Lamb

Lamb is the first feature by the Icelandic director Valdimar Jóhannsson, who grew up around his grandparents' sheep farm, worked in visual effects on Rogue One and studied filmmaking under Béla Tarr, who served as an executive producer alongside the film's star, Noomi Rapace. Jóhannsson wrote the screenplay with Sjón, the poet and novelist best known for his work with Björk, who brought a long interest in Icelandic folklore to the project. An Iceland–Sweden–Poland co-production, it premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes in July 2021 and won the section's Prize of Originality.

María and Ingvar farm sheep alone in a mountain valley, their marriage held together by routine and an unspoken grief. During lambing season something is born in the barn that they choose to raise as their own child, and the farmhouse fills with a tentative, unsettling happiness. Rapace, who learned Icelandic as a child living in the country, plays María with a tight, wary warmth, opposite Hilmir Snær Guðnason as Ingvar and Björn Hlynur Haraldsson as his drifting brother Pétur. Eli Arenson's cinematography makes the pale summer light and the looming slopes feel watchful, and the film's central creation, built from puppetry, real animals and digital work, is presented with complete deadpan seriousness.

A24 released it in North America, where it had the best opening weekend ever recorded for an Icelandic film in the United States. It won Best Film and Best Actress at Sitges, the Nordic Council Film Prize and twelve Edda Awards, and as Iceland's Oscar submission it reached the shortlist for Best International Feature.