Audience Award Winner: Belén

Miami Dade College’s Miami Film Festival announced that Centerpiece title Belén is the winner of the Miami Film Festival GEMS 2025 Audience Award. Directed by Dolores Fonzi, Amazon MGM Studios’ Belén is a movie based on the true story chronicling the harrowing case of Julieta, a young woman falsely accused of infanticide, and Soledad Deza (Dolores Fonzi), the fearless lawyer who takes on the highly controversial, explosive case.

First Runner-Up: Nuremberg

Festival audiences chose another Centerpiece title, Sony Pictures Classics’ Nuremberg, as first runner-up. “Nuremberg” follows the story of the Allied prosecutors, led by the unyielding Robert H. Jackson, as they seek justice for the atrocities of the Holocaust. As the Nuremberg trials begin, a U.S. Army psychiatrist becomes locked in a tense psychological duel with former Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring. The film stars Russell Crowe, Rami Malek, and Michael Shannon. 

Second Runner-Ups: She Dances & The President’s Cake

The second runner-up was a tie between two directorial debuts: Rick Gomez’s She Dances and Hasan Hadi’s The President’s Cake. 

She Dances, which stars Steve Zahn alongside his real-life daughter Audrey Zahn, follows a father and daughter as they attempt to repair their relationship and reconcile a shared tragedy against the backdrop of the “Young Miss Southeast Regional Dance Finals.” The film also co-stars Ethan Hawke, who was honored at the Festival with the Variety Virtuoso Award. 

Sony Pictures Classics’ The President’s Cake follows 9-year-old Lamia, who has been selected to prepare a cake to celebrate the President of Iran’s birthday. In a landscape of fear and scarcity, where basic ingredients are nearly impossible to find, Lamia sets out on a determined journey throughout the big city in search of eggs, flour, and sugar. 

Documentary Audience Award Winner: Canceled: The Paula Deen Story

For the first time, the audience has also chosen a Documentary Audience Award Winner: “Canceled: The Paula Deen Story,” directed by Billy Corben. The film revisits the meteoric rise and sudden downfall of one of America’s most iconic celebrity chefs. Paula Deen built a Southern culinary empire becoming a beloved TV personality. But in 2013, her admission to using a racial slur in the past ignited a media firestorm. Without formal investigation or due process, she became one of the first public figures to face full-blown “cancellation,” transforming into a lightning rod in the emerging culture wars and a symbol of social media mob justice.