Bermuda-born actor Matt Goodwin is making a name for himself in Norway, starring in his first feature film.

Mr Goodwin’s first film, Grendel, premiered this weekend and has already been accepted into the Ramaskrik Film Festival, the largest festival in Scandinavia.

“The festival is in October in Oppdal which is a small ski resort in Norway and the festival specialises in the horror genre,” he told The Royal Gazette.

“They had a press screening of the movie last week and all of the reviews were very good. It has been really well received and the whole community seem to have got behind it.”

Mr Goodwin was born in Bermuda and attended Gilbert Institute while his mother, Christine, worked as a florist at House of Flowers in Hamilton.

His father, Mark, is an engineer who worked in St George’s.

“I remember being an extra in the film Bermuda Grace when they shot that on the Island, which I thought was very cool,” Mr Goodwin said.

“They actually used my grandparents’ house for one of the locations.”

He and his parents moved to Spain in 1996, but he later went to Los Angeles to study acting, and then on to London to pursue work in the field.

“I did a few commercials in London, and a few short films before landing the role in this feature film in Norway,” he said. “I really enjoyed putting all my training into practice for this film, it was nice to have such a big role to work on.”

Mr Goodwin described Grendel as a horror comedy in which a group of friends travel to an island in a beautiful fjord to film a horror movie. However, with the cast and crew beginning to disappear, the survivors are left trying to work out who or what is targeting them. “It is a jumpy horror film, but it’s kind of a spoof movie with a ‘mockumentary’ approach to some of the shooting,” he said.

“We filmed during last summer in the northern Trondheim region — during that time of the year it never goes dark, which was handy because it meant we could film at any time of the day.

“It was a lot of fun and a great experience.

“I met some great people over there, so going back last weekend for the premiere was a blast. There were around 150 who bought tickets to the premiere screening and the reaction from everyone was awesome.”

Mr Goodwin said the film’s producers are looking into getting the film distributed, but in the meantime he has continued to audition and try his hand at writing.

“I’ve written a screenplay for a movie, and a script for a sitcom which I am very proud of,” he said.