--- name: "Baltasar Kormákur" canonical: "https://film.one/person/baltasar-kormakur" roles: ["Director"] born: "27 February 1966" reviewed_on_fi1m: 1 average_as: "director" average_over: 1 updated: "2026-09-17T14:17:30.356899+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Baltasar Kormákur Director. Born 27 February 1966 in Reykjavik, Iceland. ## Details - **Work:** Director - **Born:** 27 February 1966, Reykjavik, Iceland - **Also known as:** Balthasar Kormakur, Бальтасар Кормакур, Baltasar Kormákur Baltasarsson - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltasar_Korm%C3%A1kur, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q167522, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0466349/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/67813 ## Streaming the US now - **Netflix:** [*Trapped*](https://film.one/tv/trapped-2015.md) (81) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Baltasar Kormákur > An Icelandic director who trusts weather more than plot. At home, in *Trapped*, a blizzard does the frightening and it works; in Hollywood the same instincts have been spent on thrillers that did not need them. Early in *Trapped* (2015) the picture goes almost entirely white. The only sound is wind, a figure walks out into it, and nothing follows. We sat forward without meaning to, and nothing the murderer did in the nine episodes that followed got the same response from us. That is Baltasar Kormákur's habit: put a person in front of weather and let the weather act. He has done it with a blizzard in a fjord, with the sea in *The Deep* (2012) and a mountain in *Everest* (2015), and the reason it works is that he does not push it. The snow keeps going sideways past the window while two people talk quietly inside. He came to directing from acting, most of the 1990s in Icelandic theatre, and it shows in how little his casts perform. *101 Reykjavik* (2000), which he wrote, produced and starred in as well as directed, got him noticed abroad. *Jar City* (2006), from an Arnaldur Indriðason novel, was a considerable success at home, and *The Deep* took a real survival story and told it plainly. Then Hollywood: *Contraband* (2012), *2 Guns* (2013), *Everest*. He went back to Iceland for television with *Trapped*, which he created, and *Katla* (2021), and to smaller drama with *Touch* (2024), adapted from an Icelandic novel. He produces as well, through RVK Studios, so the Icelandic work carries his name in more than one place. The Icelandic work is the work. Ólafur Darri Ólafsson is the reason to watch *Trapped*; Kormákur has now cast him three times and we can see why. Jóhann Jóhannsson's score keeps to low strings and a drone and stays out of the storms entirely, which is the right decision and not an obvious one. The weakness is the same one each time: plot. Writing with Sigurjón Kjartansson and Clive Bradley, Kormákur hands nearly everyone in the town a secret, and by the middle of the season they arrive roughly one an hour and pull Andri away from the body in the water. Five directors share the season, and the look holds where the pacing does not. The American films are the caveat. *2 Guns* was received as a competent thriller with nothing much under it, and we have no quarrel with that reading; a director whose best instinct is to stand still and let the cold do the work is not the obvious man for a buddy action film. *Everest* is the exception that makes sense, a mountain full of people who cannot get down, which is *Trapped* with altitude. Start with *Trapped*, and give it four episodes before the secrets start arriving on schedule. When they do, watch the windows. The weather keeps its end of the bargain. ## Biography Baltasar Kormákur is an Icelandic actor, film director, producer and screenwriter. Born in Reykjavík in 1966, he trained at the Iceland University of the Arts. He began his career in theatre, performing and directing at the National Theatre of Iceland before transitioning to film. He wrote, directed, produced and starred in his feature debut *101 Reykjavík* (2000). Subsequent directing credits include *The Sea* (2002), *Jar City* (2006), which won the Crystal Globe at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, *The Deep* (2012), *Contraband* (2012), *2 Guns* (2013) and *Everest* (2015). He created, directed and wrote episodes of the television series *Trapped* (2015). He founded the production companies Blueeyes Productions and RVK Studios. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (1) - *Trapped* (2015), Fi1m 81, Creator, Director, Writer — [page](https://film.one/tv/trapped-2015.md) ## Complete filmography (49) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Apex* (2026), Director, Producer - *King & Conqueror* (2025), series, Director, Executive Producer - *Touch* (2024), Director, Screenplay, Producer - *Beast* (2022), Director, Producer - *Against the Ice* (2022), Producer - *Katla* (2021), series, Creator, Director - *Adrift* (2018), Director, Producer - *Vultures* (2018), Producer - *Áramótaskaup: 2016* (2016), Producer - *The Oath* (2016), Finnur, Director, Writer, Producer - *Trapped* (2015), series, Director, Writer, Creator — Fi1m 81, [page](https://film.one/tv/trapped-2015.md) - *Everest* (2015), Director, Producer - *Virgin Mountain* (2015), Producer - *Áramótaskaup: 2013* (2013), Acting - *2 Guns* (2013), Director - *The Deep* (2012), Director, Screenplay, Producer - *Contraband* (2012), Director, Producer - *Summerland* (2010), Producer - *Inhale* (2010), Director - *Reykjavik-Rotterdam* (2008), as Kristófer, Producer - *White Night Wedding* (2008), Director, Screenplay, Producer - *Jar City* (2006), Director, Screenplay, Producer - *Simply - A True Story* (2006), Director - *A Little Trip to Heaven* (2005), Director, Screenplay, Producer, Original Story - *Stormy Weather* (2003), as Einar, Producer - *Investigation Into the Invisible World* (2002), Acting - *The Sea* (2002), Director, Writer, Producer - *No Such Thing* (2002), as Dr. Artaud - *Me and Morrison* (2001), as Askildsen - *Regína* (2001), as Ívar - *101 Reykjavik* (2000), Þröstur, Director, Screenplay - *Angels of the Universe* (2000), as Óli - *The Split* (1999), as Friðrik - *Pop in Reykjavik* (1998), Producer - *Go LazyTown* (1996), Director, Writers' Assistant - *Devil's Island* (1996), as Baddi - *Dream Hunters* (1996), as Gunnar - *Draumur um draum* (1996), Acting - *Agnes* (1995), as Natan - *A Fairy Tale of Our Time* (1992), Acting - *Wallpaper: An Erotic Love Story* (1992), Acting - *Broken Glass* (1988), Acting - *On the Job*, Director, Writer - *Jar City*, Producer - *I Am Victor*, Director, Producer - *Six Clean Kills*, Director, Producer - *Dark Ocean*, as Hákon - *The Big Fix*, Director, Producer - *Cascade*, Director ## Gallery - ![Baltasar Kormákur at 42nd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival](https://film.one/media/person/882410/gallery-27648a35fba6.jpg) Baltasar Kormákur at 42nd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival — che (Please credit as "Petr Novák, Wikipedia" in case you use this outside Wikimedia projects.), CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7c/Baltasar_Kormakur.jpg/1280px-Baltasar_Kormakur.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Baltasar Kormákur](https://film.one/media/person/882410/gallery-d53a6d71b209.jpg) Baltasar Kormákur — Harald Krichel, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/be/Baltasar_Korm%C3%A1kur-68717.jpg/1280px-Baltasar_Korm%C3%A1kur-68717.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Film producer Baltasar Kormákur at the 72nd Berlin International Film Festival (2022)](https://film.one/media/person/882410/gallery-a83a40665a9b.jpg) Film producer Baltasar Kormákur at the 72nd Berlin International Film Festival (2022) — Harald Krichel, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/18/Baltasar_Korm%C3%A1kur-68728.jpg/1280px-Baltasar_Korm%C3%A1kur-68728.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Film producer Baltasar Kormákur at the 72nd Berlin International Film Festival (2022)](https://film.one/media/person/882410/gallery-c712a022db08.jpg) Film producer Baltasar Kormákur at the 72nd Berlin International Film Festival (2022) — Harald Krichel, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/01/Baltasar_Korm%C3%A1kur-68829.jpg/1280px-Baltasar_Korm%C3%A1kur-68829.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Baltasar Kormákur](https://film.one/media/person/882410/gallery-622839b2420b.jpg) Baltasar Kormákur — Image via TMDB - ![Baltasar Kormákur](https://film.one/media/person/882410/gallery-0e7bf68f7e51.jpg) Baltasar Kormákur — Image via TMDB - ![Baltasar Kormákur at 42nd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.](https://film.one/media/person/882410/gallery-29fbdeecb320.jpg) Baltasar Kormákur at 42nd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. — che (Please credit as "Petr Novák, Wikipedia" in case you use this outside Wikimedia projects.), CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/23/Baltasar_Korm%C3%A1kur.JPG/1280px-Baltasar_Korm%C3%A1kur.JPG?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) ## Awards ### Other awards — 2 won, 2 nominated - European Film Award – People's Choice Award for Best European Film 2013: European Film Award – People's Choice Award for Best European Film (nominated), for *The Deep* - Edda Award for Best Director 2006: Edda Award for Best Director (won), for *Jar City* - Edda Award for Best Director 2002: Edda Award for Best Director (won), for *The Sea* - European Film Award for European Discovery of the Year 2000: European Film Award for European Discovery of the Year (nominated), for *101 Reykjavík* *From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.* --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/baltasar-kormakur