Four talented Indian filmmakers push creative boundaries, showing how iPhone 16 Pro Max does movies right and demonstrating how Apple’s latest technology democratizes high-quality filmmaking, Apple said Tuesday in a feature story. The emerging auteurs’ work is part of the 2025 MAMI Select: Filmed on iPhone program.
Emerging filmmakers showcase how iPhone 16 Pro Max does movies right in MAMI Select program
Now in its second year, the initiative from the Mumbai Academy of the Moving Image (MAMI) pairs emerging directors with mentors from India’s film industry to create innovative short films using iPhone 16 Pro Max and MacBook Pro with M4 Max chips.
According to award-winning filmmaker Konkona Sen Sharma, one of this year’s mentors, the iPhone’s compact yet powerful technology allows directors to “bypass the conventions of mainstream filmmaking.” She believes that with this technology, “All you need is a great idea, and the guts and determination to follow through with it.”
The program’s success showed in the spotlight when two of last year’s participating films won 2025 Critics’ Choice Awards India in categories including Best Short Film, Best Director and Best Writing.
MAMI festival director Shivendra Singh Dungarpur praised this year’s filmmakers for their “unique voices” that represent four different languages and regions of India. Fellow mentor Lijo Jose Pellissery, known for Malayalam features like Ee.Ma.Yau. and Jallikattu, described the participants as “very passionate people with important stories to tell” who are “pushing their own limits with fantastic results.”
How filmmakers take advantage of iPhone 16 Pro Max features
Each filmmaker discovered unique ways to use the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s advanced capabilities, as described below.
Creating claustrophobia with Cinematic mode
Photo: Apple
Amrita Bagchi, whose previous work won the Grand Jury Prize at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles, used Cinematic mode for her psychological thriller Tinctoria. The film, inspired by Bengal’s 1859 indigo revolt, follows a fashion mogul haunted by the ghosts of colonial-era indigo farmers.
“We’re tracking bubbles and plastic sheets flying through the air, and the depth of field is so clean,” Bagchi explained. “Just like it’s shot on a huge, high-budget cinematic camera.”
She notes that her “very ambitious production” only came about because of iPhone’s flexibility.
“With iPhone 16 Pro Max, I can constantly create and improvise,” she said. “That edginess of movement, it’s like visual rap.”
ProRes brings Kerala’s coastal landscapes to life
Photo: Apple
Rohin Raveendran Nair, whose credits include Netflix shows Sacred Games and Black Warrant, returned to his roots in Kerala for Kovarty. It’s a magical realism love story between typewriter and typist.
“Using iPhone’s small form factor, I could place the camera inside the typewriter and capture its POV,” Nair explained. This creative placement, combined with practical effects, helps bring the typewriter to life as a character.
Nair framed POV shots in a 4:3 aspect ratio to mimic a sheet of paper, contrasting them with wider 2:1 ratio shots of Kerala’s backwater landscapes. He praised the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s ability to capture “rich detail with ProRes Log in all sorts of lighting situations,” from sunny days to gloomy weather.
Action mode delivers stability in chaotic environments
Photo: Apple
Educator and filmmaker Chanakya Vyas created Mangya, a coming-of-age tale about an 11-year-old boy and his pet rooster. Inspired by a newspaper article about an avian flu outbreak and his own experience losing a pet, Vyas captured the emotional journey of letting go.
“There’s no time to mount the camera on a traditional gimbal,” Vyas says about a critical 1,000-foot tracking shot filmed just before dawn. “But with Action mode, I could even shoot multiple takes. The stabilization is just so impressive.”
He also highlighted the iPhone’s audio capabilities in India’s noisy environment.
“We’re able to layer footsteps, the rooster crowing, and the whirring sound of a fan with distinct clarity with the studio-quality mics on iPhone 16 Pro Max,” he said. “The native audio is that good in its bit rate and cadence.”
Slow-motion captures emotional expression
Photo: Apple
Shalini Vijayakumar’s Seeing Red tells the story of women in a 1980s Tamil household expressing repressed rage. She subverted traditionally masculine visual techniques from Tamil cinema.
“I call these the ‘mass shots’ where the heroes walk dramatically in slow motion,” she said. “I’m doing that for the women in 4K120 fps, and it looks fabulous.”
For more intimate compositions, Vijayakumar relied on iPhone 16 Pro Max’s telephoto capabilities.
“Using the 5x Telephoto lens, I’m able to place the men in front as they discuss the fate of the women in the background,” she noted. “There’s so much storytelling in that one frame through that particular lens.”
Apple ecosystem enhances post-production workflow
Photo: Apple
The integration between iPhone 16 Pro Max and MacBook Pro with M4 Max chip provided significant workflow advantages. Mentor Vikramaditya Motwane noted that “shooting and editing within the Apple family of products gives you a stellar advantage: speed.”
MacBook Pro’s performance when working with demanding tasks impressed Bagchi. Those include overlaying industry-standard color spaces on ProRes Log footage.
“It’s like a rocket machine,” she said. “On a tight schedule I can just shoot at 4K120 fps on my iPhone, and still have tremendous flexibility to change the pacing during the edit on my MacBook Pro.”
For outdoor editing sessions, Vyas relied on his MacBook Pro’s nano-texture display to reduce glare while reviewing footage.
“For a director, the most important thing is how the footage will turn out. Thankfully the Liquid Retina XDR display on my MacBook Pro gives me an accurate representation of the actual colors we will see in the finished version,” he said.
So the four MAMI Select short films are now available to watch on the MAMI YouTube channel, showcasing not only emerging talent but also the democratizing effect of professional-grade tools in compact, accessible packages.
Source: Apple
David Snow, an expert on Apple hardware and software, writes on a variety of technological and cultural topics for Cult of Mac. They include Apple news, technology buying guides, and features about computer setups and Apple TV shows and movies.
With 30 years of experience covering technology and other subjects, he has written and edited for numerous print and online publications, including CMP Media, TechTV.com, CNET, Wired News, Red Herring magazine, Law.com, The National Law Journal and Law Technology News magazine. Among other roles, he served as executive editor of the Law.com network of websites and editorial director, technology, for ALM Media.
Snow graduated with a B.A. from Syracuse University with majors in magazine journalism and psychology. While there, he worked as a reporter for The Daily Orange newspaper and associate editor of Equal Time magazine.
Founder of the blog At the Waterline, he can be reached on X (formerly Twitter) via @atthewaterline and on Mastodon via @dsnow.
