Evolution Mallorca to celebrate Cinematography and women in leadership for 2023 edition

Cinematography and women in leadership will be celebrated at the 12th edition of the Evolution Mallorca International Film Festival (EMIFF), which consolidates its position as a key regional event in Spain with international appeal.

Under the festival’s industry events umbrella The Producers Club, the Cinematography Focus is bolstered by support from film industry equipment giant ARRI and local production services outfit Palma Pictures. They join returning backers British Cinematographer and Camera & Light magazines.

Securing ARRI is a coup for EMIFF. “It is a stamp of approval from a big international company for our festival, and signals we’re doing the right thing,” says festival founder and director Sandra Lipski.

EMIFF is welcoming cinematographers who have had a long career to host a series of inspirational and educational events. There will be a screening of David Fincher’s Net­flix feature The Killer, starring Michael Fassbender and Tilda Swinton, fresh from its world premiere last month at Venice Film Festival. One of the guests will be the film’s cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt, who will be on hand to participate in a post-screening Q&A.

Messerschmidt, whose credits include Fincher’s Mank, will receive the festival’s Cinematography Icon Award during EMIFF’s opening night and host a masterclass. Last year’s inaugural Icon Award went to twice Oscar-nominated cinematographer Ed Lachman.

The festival — which is is supported by the Fundació Mallorca Turisme — opens on October 18 with Isabel Coixet’s Un Amor, starring Laia Costa who last year won the festival’s Evolution New Talent Award. Coixet will receive the festival’s Evolution Vision Award and will attend with her cinematographer Bet Rourich. Coixet and Rourich will participate in a panel discussion, and discuss their working dynamic — Coixet famously enjoys being the camera operator on her own films.

Danish filmmaker Lone Scherfig returns to Mallorca with The Movie Teller, which closes the festival on October 24, fresh from taking last year’s Evolution Icon Award. “Lone shot The Movie Teller in Spanish. It works perfectly for us and we’re thrilled to have it,” says Lipski.

Wide selection

This year’s line-up boasts around 130 titles in total, marking EMIFF’s biggest edition yet. The international competition includes The Promised Land, directed by Nikolaj Arcel and starring Mads Mikkelsen. Producer Louise Vesth, whose credits include Nymphomaniac and Melancholia, will be on hand to support the film, which is Denmark’s Oscar submission in the best international feature film category.

German filmmaker Wim Wenders — who picked up EMIFF’s Honorary Award for filmmaking in 2018 — will bring Japan’s Oscar entry Perfect Days. Set in Tokyo, it follows a Japanese toiler cleaner going about his business as a series of unexpected encounters gradually reveal more of his past.

Dutch filmmaker Emma Westenberg’s debut feature You Sing Loud, I Sing Louder, starring Ewan McGregor alongside his daughter Clara (also the film’s co-writer and producer), is also scheduled.

Lipski is particularly enthused about the selection of Nicol Paone’s directorial debut The Kill Room, starring Uma Thurman and Samuel L Jackson. “It’s not the usual genre that we would go for but to have Samuel Jackson and Uma Thurman back together in a movie, which hasn’t happened since the Tarantino days, is amazing,” she says. Paone will be at the festival to explain how her debut film came together.

The international competition also includes The Pod Generation, a drama set in the near future by UK filmmaker Sophie Barthes that debuted at Sundance Film Festival earlier this year.

A key element of the festival will be the second annual Women and Leadership panel, moderated by Anna Smith and Hedda Archbold, the hosts of UK podcast Girls On Film. They will be joined by Paone, alongside Nicole Weis, head of distribution at IFC Films; German/Turkish producer Nurhan Sekerci-Porst, whose credits include Fatih Akin’s In The Fade; and Irish actress and producer Rosie Fellner, who executive produced 1962 Halloween Massacre and produced upcoming movie The Uninvited with Pedro Pascal.

Lipski is also looking forward to the Green Film panel. “We have to give more attention to shooting green,” she says. “Producers from Mallorca are really pushing for that. We are on an island and our resources are limited, and we have to bring everything here.”