Benedikt Erlingsson (born 31 May 1969) is an Icelandic

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), lit ...

and

theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

and

film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, ...

. He graduated from the Iceland Academy of the Arts in 1994 and has been with the National Theater of Iceland for most of his career. He has directed two feature-length films, both of which have won the Nordic Council Film Prize.

Film and television career

Benedikt was a part of the locally renowned'''' sketch comedy television show '' Fóstbræður.'' He played the interpreter in

Lars von Trier Lars von Trier ('' né'' Trier; 30 April 1956) is a Danish filmmaker, actor, and lyricist. Having garnered a reputation as a highly ambitious, polarizing filmmaker, he has been the subject of several controversies: Cannes, in addition to nomina ...

s 2006 film '' The Boss of It All'', about an owner of an IT company that wishes to sell it after having pretended for years that the real boss lives abroad and communicates with the staff only by e-mail. Benedikt's first feature-length film as director was '' Of Horses and Men'' in 2013. The film was selected as the Icelandic entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the

86th Academy Awards The 86th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best 2013 in film, films of 2013 and took place on March 2, 2014, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, Hollywood, Los ...

, but it was not nominated. The film won the 2014 Nordic Council Film Prize. It also won the audience award at the 2014

Tromsø International Film Festival The Tromsø International Film Festival (TIFF) is an annual film festival held during the third week of January in Tromsø, Norway. The inaugural Tromsø International Film Festival was held in 1991. TIFF has 5 screening venues, including one ...

in Norway. His second film, '' Woman at War'', an eco-terrorism drama, premiered in 2018. It too was selected as the Icelandic entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards for its release year, but it was likewise not nominated. In 2021, Benedikt appeared as Steingrímur Hermannsson in the Icelandic television drama miniseries Blackport.

Theater career

Benedikt has directed four plays for the National Theater, including '' Iceland's Bell'' by

Halldór Laxness Halldór Kiljan Laxness (; born Halldór Guðjónsson; 23 April 1902 – 8 February 1998) was an Icelandic writer and winner of the 1955 Nobel Prize in Literature. He wrote novels, poetry, newspaper articles, essays, plays, travelogues and ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Erlingsson, Benedikt 1969 births Living people Benedikt Erlingsson Benedikt Erlingsson Benedikt Erlingsson Benedikt Erlingsson Benedikt Erlingsson