The 15th edition of the Evolution Mallorca International Film Festival (EMIFF) features an inaugural debut film competition designed to platform emerging international filmmakers.
Festival founder and director Sandra Lipski says the strand encapsulates the essence of EMIFF.
“These filmmakers are brave and telling stories in a very independent way,” she says. “We are excited to open with Club Kid by Jordan Firstman. His story of being an influencer on Instagram, and then a struggling actor, to finally just saying, ‘I’m going to make this movie,’ and putting everything he can into it. That’s a story I want to support.”
Club Kid opens the festival today (October 28), and closes with María Martínez Bayona’s debut feature The End Of It on November 4.
Additionally, Russell Goldman’s psychological thriller Sender is screening as part of the debut programme. The film premiered at SXSW earlier this year and stars Jamie Lee Curtis, who also serves as a producer through her company Comet Pictures. Goldman will be in EMIFF to talk about casting Curtis in his debut feature.
“It’s interesting how people like Curtis, with a standing like hers, take a chance on a new voice like Russell and his very particular, unusual script,” observes Lipski. “She says, ‘I’m going to support this young filmmaker, and even appear in his film.’ Sometimes you see big names being executives on projects but for her also having a role in it, that’s brave and I want to be on that train with them to support them.”
EMIFF’s debut film competition is rounded out Tyler-Marie Evans’ dark teen drama Pretty Babies, which debuted at this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival, Stefanos Tsivopoulos’s drama Elena’s Shift starring Maria Dragus, and Sebastian Husak’s drama Bubbles.
Industry programme
The festival’s signature cinematography focus is led by this year’s EMIFF cinematography icon winner Matthew Libatique, known for his work with Darren Aronofsky on films including Requiem For A Dream, The Fountain and Black Swan, and Bradley Cooper’s directorial debut A Star Is Born.
The industry programme returns bigger than ever and features an annual pitching event for local filmmakers to visiting international industry executives. There is also a script lab competition in which 30 screenplays vie for the best feature film script and best short film script.
The programme will feature panels and talks presented in collaboration with British Cinematographer and Camera & Light Magazine, including a hands-on lighting workshop, an exclusive talk with Libatique and a panel discussion entitled The Female Gaze in Cinematography.
This year’s cinematography focus is backed by Lola VFX, which has worked on films including Barbie and Michael, and Mallorcan production services outfit Palma Pictures.
According to Lipski, this year’s cinematographer focus has been developed to include more hands-on workshop elements following feedback from last year’s attendees.
“We’ve created the Evolution Cef Stage, which is in collaboration with the local film school here, Cef Film School,” she says. “We will have a lighting workshop and a virtual cinematography workshop. We will also have a virtual stage to see how cinematography is going to develop in that form.”
Further festival highlights include an AI creativity panel titled Humancentric. The discussion will explore what happens when eight artists are given the same script, access to AI filmmaking tools and complete creative freedom. Humancentric is an original project by the creative production company MikeTeevee. It has delivered eight different short films, all based on one scene written by Oscar-nominated screenwriter Efthimis Filippou (The Lobster).
“These shorts are not about making a movie and having an AI person look as human as possible. It is about creating art that you could not have done without AI,” says Lipski.
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