Miami, March 3. The Miami Film Festival begins its 40th edition this Friday, celebrating its consolidation as a showcase for global cinematography, with particular emphasis on that of Latin America and that produced by new filmmakers.
This year’s program includes more than 140 feature films, documentaries and shorts in all genres, from more than 30 countries, including a dozen world premieres and seven American premieres.
This is one of the most important offers in the history of this festival, as told EFE the director of programming, Lauren Cohen, who pointed out that this annual event organized by the Miami Dade College “provides opportunities for local and international filmmakers”.
He pointed to alliances with local institutions such as the Knight Foundation, which help “spotlight talented filmmakers here in Miami,” as well as featuring a dedicated category for locally developed productions.
Tonight, the curtain will be raised by actor Ray Romano, known for his character in the television series “Everybody Loves Raymond” and who comes to this city in South Florida (USA) to present his first film, “Somewhere in Queens”, of which he is the protagonist and co-author of the screenplay with Mark Stegemann.
Cohen highlighted the list of celebrities who will be participating this year, which is rounded out by Nicolas Cage, Diego Luna and John Leguizamo, as well as American writer Judy Blume and composer Nicholas Brittell.
BROAD AND REPRESENTATIVE CUBAN PRESENCE
The presence of Cuban cinematography is “broad and representative, with a range of themes never seen before in this festival”, according to EFE Alejandro Ríos, responsible for the selection of the more than ten productions linked to this island, of which They are part of the programming.
Viewers will be able to see an “interesting contrast” in feature films such as “El mundo de Nelsito”, by director Fernando Pérez (“Últimos Días en la Habana”), “Plantados”, by Lilo Vilaplana or “Havana Stories”, by Eliecer Jiménez Almeida.
Many touch on the theme of the meeting, which took place mostly in Miami, as Ríos explained, and with the government that emerged after the revolution on the island in the background.
“Virtually everything is independent cinema, which is almost the norm among Cuban filmmakers,” Ríos said.
Also noteworthy are the documentaries “Patria y vida: The power of music”, the first feature film by Spanish singer, composer and actress Beatriz Luengo; “Bebo,” directed by exiled Cuban filmmaker Ricardo Bacallao, and “El adiós de la esperanza,” by Miami-based Cuban actor Lieter Ledesma
From Latin America, Ríos highlights “As Bestas”, by Rodrigo Sorogoyen, recent winner of the Spanish Academy of Cinema’s Goya Awards, as well as “Little Flower”, by director Santiago Mitre, whose winner “Argentina, 1985 ” is nominated for an Oscar this year.
MARIMBA KNIGHT AWARD
Ríos also highlights the co-production “Vicenta B.”, by Cuban Carlos Lechuga, “which is banned in Cuba” and which in Miami competes for the most important prize of the festival, the Knight Marimba Award, to which the film by Sorogoyen and “Tori and Lokita”, by Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne.
Also competing in this category is the French film “The Gravity”, by Cédric Ido; the American “How to Blow Up a Pipeline”, by Daniel Goldhaber; the Iranian “Leila’s Brothers”, by Saeed Roustaee, and “The Happiest Man in the World”, by the Macedonian Teona Strugar Mitevska.
The festival will close with “The Lost King”, by Briton Stephen Frears and with Sally Hawkins and Steve Coogan, on Saturday March 11, one day before the screening of the last film of the event.
Miami’s quintessential movie event won’t have the iconic Tower Cinema on Calle Ocho in Little Havana, which opened in 1926, as its official venue this year.
The authorities of Miami have decided not to renew the concession of the tower made 2 decades ago to Miami Dade College, which has made it a cultural landmark not only to host the festival, but also to screen films in the language original throughout the year.