Valérie Leroy wins first Sólveig Anspach Award

The French Film Festival in Iceland has awarded the first ever Sólveig Anspach Award, which is given to the best short film by a female director from Iceland or a French-speaking country. The French actress and first-time director Valérie Leroy won the award for her short film Home Swim Home. Fifty-three short films from Iceland, France, Canada, Haiti and Burkina Faso enrolled in the competition.

The Sólveig Anspach Award honors the memory of the writer and director Sólveig Anspach, who passed away at only 54 years of age in 2015. The organizers of the French Film Festival decided to sponsor the award in an effort to encourage women to direct more films.

Sólveig Anspach was one of Iceland's most prolific filmmakers over the last two decades, directing a total of 14 narrative features and documentaries. Her final film, the French/Icelandic coproduction The Together Project, had its world premiere in the Director's Fortnight section of the Cannes Film Festival and won the SACD Award, which is given to the best film made in the French language.