Discussions with guests alongside the screenings.
Ingvar Þórðarson
Ingvar Thordarson is an Icelandic film producer and director with more than 50 feature films, television series, and documentaries to his credit. His productions have achieved both international acclaim and commercial success, earning numerous awards, including the Discovery Award at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and the Critics’ Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
Among his most notable co-productions are Unknown Soldier (2017), Tom of Finland (2017), The Grump (2014), Life in a Fishbowl (2014), which won 12 Icelandic Edda Awards, The Bothersome Man (2006), and 101 Reykjavík (2000). In his native Iceland, films produced by Thordarson have collectively sold more than 800,000 cinema tickets—an extraordinary achievement in a country of fewer than 400,000 people. His recent feature Odd Fish received nine Icelandic Edda Award nominations.
Thordarson works at the intersection of art, culture, and innovation. His creative practice extends beyond cinema into theatre, music, visual arts, and technology, reflecting a lifelong commitment to storytelling across disciplines. Throughout his career, he has collaborated with internationally renowned artists including David Bowie, Sting, Eddie Izzard, The Prodigy, and Pet Shop Boys, as well as acclaimed photographer Ragnar Axelsson (RAX), photographer Gavin Evans, and curator René Block.
A dedicated mentor and industry advocate, Thordarson has played a significant role in launching the careers of several of Iceland’s leading filmmakers, including Baltasar Kormákur, Óskar Jónasson, Robert Douglas, Gunnar B. Guðmundsson, and Baldvin Z. He has also served as a guest lecturer at the London Film School and the University of Exeter, sharing his experience with the next generation of producers and filmmakers.
His latest documentary, Amongst the Birds (2026), directed together with Mika Kaurismäki and Ragnar Axelsson (RAX), premiered internationally at CPH and was selected by audiences for a special repeat screening at the prestigious Midnight Sun Film Festival in Finland, where it was one of only three films invited back by popular vote.
Remote guests
Aina Vinokurova
Aina Vinokurova is a filmmaker and screenwriter from Yakutia (Siberia), currently based in Regina, Saskatchewan. She is of Sakha and Even heritage and is dedicated to creating documentary and narrative films that center Indigenous voices, cultural memory and resilience.
Born in a small village on the Lena River, she developed a deep connection to her cultural identity, which was further shaped by reconnecting with her Even ancestry in adulthood. Before moving into filmmaking, she worked for eight years as a journalist and became the first Sakha woman to appear on Russian federal television. Following experiences of cencorship and discrimination, she transitioned into documentary filmmaking in search of greater creative freedom and authenticity.
Aina graduated from InFocus Film School in Vancouver in 2024 and is the founder of Sulus Productions, a creative studio focused on community-based stroytelling. She is currently pursuing MA in Film Production at the University of Regina, with a focus on Indigenous storytelling and cross-cultural collaboration between Canada and Siberia.
Her work explores themes of identity, colonization and healing, using cinema as a space for self-discovery and for amplifying voices that are often unheard.
Sissel Stormo Holtan
Sissel Stormo Holtan is a South Sámi reindeer herder from Namdalseid in Central Norway. She has been running her family’s reindeer herding operation since taking over from her father in 2020. Together with her two fantastic colleagues in reindeer herding, Elise Holtan Pavall Årbogen and Lena Haugen – the “Ladybosses” – she herds reindeer in Nord-Fosen, on the Fosen Peninsula.
Sissel and her fellow reindeer herders were part of the struggle that led to the landmark Fosen case, in which the Norwegian Supreme Court ruled in 2021 that the wind farms on Fosen violated Sámi reindeer herders’ human rights. The case became an important symbol of the struggle to protect Sámi culture, traditional livelihoods and the right to continue reindeer herding.
Sissel lives in Namdalseid with her husband and their two children and is dedicated to carrying South Sámi traditions, knowledge and reindeer herding into the future.