By Justin James, Miami Future Cinema Critic So far, family, loss and dysfunction are popular topics amongst independent filmmakers at the 30thAnnual Miami International Film Festival. As different as these films are, these stories particularly challenge us to better understand who we are as filmgoers and reassess our own ways of being when we leave […]

By: Juan Barquin With a cold front moving in over Miami, there’s no place better for me to be than inside a dark movie theater full of people. So it seems the opportunity to be a member for the Miami Future Cinema Critics (MFCC) jury came just at the right time. Running around Downtown and Miami Beach has […]

Brady Corbet is one of the most exciting, independent talents of his generation. His first appearance to attract notable attention was in Gregg Araki’s child sex abuse drama Mysterious Skin (2004), filmed when Corbet was only 15 years old. Afterwards, he was invited by Austrian director Michael Haneke to star in Haneke’s American remake of […]

Opening Night Film: Twenty Feet from Stardom Awards Night Film: Venus and Serena Miami International Film Festival (MIFF) unveiled its extraordinary 2013 lineup this morning at MDC’s historic Freedom Tower via a LIVE streaming feed as executive director, Jaie Laplante, spoke of milestones not only from the past but about forging ahead with new ones. […]

River Phoenix (“Boy”) in Dark Blood MIFF 2013 will play host to the North American debut of Dark Blood, the final film made by River Phoenix, 20 years after its inception. Dark Blood, was 80% complete when the young actor died of an overdose in 1993. In 1999, original director George Sluizer rescued the film […]

Breaking news! The Artist and the Model (El artista y la modela) received 13 Goya nominations this morning, including Best Picture and Best Director for our Tribute honoree, acclaimed Spanish director Fernando Trueba.  Miami International Film Festival is proud to be hosting the US PREMIERE of The Artist and the Model at this year’s 30th […]

The new era of accessible digital technology has unleashed a revolution of independent cinema within Cuba.  One of the most significant new films from this movement, as reported in this weekend’s The New York Times, is Carlos Lechuga’s debut feature film, Molasses (Melaza), which tells a story of social degradation in a sugar town whose […]

Miami International Film Festival (MIFF) and the Jonathan Levine Gallery, who represents Invader in NYC, hosted the first public appearance of the anonymous Paris-based artist Invader, known for his street art of mosaic tiles inspired by characters from video gaming’s primitive 8-bit years of the late ’70s.  On stage at the Colony Theatre, MIFF’s executive […]

MIFF 2012’s Knight Documentary Competition film, Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, is now available for download on iTunes and Blu-ray and DVD via Amazon. First-time director Klayman gained unprecedented access to Ai while working as a journalist in China. Ai Weiwei is China’s most famous international artist, and its most outspoken domestic critic. Against a backdrop […]

Following its US Premiere gala at MIFF 2012, Heleno opens at MDC’s Tower Theater and O Cinema Miami Shores on Friday, Dec. 7th.   The life of Brazilian soccer star Heleno De Freitas, the pre-Pele idol of Rio de Janeiro sports fans, who shone briefly but brightly through the 1940s, is brilliantly suited to the classic, […]

Breaking news!  New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC) has just announced its 2012 award winners and congratulations goes to Rachel Weisz who garnered the Best Actress prize. Weisz lit up the big screen at the Olympia Theater at the Gusman Center for the Performing Arts during MIFF 2012’s gala screening of The Deep Blue Sea. […]

The highly spirited and sensual Angels of Sex, by Xavier Villaverde, which had its World Premiere at MIFF 2012, will be available On Demand & VOD on Dec. 4th and hitting theaters on Dec. 7th! Carla (Astrid Bergès-Frisbey, who played the beautiful mermaid in the most recent Pirates of the Caribbean blockbuster) and Bruno (Llorenç […]

Scene from Madrid, 1987 MIFF 2012’s Madrid, 1987, by David Trueba, will return to MDC’s Tower Theater on Saturday, Nov. 24 at 6:20 PM  followed by a Q&A with producer Jessica Berman.  In the film, Miguel (José Sacristan), a veteran newspaper columnist in his 70s with a world-weary tone and the libido of a much […]

Miami International Film Festival (MIFF) will celebrate a milestone year next March 1st – 10th with Career Achievement Tributes honoring two remarkable directors: renowned Swedish writer-director Lasse Hallström, (My Life as a Dog, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape), and Spanish producer, writer and Oscar-winning director Fernando Trueba (Belle Epoque, Chico & Rita). This marks the first […]

Tuyo’s exquisite fusion of new world flavors Ultimat Opening Night Party Celebrate the kick-off of the 30th Anniversary Miami International Film Festival, on Friday, March 1, 2013, where MIFF transforms the historic Dupont Building into an elegant playground with a sumptuous selection of food stations from the finest local restaurants, an endless flow of wine […]

Miami International Film Festival (MIFF) is launching a new Miami Future Cinema Critics (MFCC) program in celebration of its 30th anniversary (March 1-10, 2013) to provide Miami-based film aficionados with a fascinating opportunity to discover new cinema – outside of the roughly 600 films that are commercially released in the U.S. annually, and learn new […]

‘Ben Lee: Catch My Disease’ director, Amiel Courtin-Wilson Director Amiel Courtin-Wilson‘s labor of love, Ben Lee: Catch My Disease, featured in MIFF 2012’s Knight Documentary Competition category, is now available for pre-order on Amazon and will be released on DVD and via digital/video-on-demand outlets, including iTunes on November 6th.  Nearly a decade in the making, […]

‘First Position’ Q&A with director Bess Kargman at Regal South Beach Cinemas MIFF 2012’s Knight Documentary Competition hit, First Position, directed by Bess Kargman, will be released on DVD tomorrow, October 30th via Amazon, iTunes and will also be available on VOD. Kargman profiles six young dancers as they prepare for a chance to enter […]

 l to r: City of Miami Beach commissioner Michael Gongora, Jaie Laplante, Julio Jorquera Arriagada, Consul General of Chile Juan Luis Nilo, Andres Castillo As part of MIFF’s monthly dive-in film series at W South Beach in 2011, Chilean drama Mi último round (aka My Last Round), written and directed by Julio Jorquera Arriagada, will […]

Scene from Pedro Almodóvar’s Dark Habits (MIFF 1984) Miami International Film Festival will commemorate it’s 30th edition with a 29-day retrospective counting down one film from each year of the Festival’s fascinating history until Opening Night on March 1, 2013. The showcase will kick off on January 26, 2013 at MDC’s Tower Theater with a […]