The Evolution Mallorca festival will celebrate its 14th edition with more than 130 films from thirty countries.

PalmThe Evolution Mallorca International Film Festival (EMIFF) will celebrate its fourteenth edition from October 21st to 29th, with a program of 130 films from more than thirty countries. The director and founder of the festival, Sandra Lipski, presented this Tuesday a new edition that will bring together more than one hundred international filmmakers, with premieres, tributes to leading figures in the industry and an extensive professional program.

According to the organizers, eight of the titles are national premieres and 47 are part of the section Made in the Balearic Islands, with which the festival reaffirms its commitment to local talent. This section aims to highlight the creativity of island filmmakers and consolidate Mallorca as a benchmark for audiovisual production. "The festival aims to offer Balearic creators the opportunity to showcase their work to an international audience," the organizers emphasized.

Recognitions and Awards

The festival pays tribute to several figures from the world of cinema. Among them is actor, director, and screenwriter Steve Buscemi, who will receive the Evolution Icon Award for a career marked by his versatility and iconic roles in titles such as Reservoir Dogs, Fargo, The Big Lebowski and the series Boardwalk Empire, for which he won a Golden Globe.

Oscar-nominated cinematographer Phedon Papamichael will be recognized with the Cinematography Icon Award for his "exceptional sensitivity to light and composition." His visual signature is evident in films such as Nebraska, Ford v Ferrari, The Trial of the Chicago 7 and Walk the Line.

Filmmaker Julio Medem will receive the Evolution Vision Award for his "unique and poetic" style. The organization recalls that Medem "revolutionized Spanish cinema in the 1990s and 2000s" with films such asCattle,Lovers of the Arctic Circle andLucia and sex.

Actress Ingrid García-Jonsson will be honored with the 2025 Evolution New Talent Award for her emerging and promising career. Known forBeautiful youth, presented at Cannes, has also participated inAna by dayand in the musicalExplode explodeHe currently stars in the Netflix seriesSuperstar.

Programming and sections

This year's Official Feature Film Section includes nine titles, five of them directed by women. The opening ceremony will be led by Alauda Ruiz de Azúa withSundays, recently awarded the Golden Shell in San Sebastián. It will also be screened Father Mother Sister Brotherby Jim Jarmusch, awarded the Golden Lion at Venice.

The festival will host the national premiere ofPsychotherapy, presented by Steve Buscemi himself, with two screenings on October 22nd, and which will close the festival on the 29th at Palma's Teatro Principal. Other notable titles include Three Goodbyes,by Isabel Coixet; Private life, by Rebecca Zlotowski;Alpha,by Julia Ducournau, and The Time We Lost. The Life of Wishes,by Neele Leana Vollmar.

The Debut Feature Films section will bring together four international debut films, with names such as Alex Burunova, Ernesto Rowe, Evan Matthews, and Greg Vrostos. Among the screenings Spotlight, this year you will be able to attend a discussion with Phedon Papamichael, director of photography ofIn Complete UnknownThe documentary will also be released exclusively in Spain.Twiggy, followed by a discussion with the protagonist and director Sadie Frost.

The EMIFF will also make a brief foray into fantasy cinema withTogether,by Michael Shanks, starring Alison Brie and James Franco, and will screen Before the Flood within the collaboration with the Conscious Cinema cycle of the Mallorca Preservation Foundation.

In the documentary section, new releases stand out such as 21,000 words (a little red riding hood and two balls), by Maxi Campo; Horizon Pencilby Domènec Boronat; A house, by Constanza Amengual, andNavis Romana,by Pere Salom, about the discovery of the Les Fontanelles ship, in collaboration with the "la Caixa" Foundation.

In addition, 38 short films from 16 countries will be screened, divided between the New Talent Shorts, International Student Shorts, Made in the Balearic Islands Student Shorts, and Experimental Shorts sections.

Professional conferences and spaces

The professional days will offer a combination of inspiration, training and spacesnetworkingfor emerging and established creators. Highlights will include conversations with Steve Buscemi and Ingrid García-Jonsson, as well as the new Innovation Focus section, dedicated to artificial intelligence in film, in collaboration with Largo.AI.

For the fifth consecutive year, the festival will host the roundtable Women in Leadership, moderated by the podcast Girls on Film, which will give a voice to women in leadership positions in the international audiovisual industry.

There will also be sessions on financing first-time independent films, the influence of AI on acting and screenwriting, and strategies for promoting short films in international awards.

The screenings will take place at various venues in Palma and the Part Forana, such as the Palacio de Congresos, CineCiudad, Teatro Principal, Rívoli, CaixaFórum, Rialto Living, Puerto Adriano, Es Baluard, Gerhardt Braun Gallery, and Estudi General Lul·lià.

The Evolution Mallorca International Film Festival offers different ticket and accreditation options, both for the general public and for industry professionals. Tickets can now be purchased through the festival's official website.