The Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI) which organises the annually held Mumbai Film Festival has announced the second edition of its MAMI Select – Filmed on iPhone initiative. This initiative helps support and showcase the work of four new filmmakers from across India. To create their short films, the program will provide each selected filmmaker with a grant, an iPhone 16 Pro Max to shoot the film and a MacBook Pro laptop to edit the film.

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Expanding on the success of its inaugural edition, the 2025 program intensifies its commitment to democratising filmmaking and cultivating emerging talent from across India's diverse regions. 

What is MAMI Select?

MAMI Select has expanded its reach in this edition, opening a nationwide call for applications to discover four emerging filmmakers from diverse Indian regions. This initiative will showcase the richness of regional cinema through four short films, each between 20 and 40 minutes long and presented in four languages: Hindi, Malayalam, Marathi, and Tamil. 

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The final selection of four filmmakers will be mentored by an illustrious panel, including multiple National Award-winning actor and director Konkona Sen Sharma, highly acclaimed Malayalam filmmaker Lijo Jose Pellissery, eminent director and producer Vikramaditya Motwane and renowned Tamil filmmaker Vetri Maaran. These mentors will guide these filmmakers from pre-production to post-production, and help push the boundaries of storytelling using cutting-edge technology.

Once complete, these films will get a premiere at a special screening event, followed by their release on the MAMI YouTube channel.

Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, Festival Director, MAMI states, “As we embark on a new year with a new inclusive vision for MAMI to encourage independent cinema and fresh voices, I am delighted to announce MAMI Select – Filmed on iPhone where for the first time we have opened the call for applications across the country to make films in four regional languages. Selected filmmakers will have the incredible opportunity to work closely with the four outstanding mentors that we have carefully selected from different regional film industries, each of whom are celebrated filmmakers in their own right, making films in diverse languages. I would like to thank our four mentors – Vikramaditya Motwane, Lijo Jose Pellissery, Konkona Sen Sharma and Vetri Maaran for generously agreeing to make time to mentor these filmmakers.”

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Vikramaditya Motwane states, “I am delighted to be returning as a mentor for the MAMI shot on iPhone venture. I was completely blown away by the quality of the storytelling and the technical finesse of the short films last year and I cannot wait to see what kind of magic the new batch of filmmakers create this year.”

“I am excited to partner with MAMI on this initiative especially given its focus on enabling and providing a platform to fresh young filmmaking voices,” said Konkona. 

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Lijo Jose Pellisserry states, “MAMI Select – Filmed on iPhone is an excellent initiative to foster the talent of budding filmmakers across India. Given the diversity of Indian cinema, I was so happy to hear that the aim of this programme is to identify and support filmmakers from different regions of India and to give them a platform to show their films. I am honoured that I was invited to be a mentor for the Malayalam film and I look forward to my interactions with the filmmaker and sharing my knowledge and experience.”

Filmmakers can now submit their entries. The deadline for these submissions is January 19.