A little less than a year ago I had the pleasure of attending the 2025 installment of the Edinburgh International University Film Festival, watching the films under the “States of Mind” category. Today, I sat with Mafalda Lorijn, the Founder and CEO of the festival. Coming September of this year, EIUFF is back bigger than ever–spanning over five days, and with submissions pouring in already from candidates.
Starting as a project between friends to show their own films, EIUFF has skyrocketed into an organisation that now showcases works from all around the world. Founded in 2023 by Lorijn, the festival now holds a team of 35 employees; Lorijn described the operation as “definitely a group project,” specifically mentioning Borglarka Gereb, the Festival Director, who’s in charge of the everyday operations, as a key figure. Starting within The University of Edinburgh, EIUFF expanded to include all four universities in Edinburgh, becoming the Edinburgh Inter-University Film Festival. But, with the inpour of submissions and interest from around the world the team realized that students wanted to show and watch their films.
When asked what she attributes to the rapid growth of EIUFF, Lorijn said “I think the reason why it sort of boomed so quickly was because we are filling a gap in the market.” Focusing on showing university student-made, the submission criteria has a £5,000 cap for production budget in order to be eligible to participate, and encourages all forms of film genres.
Having been at the helm of the project from the beginning, I wondered how her perception of student-films had changed over her time working in the festival. She expressed that “I think, how creative young people can be and how much people really love the art” was the main takeaway she had, as she viewed incredible films with zero production budgets.
When asked about what is oftentimes looked for in selected films, Lorijn “we look for films that show film as a collective project,” emphasizing that aspects such as light and sound are viewed as critical components that should be recognized and awarded in EIUFF.
This year’s installation of the festival is coming with an expansion in its length, as well as events. Lorijn made note of the monthly trivia nights organized in Edinburgh, as well as workshops and networking events that will take place during the festival later this year. Venues and sponsors are still to be announced, but it is clear that EIUFF is coming back in a greater scale.
As for the future vision for the festival and how the founder has seen the organization evolve since its foundation, Lorijn expressed that her biggest desire for the festival’s future was to be able to include non-university students, saying its “quite important to me.” The prospect of funding student film is, according to Lorijn, is one that definitely exists as the festival grows.
Come September, we will be covering the programme for this year’s EIUFF and continue supporting student and young people’s cinema.
Image provided to The Student by EIUFF