library Departments
      • Strategic Framework
      • Staff Directory
      • All About Dartmouth Libraries
    • Employment
      • Staff and Professional Positions
      • Student Positions
      • Fellowships
      • All Employment
    • News and Highlights
    • Policies
    • Programs and Awards
      • Alumni Memorial Book Fund Program
      • MAD Research Video Contest
      • Staff Awards
      • All Programs and Awards
    • Contact Us
    • We're Here to Help
      • Students
      • Faculty
      • Alums
      • Staff
      • Visiting Researchers and Community
      • All We're Here to Help
    • Find a Specialist
      • Subject Librarians
      • Audio and Video Production
      • Preservation and Emergency Preparedness
      • Publishing and Copyright
      • Records Management
      • Research Data Services
      • Systematic Review
      • All Find a Specialist
    • Ask Us
  • Hours
    • Library Search Login
    • Interlibrary Loan

Global dropdown menu

    • Borrow and Request
      • Who Can Borrow
      • What Can You Borrow
      • Loan Periods and Renewals
      • Borrow from Other Libraries
      • Request Materials
    • Collections
      • Digital Collections
      • Media Collections
      • Oral Histories
      • Collections Care
    • Course Reserves
      • Find Course Reserves
      • Create or Add Course Reserves
    • Off-Campus Access
    • Records Management
      • Retention and Disposition
      • Confidential Monthly Destruction
      • Electronic Records
      • Physical Records
      • Retention Schedules
    • Search and Browse
      • Library Search
      • Databases
      • Journals
      • Research Guides
      • Maps and Atlases
      • Newspapers
      • Dartmouth Digital Commons
      • Music Scores
      • BorrowDirect
      • Archives and Manuscripts
    • Design and Produce
      • Audio and Video
      • Book Arts
      • Design and Digital Art
      • Equipment and Hardware
      • Software
    • Data Services
      • Research Data Management
      • Data Analysis and Visualization
      • Data Repositories
      • Data Workshops
      • Datasets at Dartmouth
    • Digital Scholarship
    • Publishing and Copyright
      • Copyright
      • Open Access
      • Publisher Agreements
      • Publishing for Faculty
      • Publishing for Students
    • Research Help
    • Teaching and Workshops
    • Print, Copy, Scan
    • Locations
      • Baker-Berry Library
      • Book Arts Workshop
      • Evans Map Room
      • Feldberg Business and Engineering Library
      • Health Sciences and Biomedical Libraries
      • Jones Media Center
      • Library Collections and Services Facility
      • Rauner Special Collections Library
      • Sherman Art Library
    • Accessibility
    • Events
    • Exhibits
    • Hours
    • Study Spaces
    • About Dartmouth Libraries
      • Council on the Libraries
      • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
      • Friends of the Libraries
      • Library Departments
      • Strategic Framework
      • Staff Directory
    • Employment
      • Staff and Professional Positions
      • Student Positions
      • Fellowships
    • News and Highlights
    • Policies
    • Programs and Awards
      • Alumni Memorial Book Fund Program
      • MAD Research Video Contest
      • Staff Awards
    • Contact Us
    • We're Here to Help
      • Students
      • Faculty
      • Alums
      • Staff
      • Visiting Researchers and Community
    • Find a Specialist
      • Subject Librarians
      • Audio and Video Production
      • Preservation and Emergency Preparedness
      • Publishing and Copyright
      • Records Management
      • Research Data Services
      • Systematic Review
    • Ask Us
  • Hours
    • Library Search Login
    • Interlibrary Loan
  1. Dartmouth Libraries
  2. Research Guides
  3. Dartmouth Libraries Guides
  4. Film Studies: National Cinemas
  5. Iceland

Film Studies: National Cinemas

This guide highlights selected resources for various national cinemas.
  • Introduction
  • Streaming services
  • Afghanistan
  • Africa (General)
    • Africa, Northern
    • Africa, French speaking
    • Africa, Sub-Saharan
  • Argentina
  • Australia
  • Austria
  • Benelux
  • Brazil
  • Cambodia
  • Canada
    • Quebec
  • Caribbean area
  • Chile
  • Chinese cinema
  • Colombia
  • Cuba
  • Czechia (Czech Republic)
  • France
  • Germany
  • Great Britain
    • Northern Ireland
    • Scotland
    • Wales
  • Greece
  • Hong Kong cinema
  • Hungary
  • India
  • Indigenous films
  • Irish cinema
  • Italy
  • Japan
  • Korea
  • Latin America
  • Mexico
  • Middle East
    • Egypt
    • Iran
    • Israel
    • Turkey
  • New Zealand
  • Nigeria
  • Nordic cinema
    • Denmark
    • Finland
    • Iceland
    • Norway
    • Sweden
  • Pakistan
  • Palestine
    • Films by Director
    • Documentaries
    • Films by Title
  • Poland
  • Portugal
  • Romania
  • Russia & the Soviet Union
  • Slovakia
  • South Africa
  • South America
  • Spain
  • Switzerland
  • Taiwan
  • Thailand
  • United States
    • Puerto Rico
  • Vietnam
  • Yugoslavia & Former Yugoslav Republics
  • Transnational & diasporic cinema
  • Journals & magazines about film

Introduction

The country’s earliest documented film screening took place in Reykjavik in 1903; and in 1906 the first purpose-built cinema was opened, inaugurating a continuing tradition of frequent and regular cinemagoing among Icelanders. Until relatively recently, local film production was confined in the main to shorts, newsreels and ‘topicals’, the first Icelandic sound film, Loftur Gudmundsson’s Milli fjalls og fjöru/Between Mountain and Shore, having been made as late as 1949. Until the 1970s, in fact, Icelandic feature film was essentially part of a larger body of Nordic cinema, with Icelandic directors undertaking their training, and then working, abroad: for example Gunmundur Kamban’s Borgslægtens Historie/The Story of the Borg Family (1920) and Det sovende Hus/Sleeping House (1926) were made in Denmark. Alternatively, Icelandic involvement in feature making tended to be part of cross-Nordic co-productions such as Den røde Kappe/The Red Mantle (Gabriel Axel, Iceland/Denmark/Sweden, 1967).  ...

Kuhn, A., & Westwell, G. (2020). Iceland, film in. In A Dictionary of Film Studies. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 31 May. 2021


In the library's collections/Searching the online catalog

  • motion pictures iceland
  • motion pictures iceland history
  • motion picture producers and directors iceland

Selected book title(s)

  • Cover ArtDagur Kari's Noi the Albino by Bjorn Nordfjord
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1997 .N5255 N67 2010
    ISBN: 9780295990095
    Dagur Kari's Noi the Albino (Noi albinoi, 2003) succeeded on the international festival circuit as a film that was both distinctively Icelandic and appealingly universal. Noi the Albino taps into perennial themes of escapism and existential angst, while its setting in the Westfjords of Iceland provided an almost surreal backdrop whose particularities of place are uniquely Icelandic. ...
  • Cover artWorld film locations. Reykjavík by Jez Conolly; Caroline Whelan, eds
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.67 .R49 W67 2012
    ISBN: 9781841506418
    Though the creative community of Reykjavík, Iceland, has earned a well-deserved reputation for its unique artistic output--most notably the popular music that has emerged from the city since the 1980s--Reykjavík's filmmakers have received less attention than they merit. World Film Locations: Reykjavík corrects this imbalance, shedding new light on the role of cinema in a country that, partly because of its small population, produces more films per capita than any other in the world.

Other library resource(s)

  • Resource logoIcelandic film from Oxford Bibliographies Online by Björn Norðfjörð
    • On Campus or VPN
    Call Number: Electronic resource
    ISBN: 9780199791286
    Icelandic cinema is comprised of both familiar features common to all national cinemas and unique ones that make it stand out among all the others. In fact, with its single distinct language, official state religion, government-sponsored cultural production (including cinema), “natural” island borders, and a mostly homogenous population, it comes close to capturing the essence of the concept of national cinema that is so rarely borne out by actuality. Conversely, what makes Icelandic cinema different from the “typical” national cinema is its extreme smallness—arguably the smallest one in all of world cinema. The year 1980 marks the most important turning point in the history of Icelandic cinema since it was then that the first films funded by the newly established Icelandic Film Fund were released in cinemas. ...
  • Resource logoScandinavian film from Oxford Bibliographies Online by Anders Marklund; Kimmo Laine
    • On Campus or VPN
    Call Number: Electronic resource
    ISBN: 9780199791286
    This bibliography covers the cinemas of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. These are usually called the Nordic countries, while Scandinavia is sometimes defined more narrowly, with reference to geography or linguistics. Here, however, Scandinavian and Nordic are used as synonyms. While the Nordic countries certainly share parts of their film histories with each other, there are also notable differences.

Selected movie title(s)

  • Cover Art101 Reykjavik by Baltasar Kormákur
    • DVD
    ISBN: 9780794203351
    A black comedy in which a young man's sexual impulses go haywire when he discovers that the woman he has just slept with happens to be his mother's lesbian lover. Set against Reykjavik's swinging nightlife, Hlynur soon finds that he can't continue resisting adulthood.
  • Motion picture artDraumalandið = Dreamland by Þorfinnur Guðnason; Andri Snær Magnason
    • Video
    • On Campus or VPN
    Call Number: Streaming video
    Dreamland tells the story of a nation with abundance of choices gradually becoming caught up in a plan to turn its wilderness and beautiful nature into a massive system of hydro - electric and geothermal power plants with dams and reservoirs, built to power the increasing heavy industry that will soon make Iceland the largest aluminum smelter in the world. How much unspoiled nature should we preserve and what do we sacrifice for clean, renewable energy? Dreamland gradually turns into a disturbing picture of corporate power taking over nature and small communities. It's the dark side of green energy.
  • Motion picture artNói albinói = Nói the Albino by Dagur Kári
    • DVD
    Call Number: Jones Media DVD #3621
    Seventeen-year-old Nói drifts throught life on a remote fjord in the north of Iceland. In winter, the fjord is cut off from the outside world. The fjord is surrounded by ominous mountains and covered under a shroud of snow. Nói dreams of escaping from his white-walled prison with Iris, a city girl who works in a local gas station. Unfortunately, his clumsy attempts at escape spiral out of control and end in complete failure. Only a natural disaster will offer him a better world.
  • Motion picture artRams by Grímur Hákonarson
    • DVD
    Call Number: Jones Media DVD #19899
    In a secluded valley in Iceland, Gummi and Kiddi live side by side, tending to their sheep. Their ancestral sheep-stock is considered one of the country's best and the two brothers are repeatedly awarded for their prized rams who carry an ancient lineage. Although they share the land and a way of life, Gummi and Kiddi have not spoken to each other in four decades. When a lethal disease suddenly infects Kiddi's sheep, the entire valley comes under threat.
  • Cover artÓrói = Jitters by Baldvin Zophoníasson
    • DVD
    Call Number: Jones Media DVD #14814
    ISBN: 9781934921623
    An unexpected first kiss causes Gabriel to feel the electrifying 'jitters' of love and lust with the free-spirited Marcus; a perfect way to end a summer studying abroad. Realizing he is gay, Gabriel returns home and is immediately scrutinized by his family and friends who notice he's different. But as the school year launches with Gabriel distracted with parties and his friends' own dramas, Marcus returns, reigniting the hot, thrilling emotions of one's first crush.

Internet resource(s)

  • Icelandic Film Centre
    • Link
    The Icelandic Film Centre is a publicly funded organization that provides funding for Icelandic films, promotes them abroad and nurtures the film culture in Iceland by supporting festivals, seminars, workshops and other networking opportunities for film professionals. ...

Keeping up with Film Studies journal literature

Want an easy way to keep up with the journal literature for all facets of Film Studies? And you use a mobile device? You can install the BrowZine app and create a custom Bookshelf of your favorite journal titles. Then you will get the Table of Contents (ToCs) of your favorite journals automatically delivered to you when they become available. Once you have the ToC's, you can download and read the articles you want from the journals for which we have subscriptions.

You can get the app from the App Store or Google Play.

Don't own or use a mobile device? You can still use BrowZine! It's also available in a web version. You can get to it here. The web version works the same way as the app version. Find the journals you like, create a custom Bookshelf, get ToCs and read the articles you want.

  • << Previous: Finland
  • Next: Norway >>
  • Last Updated: May 15, 2025 12:12 PM
  • URL: https://researchguides.dartmouth.edu/nationalcinemas
  • Print Page
Login to LibApps
Report a problem
Subjects: Film and Media Studies
Tags: afghanistan, africa, Arts, Australia, Austria, Benelux, Cambodia, Canada, Caribbean, China, Colombia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Czechia, Denmark, Egypt, film_studies, Finland, France, Francophone Africa, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indigenous films, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Netherlands, Nordic cinema, North Africa, Norway, Palestine, Poland, Puerto Rico, Slovakia, Sub-Saharan Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, Vietnam, world_cinema, Yugoslavia

Dartmouth Libraries

  • Baker-Berry Library
    • Book Arts Workshop
    • Evans Map Room
    • Jones Media Center
  • Health Sciences and Biomedical Libraries
  • Feldberg Business & Engineering Library
  • Rauner Special Collections Library
  • Records Management
  • Sherman Art Library

About Us

  • Staff Directory
  • Subject Librarians
  • Library Departments
  • Policies
  • Employment
  • Accessibility
  • Federal Depository Library

Contact Us

  • 25 North Main Street
    Hanover, NH, USA 03755
  • Phone: 603-646-2567
  • Contact Us

Give Us Feedback

Dartmouth Libraries

Footer copyright

  • Dartmouth College
  • Copyright © 2025 Trustees of Dartmouth College
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
Privacy Policy