There is so much going on in Cannes this week. Beginning today, The 76th annual festival gets underway, featuring the likes of Spike Lee, Brie Larson, Pedro Almodóvar, Michael Douglas and so many more. This also marks the 5th anniversary of the French Riviera Film Festival, a fabulous short film festival founded by Gotham Chatham and Nicole Muj. During the global celebration of film, Reel 360 News will spotlight some of the talented filmmakers, like Eva Lanska, who have descended upon Cannes.
Eva is an emerging, internationally acclaimed Israel-based artist, screenwriter and film director. Having first started as a journalist and novelist, she moved on to explore a different approach to storytelling and became a film director. She pursued film studies in Paris and London.
Her documentary and fictional films won her various prestigious awards, including California Film Awards, Best Picture Award at the Los Angeles Film Festival, the 25th annual Washington Jewish Film Festival, Los Angeles Cinema Festival of Hollywood, the New York World Film Festival, Cannes International Independent Film Festival, European Cinematography AWARDS, Carmarthen Bay Film Festival BAFTA Cymru Qualifying, and many others.
Her art deals with such issues as women’s rights, interracial and interreligious relations, domestic abuse, and animal rights – themes that are inherently expansive and internally paradoxical. Her narratives are intense and are meant to evoke familiar-yet-intangible associations.
What’s your origin story?
I was lucky because I had the opportunity to gain work experience in many different countries. I was born on the territory of the former USSR, and then my family moved to Israel. I studied in Paris and London. At the moment, my art studio is open in Tel Aviv, and I live between England and Israel.
How did you get into the film industry?
Cinema has always been my main passion and working in the film industry has been my main dream since childhood. After studying at the London Film Academy, I sent my student film “Depended” to several film festivals. The film was received well and won ten film festivals. It gave me a good start and the added confidence to assure me that I was on the right track.
Who were your mentors?
My main mentor was and still is – books. I read a lot since childhood. I especially prefer the English classics. I would really like our children to read books more than spend time on their social media. Since it is only books that help us to form non-standard and creative thinking. In terms of directing, I am a big fan of Italian cinema – Antonioni and Bertolucci are my favorite directors.
While there will be others, what do you consider your biggest achievement to date?
I don’t follow short-term fashion trends. I don’t watch TV or read the news
since this is information that distracts me from real life and to me, sets false superficial directions and goals. Everything that is necessary for the creative process is in internal sources and not in external.
I am currently working on a new script for a documentary that will be a work revealing the achievements of strong, talented and independent women. In one of my previous films Little French Fish, I explored the cultural differences in interethnic marriages. We received more than 20 international awards for this film, including for best director, which is really nice.
REELated:
What drives you in your work?
Passion for cinema/desire to create beauty/ambition and desire to win / time.
Since childhood, I realized the value of the concept of time. My first video performance, which I created at the age of 19, was called There is No Time, and received more than one million views.
I think the main way to get ahead of time is to be able to make decisions quickly. If you get a chance, take it and don’t hesitate, for a chance is given only to those who deserve it, and such cases happen only several times in a lifetime. Also, constant self-education gives you the opportunity to be half a step ahead.
What is the biggest challenge for you in your industry today?
I think this is discrimination against nationality, gender, and skin color.
Big film budgets get the same faces and new talents, if they are not family members, have little chance.
Coffee, Lunch or Happy Hour. Name a famous person you would like to attend each function with.
Coffee – Banksy – a man with very out-of-the-box thinking. It’s intriguing.
Lunch – Martin Scorsese I think that one lunch with this talented person can give me so much energy and knowledge that is not possible to get in any university.
Happy Hour – This is the time I like to spend in a romantic setting with my beloved man and I wouldn’t exchange him for anything.
Tell us about your latest project.
I hope that we will be able to show this work during the Festival de Cannes.
How can we follow you on Social Media?
@evalanskanft
Colin Costello is the West Coast Editor of Reel 360. Contact him at colin@reel360.com or follow him on Twitter at @colinthewriter1
