Now in its 7th Year, Evolution! Mallorca International Film Festival, will be kick starting on Thursday 25th October, running for 7 days until the 31st October. Founded by actress and filmmaker Sandra Seeling Lipski, the festival aims to bring cultures and people together via international film to shape a creative community for independent filmmakers to network, be inspired and thrive on this beautiful Mediterranean island.
With competitive screenings unfolding at the most striking island locations, EMIFF is an ideal place for indie filmmakers to rub elbows with industry professionals; while winning prizes worth up to 15,000 Euros in 13 different categories. EMIFF winners have gone on to receive notable awards at international festivals including; Slamdance, Berlinale, Rotterdam as well as Academy Award nominations. The festival is a great chance to bring talent and cinephiles together to celebrate all things film related.
Sandra Seeling Lipski has become a prominent new international voice in the global film festival world with her festival. With her unique background, raised in both Germany and Mallorca, and now based in the U.S. in Los Angeles, Sandra is both knowledgable in film and passionate about the industry. EMIFF is designed to be a destination festival with an aim to bridge cultures and border to create an international dialogue through cinema.
As Sandra explained during our conversation, ”Mallocra is rich in culture and makes the perfect location for a film festival.” Her drive is to create a community, with outsiders and local connecting over their love and application of film. The festival has grown in the last couple of years, and attendance continues to grow every year.
This year’s festival is bigger than ever, Sandra informed Filmotomy that, ”This year’s program celebrates 102 projects from 23 countries including 12 feature films, 6 Feature Documentaries and 54 short content projects including international short films, Documentary shorts, Experimental films, Music Videos, Films for Kids and a Virtual Reality lounge. There’s really something, for everyone. The beauty of the films for kids is that children from Mallorca and other countries can come together and bond over films.” The films for kids event is appropriate for every age, and even the films with dialogue are visually easy to understand.
Starting on 25th October, the festival’s opening gala headline will see honorary awards being given to some of the biggest names in the industry. The Evolution Honorary award will be present to the wonderfully talented Marisa Paredes, Almodóvar’s muse. In addition to the Goya de Honor 2018, Marisa Paredes has received many other recognitions from the Union of Actors, the Actors’ Union, Silver Frame, Ondas, and even the ACE (New York) award. The Evolution Vision award will be awarded to the excellent Mads Mikkelsen, star of Hannibal and the fantastic The Hunt.
EMIFF have decided to award him for continuing to be an actor who inspires audiences, breaks boundaries and bridges cultures. Tobias Lindholm the writer of The Hunt which Mads Mikkelsen stared in will also receive the Evolutionary award this year. Lindholm is a Danish screenwriter and film director whose 2015 film A War was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards. This year’s Evolution Icon award will be awarded to Melissa Leo, the Oscar-winning actress who stared in The Fighter. EMIFF have stated that they have chosen to present her with the award for ”her trailblazing achievement as an actress and her unshakable independent spirit in today’s international Film Industry.”
There will also be a panel being held on 28th October entitled “Communication and Marketing for Independent Filmmakers Today” which will feature a great panel made up of Tivi Magnusson, (Academy Award-winning Producer and founder of M&M Productions), Hus Miller (Journalist for MovieMakerMagazine and has worked for Twentieth Century Fox and Skywalker Ranch), Anna Smith, Journalist, film critic & President of the UK Critics’ Circle), and Nick James (editor in chief of Sight & Sound).
As Sandra explained, this panel will be useful for independent filmmakers who are looking to successfully market their film and their projects. There will be another panel that will follow afterwards, entitled “International Co-Producing, three different perspectives”. This panel will be made up of Lucinda Syson, (the Casting Director for Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity, Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and Inception, and Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049), Dan Sefton, (Creator and Producer of various TV Shows including the upcoming The Mallorca Files), and Tore Schmidt, Producer of Academy Award-winning Film The Danish Girl (2015)).
The festival’s programme will feature films such as Funny Story (dir. Michael Gallagher), Away You Go (dir. Phillip Eichholtz), and Arctic ( dir. Joe Penna). Sandra among with two other programmers, has carefully chosen the features, documentaries and short films, all of them sharing the shame similar theme of bringing cultures together and exploring the world. EMIFF will be a chance for viewers to ”listen to each other’s individual stories and dreams to realize, that at the end of the day, no matter where we are from, we are all not that different from each other.” So, make sure to join the Evolution today, grab your favourite cocktail, soak up the sun and enjoy some great films.
To find out more regarding the festival and to book tickets to the screenings and events, please check out their website: http://www.evolutionfilmfestival.com/professionals
You can also follow them on Twitter for all the latest updates: https://twitter.com/EVOLUTIONIFF
