Precious Gem Award

The Precious Gem Award has been Miami Film Festival’s signature award since it was introduced in 2015. It is reserved for honoring the truly special stars of the art form, those one-of-a-kind artists whose contributions to cinema are lasting and unforgettable. Miami values are shining brilliance and immeasurable rarity, thus the ‘Precious Gem’ is the perfect symbol for our highest appreciation, our greatest gratitude, to those artists who have both entertained us and brought us greater understanding of our human condition.

2022 Recipients

Penélope Cruz – Precious Gem Icon Award

Penélope Cruz, Oscar-nominated for Parallel Mothers, is the recipient of Miami Film Festival’s 2022 Precious Gem Icon Award. The Spanish star and longtime Pedro Almodovar collaborator earned a best lead actress Goya Award nomination for Parallel Mothers, in which she plays a photographer involved in a maternity ward mix-up who is separately arranging for the excavation of a Franco-era mass grave in her home village. Cruz’s credits include Pain & GloryVolverBroken EmbracesLive Flesh and All About My MotherLoving Pablo, The Queen Of Spain, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Nine, To Rome with Love, All The Pretty Horses, and Belle Epoque. CLICK HERE to watch Cruz accepting her award at the 39th Annual Miami Film Festival Awards Ceremony.

 

Ryûsuke Hamaguchi – Precious Gem Award

After his early international successes Happy Hour (2015) and Asako I & II (2018), Ryûsuke Hamaguchi became the face of a new wave of Japanese cinema in 2021 with two films – Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, which won the Jury Grand Prize at Berlin Film Festival and Drive My Car, which won Best Screenplay at Cannes and became the most critically acclaimed film of the year, winning more than 50 major prizes and becoming Japan’s selection for the 94th Academy Awards.

 

Ramin Bahrani – Precious Gem Award

Iranian-American filmmaker Ramin Bahrani’s films have pursued a line of independent questioning and foregrounding diverse characters since his debut, Man Push Cart (2005), made a heady debut at Venice Film Festival and earned comparisons to Scorsese, Bresson, and the Italian neo-realists. His subsequent films include Chop Shop (2007), Goodbye Solo (2008), 99 Homes (2014), and The White Tiger (2021), for which he received an Academy Award nomination. In 2022, Bahrani unveiled a career-first – his first feature-length documentary, the acclaimed 2nd Chance, which screened at the 2022 Miami Film Festival.

2021 RECIPIENTS

Filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar – Precious Gem Master Award

Actress Rita Moreno – Precious Gem Icon Award

Actor Javier Cámara – Precious Gem Award

 

2020 RECIPIENTS

Actress: Amy Ryan
Actress: Emma Suárez.

2019 RECIPIENT

Actress Patricia Clarkson

2018 RECIPIENTS

Filmmaker Carlos Saura (PRECIOUS GEM MASTER)

Actress Isabelle Huppert (PRECIOUS GEM ICON)Filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius (MARQUEE AWARD)

Filmmaker Paul Schrader (MARQUEE AWARD)

Producers Kevin Chinoy and Francesca Silvestri (The Florida Project)

Filmmaker Mateo Gil (MARQUEE AWARD)

2017 RECIPIENTS

Actress Rossy de Palma (Tribute/Evening With only)

Actress Bárbara Lennie (Spain)

Film Society Platinum Member Silvia Rios Fortun, for 34 consecutive years of supporting Miami Film Festival.

2016 RECIPIENT

Filmmaker Marcos Carnevale (Argentina)

2015 RECIPIENT

Don Francisco on the occasion of the release of The 33, for his humanitarian efforts to help the trapped Chilean miners dramatized in the film. Awarded in the presence and with the support of stars Kate del Castillo and Rodrigo Santoro.