Icelandic screenwriter and director Runar Runarsson recently won the Dragon Award for The Best Nordic Film at the 48th Goteburg Film Festival for his feature, When The Light Breaks. Having a recent wide release on May 15, 2024; When The Light Breaks opened the 2024 Cannes Film Festival for the Un Certain Regard section.

When The Light Breaks follows a young woman named Una grieving her first love throughout summer in a coming-of-age fashion. The film was shot completely on 16mm film and currently has a 96% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The film was produced by Iceland’s Compass Films and has a co-production between Iceland, France, The Netherlands, and Croatia.

Runarsson has also previously received acclaim for his films, Volcano, Sparrows, and Echo. Sparrows formerly won the Silver Hugo for the best new director at the Chicago International Film Festival in 2015. Currently, When The Light Breaks has a scheduled release in France on February 19, 2025, while it already had a release in Iceland in August of 2024.

As the nominees for Best International Feature have already been released for the 2025 Academy Awards, When The Light Breaks is not one of the contenders as the Icelandic Feature being nominated for the Best International Feature Oscar is Touch.