Evolution Mallorca to honour Lone Scherfig and Laia Costa

International film festival Evolution Mallorca International Film Festival (EMIFF) has announced that filmmaker Lone Scherfig and actress Laia Costa will receive its 2022 Evolution Vision and Evolutionary New Talent Awards respectively. The 11^th edition of the festival, which will be held 26 October – 1 November on the Spanish island of Mallorca, will also boast for the first time a Cinematography Focus as part of the seven-day programme.

Celebrated Danish director and writer Lone Scherfig will receive EMIFF’s Evolution Vision Award this year. Scherfig made her international breakthrough in 2000 with the film Italian for Beginners, which won several awards, including the Jury Grand Prix Silver Bear award at the Berlin International Film Festival. Her best-known works include One Day, starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess, and the Oscar-nominated and BAFTA-winning 2009 film An Education, starring Carey Mulligan, for which Scherfig was nominated for both a BAFTA and a British Independent Film Award for Best Director. Her next film will be The Movie Teller, starring Daniel Brühl and Bérénice Bejo.

Spanish actress Laia Costa first came to international attention with the critically acclaimed film Victoria, which was almost entirely improvised by the actors and shot in a single take. She won the Lola German Film Award for her role and was nominated for a European Film Award for Best European Actress. The role also garnered her a nomination for the prestigious BAFTA EE Rising Star Award and she was included in The New York Times’s 2015 list of “Best Breakthrough Performances of the Fall Season.” Since then, her star has continued to rise and Costa’s projects have appeared at the Sundance Film Festival (Newness and Piercing), the Tribeca Film Festival (Duck Butter and Maine) and the London Film Festival (Only You). On television, she starred in the first co-produced Italian-English language series, Devils, with Patrick Dempsey, and Polseres Vermelles, the International Emmy Award winner for Best Kids TV Series. She premiered Lullaby earlier this year at both the Berlinale and the Malaga Film Festival, where it won the Golden Biznaga for Best Spanish Film, the Silver Biznaga for Best Screenplay, and the Silver Biznaga for Best Female Performance for Costa.

As part of the festival’s Cinematography Focus, a new sidebar programme for 2022, directors of photography from across the world will be invited to participate in panels and networking events at EMIFF, which will also serve to help educate the community of DPs in Mallorca and Europe. In addition, a special DP honouree will be announced soon. EMIFF will welcome two new media partners for 2022 specifically to support this brand-new strand of the festival: British Cinematographer and Camera & Light Magazine.

British Cinematographer is Europe’s leading magazine dedicated to the art and craft of international cinematography, full of expert insight, behind-the-scenes features and industry news. Camera & Light Magazine is Spain’s leading cinematography magazine, unique in the Spanish language, and it includes the richest and most visually interesting Spanish and foreign productions.

“I could not be more pleased with our first two honourees for the 2022 edition of the festival,” said EMIFF’s founder and director Sandra Lipski. “Laia personifies our mission of bridging cultures and bridging people through her impressive film and television credits – and her developing body of work continues to be a thrill to watch.

“Lone could not be a better representation of the spirit of the EMIFF VISION Award. Not only is her approach to storytelling unique and universally engaging, but her work also breaks boundaries, inspiring female filmmakers around the world. I cannot wait to host these women in Mallorca very soon!

“I am also very excited about our new Cinematography Focus. I have always loved that part of the filmmaking process and I know that this new platform will be a space for cinematographers to feel welcomed and to share their expert insight with our audience. And, a very special thanks to our new media partners in this venture – British Cinematographer and Camera & Light Magazine. Both partners bring a highly respected, industry-leading influence to EMIFF and it is sure to be a fruitful and successful partnership.”

The full EMIFF programme will be announced via a press conference in Mallorca in early October. Additional festival honourees, centrepiece feature films, and EMIFF’s planned panels and industry discussions for the 2022 edition are set to be announced in the coming weeks.