Premiered at IFF Rotterdam in January 2019, Patrik Söderlund’s short film Realms (2018) continues its successful film festival life. Recently, it was awarded for the best cinematography (by Jussi Eerola) at Arctic Film Festival, held in the worlds northernmost film theatre in Arctic Svalbard.

Realms was also screened in the experimental section of the International Short Film Festival of Bueu (FICBUEU), held from September 6–14 in Spain. Shot partly in Iceland, Realms will be screened in the Icelandic Shorts Competition of the Reykjavik International Film Festival, held from September 26 to October 6. Realms was also selected for the international short film competition of the Black Canvas Contemporary Film Festival, held in Mexico from October 1–8.

Realms is a short film about geological epochs, kingdoms of life and mass extinctions, Realms voyages through deep time from the primeval ocean to the post-human future.

Writer and director Patrik Söderlund is the founding member of artist duo IC-98. Realms is his first film. With backgrounds in visual arts and cultural studies, Söderlund’s and Visa Suonpää’s 20- year collaboration as IC-98 has produced artist publications, site and context specific projects and interventions, animated moving image installations and various public commissions. IC-98 received the Finnish State Art Prize in 2009 and represented Finland at the Venice Biennale in 2015 with Abendland (Hours, Years, Aeons), which was picked by Sundance Film Festival in 2016. Their work has been shown extensively at museums, biennials and festivals in Europe, Asia and the Americas. Though their practice is essentially conceptual, ic-98 is best known for animations, which combine classical drawing and digital effects, depicting landscapes shaped by long time durations, natural and human histories and climate. The landscapes are always devoid of humans but completely shaped by their actions.