Benedikt Erlingsson (born 31 May 1969) is an Icelandic

actor An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

and

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

and

film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...

. He graduated from the

Iceland Academy of the Arts Iceland University of the Arts ( ) is an Icelandic institution of higher art education, located in Reykjavík, which offers the only university-level degrees in the arts in Iceland.Lisa Z. ValdimarsdottirIceland Academy of the Arts, Department of ...

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; born 30 April 1956) is a Danish film director and screenwriter. Beginning in the late-1960s as a child actor working on Danish television series ''Secret Summer'', von Trier's career has spanned more than five decad ...

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, beginning at 5: ...

, 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 6 screening venues, including Ver ...

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 Steingrímur Hermannsson (pronounced ; 22 June 1928 – 1 February 2010) was an Icelandic politician who served as prime minister of Iceland from 1983 to 1987, and again from 1988 to 1991. He was the chairman for the Progressive Party from 197 ...

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 sh ...

References

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