Örlygur Hnefill Örlygsson (born 23 October 1983), known professionally as Orly Orlyson, is an Icelandic filmmaker, entrepreneur, hotelier, founder of

The Exploration Museum The Exploration Museum ( ) is dedicated to the history of human exploration, from the early explorers to the exploration of space. The museum is located in the center of Húsavík in North Iceland, from the Arctic Circle. The museum was founded ...

and former President of the

Húsavík Húsavík () is a town in Norðurþing municipality on the northeast coast of Iceland on the shores of Skjálfandi bay with 2,485 inhabitants. The most famous landmark of the town is the wooden church Húsavíkurkirkja, built in 1907. Húsav� ...

town council. In 2018, Örlygur was selected by the

United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy of the United State ...

and the

German Marshall Fund The German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) is a non-partisan American public policy think tank that seeks to promote cooperation and understanding between North America and the European Union. Founded in 1972, through a gift from the W ...

to represent

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

in the YTILI program. That same year, he was awarded by JCI as one of Ten Outstanding Young Persons in Iceland for his various entrepreneurial projects, most notably for founding The Exploration Museum, and for co-founding the Leif Erikson Awards.

Political career

From 2007 to 2009, Örlygur served as the parliamentary assistant to Einar Már Sigurðarson,

member Member may refer to: * Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon * Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set * In object-oriented programming, a member of a class ** Field (computer science), entries in ...

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

for

Northeast Constituency Northeast () is one of the six multi-member constituencies of the Althing, the national legislature of Iceland. The constituency was established in 2003 following the re-organisation of constituencies across Iceland when the Northeastern const ...

. From 2011 to 2016 he served as chairman of the Húsavík Chamber of Commerce and Tourism. In May 2014, Örlygur was elected to the

town council A town council, city council or municipal council is a form of local government for small municipalities. Usage of the term varies under different jurisdictions. Republic of Ireland In 2002, 49 urban district councils and 26 town commissi ...

Norðurþing Norðurþing () is a municipality located in northern Iceland. Norðurþing was formed in 2006 when the municipalities of Húsavík, Öxarfjörður, Raufarhöfn, and Kelduneshreppur were merged after special elections in January 2006 and the regi ...

municipality in northern Iceland. He served as chair of the Norðurþing Harbor Committee from 2015 to 2016 and as chairman of the regional Recycling and Waste Management Cooperative from 2014 to 2016. He has served as President of the town council since 2017.

Work with astronauts

In 2015, Örlygur led an expedition with

Apollo Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...

astronauts

Walter Cunningham Ronnie Walter Cunningham (March 16, 1932 – January 3, 2023) was an American astronaut, fighter pilot, physicist, entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and author of the 1977 book ''The All-American Boys''. NASA's third civilian astronaut (after N ...

, Rusty Schweikart and

Harrison Schmitt Harrison Hagan "Jack" Schmitt (born July 3, 1935) is an American geologist, former NASA astronaut, university professor, former U.S. senator from New Mexico. He is the most recent living person—and only person without a background in military a ...

, as well as the family of

Neil Armstrong Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012) was an American astronaut and aerospace engineering, aeronautical engineer who, in 1969, became the Apollo 11#Lunar surface operations, first person to walk on the Moon. He was al ...

, to the new lava of Holuhraun, created by fissure eruptions in 2014 and 2015. He has led similar expeditions with Apollo astronauts

Bill Anders William Alison Anders (17 October 1933 – 7 June 2024) was an American United States Air Force (USAF) major general, electrical engineer, nuclear engineer, NASA astronaut, and businessman. In December 1968, he was a member of the crew of ...

and Charlie Duke to the areas near

Askja Askja () is an active volcano situated in a remote part of the central highlands of Iceland. The name Askja refers to a complex of nested calderas within the surrounding Dyngjufjöll mountains, which rise to , ''askja'' meaning ''box'' or ' ...

, a caldera situated in a remote part of the central highlands of Iceland where the astronauts were trained in geology in 1965 and 1967, before the Lunar missions. His work with the Apollo astronauts has been featured by the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...

and

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

. In 2015, he co-designed a monument with his father, commemorating the part of Iceland in the Apollo program. The monument contains the names of 32 Apollo astronauts that were sent to Iceland for training, and has two steel globes on top of two basalt columns, representing the

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

and the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

. The monument was unveiled on July 15, 2015, by the grandchildren of Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong. During a press conference at

in November 2015, Örlygur announced the museum's plan to build a full size replica of the

Apollo Lunar Module The Apollo Lunar Module (LM ), originally designated the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM), was the lunar lander spacecraft that was flown between lunar orbit and the Moon's surface during the United States' Apollo program. It was the first crewed sp ...

to unveil in 2019, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first crewed flight of a Lunar Module on

Apollo 9 Apollo 9 (March 3–13, 1969) was the third human spaceflight in NASA's Apollo program, which successfully tested systems and procedures critical to landing on the Moon. The three-man crew consisted of Commander James McDivitt, Command Modul ...

and the first landing of a Lunar Module on the Moon on

Apollo 11 Apollo 11 was a spaceflight conducted from July 16 to 24, 1969, by the United States and launched by NASA. It marked the first time that humans Moon landing, landed on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and Lunar Module pilot Buzz Aldrin l ...

. Örlygur wrote and co-directed the 2019 documentary '' Cosmic Birth'' with Icelandic filmmaker and musician Rafnar Orri. For the film, they interviewed 6 Apollo astronauts about their personal experience of going to the Moon, and Neil Armstrong's son Mark Armstrong about his father's Apollo 11 mission.

Húsavík at the 93rd Academy Awards

On February 9, 2021, The

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., with the stated goal of adva ...

announced the shortlists for the

93rd Academy Awards The 93rd Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored films released from January 1, 2020, to February 28, 2021, at Union Station in Los Angeles. The ceremony was held on April 25, 2021 ...

. Fifteen songs were announced for the Best Original Song category. Among the songs was '

' from the

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

film Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga. Örlygur put together a team from the real town of Húsavík and produced an independent Oscar campaign for the song called "An Óskar for Húsavík" that quickly went viral. The campaign consisted of a website and several videos with locals and actors from the film. On March 9, entertainment reporter

Lara Spencer Lara Christine Von Seelen (known professionally as Lara Spencer; born June 19, 1969) is an American television journalist. She is best known for her work on ABC's ''Good Morning America'', previously as co-anchor and currently as contributor. ...

called the campaign "One of the best Oscar Campaigns we have ever seen" during a segment about the campaign on

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'', often abbreviated as ''GMA'', is an American breakfast television, morning television program that is broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends wit ...

. The song secured a nomination, and the film's director David Dobkin credited the grassroots campaign as "the reason why the song went from underdog to a possible winner". Following the success of the Húsavík Oscar Campaign, Örlygur was asked by Netflix to produce the performance of the song 'Húsavík' for the

. He was joined by Icelandic production company

Truenorth A cognitive computer is a computer that hardwires artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms into an integrated circuit that closely reproduces the behavior of the human brain. It generally adopts a neuromorphic engineering approach. ...

and director

Eagle Egilsson Egill Örn "Eagle" Egilsson (; ; born 31 August 1966) is an Icelandic television director and cinematographer. Life and career Egill Örn Egilsson was born in Reykjavík on 31 August 1966 and studied filmmaking at Columbia College Hollywood i ...

. Singer

Molly Sandén Molly My Marianne Sandén (born 3 July 1992), also known by her middle name My Marianne, is a Swedish pop singer and voice actress. As a teenager, she represented Sweden in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2006, Junior Eurovision Song Contest ...

who provides the singing voice for

Rachel McAdams Rachel Anne McAdams (born November 17, 1978) is a Canadian actress. After graduating from York University in 2001 with a BFA in theatre, she worked in Canadian television and film productions, such as the drama film '' Perfect Pie'' (2002), ...

character Sigrit in the film, performed the song with a local girls choir and musicians at the Húsavík harbor. Húsavík lost to Fight For Your from the film

Judas and the Black Messiah Judas Iscariot (; ; died AD) was, according to Christianity's four canonical gospels, one of the original Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ. Judas betrayed Jesus to the Sanhedrin in the Garden of Gethsemane, in exchange for thirty pieces of s ...

. The performance by Molly Sandén was voted the best pre-show performance by the readers of

Gold Derby Penske Media Corporation (PMC ) is an American mass media, publishing, and information services company based in Los Angeles and New York City. It publishes more than 20 digital and print brands, including '' Variety'', ''Rolling Stone'', ''Wom ...

Family

Örlygur is the son of Icelandic politician Valgerður Gunnarsdóttir, and the grandson of author and folklorist

Jón Hnefill Aðalsteinsson Jón Hnefill Aðalsteinsson (29 March 1927 – 2 March 2010) was an Icelandic folklorist, philologist, and theologian. He was the first professor of folklore at the University of Iceland and published extensively, particularly on Old Norse reli ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Orlygur Hnefill Orlygsson Orlygsson, Orlygur Hnefill Húsavík Orlygsson, Orlygur Hnefill

Political career

Work with astronauts

Húsavík at the 93rd Academy Awards

Family

See also

References