If you have a phone, you can make a film. Many filmmakers have said and practised it. From Sean Baker’s Tangerine (2015) shot on an iPhone, that premiered at Sundance Film Festival and redefined indie cinema, to Steven Soderbergh’s psychological horror thriller Unsane (2018), which showcased the professional capabilities of smartphone cameras. From Zack Snyder’s 2017 short film Snow Steam Iron and 2019 sports drama High Flying Bird to Park Chan-wook’s co-directorial, the 2011 Night Fishing, with his brother Park Chan-kyong, films have been made on iPhones since long.
Closer home, Vishal Bhardwaj shot his short film Fursat, starring Ishaan Khattar and Wamiqa Gabbi, on iPhone 14 Pro. Tamil feature films Adadae (2019) to Agandan and Viduthalai (2023) have been shot on iPhones.
The Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI), organisers of the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival, started the MAMI Select: Filmed on iPhone initiative, part of the MAMI Year Round Programme, last year. They have now unveiled its carefully curated selection of four emerging cinematic talents. In the last edition, four films were completely shot on iPhone and edited on MacBook Pro, this year’s programme witnessed a significant expansion in the scope and depth of responses, covering diverse parts of the country. The last edition featured five filmmakers: Saurav Rai, Archana Atul Phadke, Faraz Ali, Saumyananda Sahi, and Prateek Vats, who were mentored by Rohan Sippy, Vikramaditya Motwane, Vishal Bhardwaj. Each filmmaker shot on iPhone 15 Pro Max and stitched the films together on MacBook Pro with the M3 Max chip, allowing them to edit in even the most remote locations. The eventual short films were Rai’s Crossing Borders, Phadke’s Mirage, Ali’s Óbur (Cloud), Sahi’s A New Life, Vats’ Jal Tu Jalaal Tu (based on an Anton Chekhov short story). The films are available to watch on MAMI’s YouTube channel.
This year’s programme’s selection represents a cross-section of India’s linguistic and cultural diversity, with Amrita Bagchi representing Hindi cinema, Rohin Raveendran Nair chosen for Malayalam cinema, Chanakya Vyas selected for Marathi cinema and Shalini Vijayakumar selected for Tamil cinema.
The panel of mentors, including the multi-faceted National Award recipient Konkona Sen Sharma, acclaimed Malayalam maverick Lijo Jose Pellissery, distinguished director-producer Vikramaditya Motwane and celebrated Tamil filmmaker Vetrimaaran, employed a comprehensive multi-tiered evaluation framework.
The programme provides comprehensive support through all phases of production, empowering participants in pushing the boundaries of creative storytelling, using cutting-edge, state-of-the-art technology, including iPhone 16 Pro Max to shoot the films and MacBook Pro to edit the films, complemented by a grant and invaluable mentorship from industry luminaries.
The culmination of this initiative will be marked by a premiere screening event in April 2025, featuring the final projects, ranging from 20 to 40 minutes in duration. Subsequently, these works will be made available on MAMI's YouTube platform, ensuring broad accessibility and audience engagement.
MAMI Festival Director Shivendra Singh Dungarpur says, “This programme is MAMI’s endeavour to support emerging filmmakers and give them a platform to showcase their work. We aim to expand MAMI Select every year so that we can develop a movement of young independent filmmakers who will be the future of Indian cinema.”
Chanakya Vyas
In 2023, he had written, directed and produced the short film Loo, about a domestic worker in an apartment building, who struggles to find a place to relieve herself, and discreetly uses the toilet in the home where she works, breaking unsaid norms between her and the employer. The Bengaluru-based playwright, director and teacher is former Artistic Director of Indian Ensemble, a Bengaluru-based multilingual theatre company.
He will be mentored by Konkona Sen Sharma. Vyas says, “I’m thrilled and honoured to be selected for MAMI Select - Filmed on iPhone. It is often a challenge to find support for short films and I'm extremely glad that my script has been selected. I look forward to making the maximum out of this opportunity. I am most excited about being mentored by Konkona Sen Sharma and bringing the film to life using the iPhone16 Pro Max!”
Amrita Bagchi
Amrita Bagchi is an actor, screenwriter, singer and director. She has acted in Mumbai Diaries, Stories by Rabindranath Tagore, Meri Pyaari Bindu, Music Teacher, Dust, Hasmukh, etc. She has acted in Faraz Ali’s Shoebox (2021) and directed the short film Succulent (2022). She co-wrote the script for Do Aur Do Pyaar (2024) and wrote the Bengali dialogues for Richie Mehta’s series Poacher (2023). She was in the art department on the anthology Modern Love Mumbai (2022).
She will be mentored by Vikramaditya Motwane. Bagchi says, “There are very rare opportunities that allow imagination and execution to meet - especially for filmmakers who are starting out. I am thrilled to have this chance to tell a story using technology that is flexible enough for a storyteller to dream big. I hope to learn a lot through this process and also from my mentor - it’s a unique training ground. Incredibly grateful to MAMI for this program!”
Rohin Raveendran Nair
The FTII cinematography graduate has, so far, directed three short films and was an episodic director on the Netflix series Black Warrant produced by Applause Entertainment and Andolan Films. Previously, Rohin also served as an assistant director and second unit DOP on both seasons of the popular Netflix series Sacred Games, directed by Vikramaditya Motwane and Anurag Kashyap. Rohin’s short film, The Booth (2019), starring Amruta Subhash, and produced by Motwane (Andolan Films) won Best Short Film award at Kashish Mumbai International Queer Film Festival and Signs Film Festival (Kerala), and is available on MUBI. In 2022, the screenplay of the Hindi horror feature, Smart City, co-written by Rohin won the script development fund of the Busan International Film Festival.
He will be mentored by Lijo Jose Pellissery for MAMI Select programme. Raveendran says, “It’s so humbling to be given an opportunity to direct a short film, supported by a mentor whose films have given me the courage to dream outside the box. MAMI continues to lead the way in caring and nurturing the next generation of filmmakers. And there couldn't be a more liberating experience than shooting an entire short film on iPhone 16 Pro Max which has a proven benchmark of great films and short films filmed on it by the masters of cinema.”
Shalini Vijayakumar
Tamil actress Shalini Vijayakumar is known for Romeo (2024), Achcham Madam Naanam Payirppu (2022) and, as an assistant director on For the Love of a Man (2015). She will be mentored by Tamil director Vetrimaaran.
Vijayakumar says, “I’m super kicked about being one of the four filmmakers on this programme. It’s an incredible initiative that opens the door for new, unexplored talent like us. The fact that MAMI has consciously made space for regional talent in regional languages is something I’ll be truly grateful for. What a privilege it is to be given the best resources, the best mentoring and opening up the opportunity to explore newer ways of film making with iPhone 16 Pro Max that too in the language I am most comfortable with. I can’t wait to see what this process holds for me.”
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