Interviews

Interview: Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson – Beautiful Beings

Published on April 25, 2023

In anticipation of the upcoming 95th Academy Awards, I conversed with Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson, whose sophomore film Beautiful Beings is Iceland’s official submission in consideration for the Best International Feature Category. The director shares thoughts on origins, inspirations, casting and his rehearsal process working with first time child actors. Having premiered his latest work at the Venice Film Festival’s Orizzonti program, Guðmundsson muses on his interests in mining the sometimes tragic and often devastating reality of preadolescence in a world of preoccupied and detached adults. Here is our conversation:

Nicholas Bell

Los Angeles based Nicholas Bell is IONCINEMA.com's Chief Film Critic and covers film festivals such as Sundance, Berlin, Cannes and TIFF. He is part of the critic groups on Rotten Tomatoes, The Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA), the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) and GALECA. His top 3 for 2021: France (Bruno Dumont), Passing (Rebecca Hall) and Nightmare Alley (Guillermo Del Toro). He was a jury member at the 2019 Cleveland International Film Festival.