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The 12th Atlàntida Mallorca Film Fest (AMFF) in Spain is reeling from a host of luminaries led by Neil Jordan, Isabelle Huppert and Ukraine’s Sergei Loznitsa who will be rewarded with emcee honors.
Jordan attends the festival’s grand opening to receive his award and also presents his Oscar-winning “The Crying Game,” which marks his 30th year since his acclaimed debut. Among the other festival headliners, Gaspar Noé (“Vortex”), Annie Ernaux (“Les Super 8 ans”) and Alain Guiraudie (“Nobody’s Hero”) present their respective films.
Launched in 2010 by Spain’s leading independent film streaming platform Filmin, the festival opens on July 24 with “Ramona”, the feature debut of Madrid-based Andrea Bagney, shot mostly in black and white on 16mm. The festival will end on July 31 with Goya-winning Kike Maillo’s docu-feature “El Falsificador” about Catalan artist Oswald Aulestia Bach, considered one of the greatest art forgers in history. In total, the AMFF programmed 70 films and 12 concerts as well as round tables and professional events.
The screening of “El Falsificador” is preceded by a piano concert composed by the Spanish singer-songwriter Amaia for the festival, which has given itself the mandate to intertwine music, literature and cinema.
“We don’t just present concerts for fun,” said Jaume Ripoll, festival director and co-founder of Filmin. “By scheduling a film before or after a concert, we’re giving people a chance to see a film they wouldn’t otherwise see,” he said, quoting last year’s edition during the screening. of “Mogul Mowgli”, co-written and starring Riz Ahmed, about a British-Pakistani rapper. “We programmed one of the most famous rap singers in the country, and the audience of about 1,000 people who came to see the artist also saw the film that they would not have had the chance to see. otherwise and was blown away,” he recalled, adding, “When the film premiered on Filmin, it was one of our biggest hits of the year.”
Introducing the literary component, Ripoll said, “We don’t want directors talking about their films, rather we bring in experts to discuss the themes of the film.”
By presenting the Loznitsa documentary “The Natural History of Destruction”, we want to open a discussion among experts on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, for example”, he said. “This could then lead to more interest in Loznitsa and her work,” he noted. The festival also features author Patricia Highsmith in Eva Vitija’s documentary “Loving Highsmith,” which is complemented by a panel discussion hosted by Oscar-winning Spanish director Fernando Trueba.
The Atlàntida Mallorca is in many ways a pioneer. It started as an online event – the second of its kind in the world, only after MyFrenchFilmFestival, says Ripoll. It introduced a hybrid format seven years ago, long before the pandemic forced many festivals down the same path. It continues in a hybrid way: a week on the Balearic island of Mallorca from July 24 to 31, followed by a month on Filmin from July 24 to August 24. “We wanted to stage the festival in unique spaces, not just in cinemas. , but in emblematic places of Mallorca such as an old prison, museums of history and contemporary art, a medieval cloister, a castle. It adds uniqueness to the viewing experience,” said Ripoll.
This year, the AMFF is introducing an official competitive section with a unique set of jurors made up of both professionals – – and film students. The selection of 13 titles vying for a cash prize of $10,000 reflects the festival’s driving theme of the dilemmas and conflicts facing new generations. These are led by Finland’s Aino Suni’s vibrant psychological thriller “Heartbeast”; “So far, everything goes”, the first film of the Catalan actor Francesc Cuellar; Two-time Locarno winner “Soul of a Beast” and the Holocaust impact animated feature film based on a graphic novel “My Father’s Secrets,” by Vera Belmont.
The festival also includes the LGBTIQ+ sidebar led by gems such as Zaida Carmona’s Eric Rohmer-inspired romantic comedy “La Amiga de mi Amiga”; the documentary “Fail Better” by Eva Garrido; Lebanese filmmaker Eliane Raheb’s “Miguel’s War”, winner of the Best Teddy Film award at the Berlinale, tells the story of a Lebanese exile in Spain, Miguel Jelelaty, who escaped gay oppression in his native Lebanon; and “Mi Vacio y Yo” by Adrian Silvestre, winner of the special jury prize at the Malaga festival on the gender change journey of its subject, Raphaëlle.
The Atlàntida Premiere section highlights the power of the festival as a whole, picking up some of the landmark debuts and new films of the past 12 months, some high-profile, others rather overlooked: Albert Serra’s Cannes competitor “Pacification,” whose screening is one of the events of the festival, specifies Ripoll; ‘She Will’, Charlotte Colbert’s triumphant addition to the British canon of distinguished female genre film directors; ‘Runner’, the second feature film by Lithuanian filmmaker Andrius Blaževičius, a “dynamic but deeply felt drama”, according to Variety exam; and “99 Moons” by Jan Gassmann, which stood out this year at the ACID in Cannes.
With the pandemic somewhat at bay, the AMFF expects record turnover. Last year it attracted 12,000 in-person viewers while its online version registered 750,000, historic figures for a private cultural event.
John Hopewell contributed to this article.
Official competition
“Heartbeast”, Aino Suni (France, Finland, Germany)
“Farha”, Darin J. Sallam (Jordan)
“Magnetic beats”, Vincent Maël Cardona (France)
“Code of Silence”, Francesco Costabile (Italy)
“Rhino”, Oleg Sentsov (Ukraine)
“The hill where the lionesses roar”, Luàna Bajrami (France)
“Bruno Reidal, confession of a murderer”, Vincent Le Port (France)
“Other people”, Aleksandra Terpinska (Poland)
“So far so good”, Francesc Cuéllar (Spain)
“Softie”, Samuel Théis (France)
“The Soul of a Beast”, Lorenz Merz (Switzerland)
“Runner”, Andrius Blazevicius (Lithuania)
“My father’s secrets”, Vera Belmont (France)
Atlantida Premiere
On the site
“Leave No Trace”, Jan P. Matuszyński, (Poland)
“The Score”, Malachi Smyth (UK)
“Like in paradise”, Tea Lindeburg (Denmark)
“She Will”, Charlotte Colbert (UK)
“Pacification”, Albert Serra (Spain, France, Switzerland)
“Vortex”, Gaspar Noé (France)
“Kung Fu Zohra”, Mabrouk El Mechri (France)
“Nobody’s Hero”, Alain Guiraudie (France)
“Emigrants”, Erik Poppe (Sweden)
Atlantida Premiere
On line
“After Blue”, Bertrand Mandico (France)
“Animals”, Nabil Ben Yadir (Belgium)
“Atlantis”, Yuri Ancarani, (Italy)
“Secret Cop”, Hannes Þór Halldórsson (Iceland)
“Earwig”, Lucile Hadzihalilovic (France, United Kingdom)
“Girl photo”, Alli Haapasalo (Finland)
“Kung Fu Zohra”, Mabrouk El Mechri (France)
“Matar à la madre”, Omar Ayuso (Spain)
“She Will”, Charlotte Colbert (UK)
“The Score”, Malachi Smyth (UK)
“99 moons”, Jan Gassmann (Switzerland)
