Miami International Film Festival

The Miami International Film Festival is the largest and most prominent film festival focusing on Ibero-American film in the country. It was founded in 1983 by film programmer, Nat Chediak through his non-profit organization, the Film Society of Miami. During its first year, Chediak showcased 26 films. In 1999, the festival was taken over by Florida International University to increase its size and outreach through more films and venues. In 2003, Miami Dade College became the main sponsor of the Miami International Film Festival.

Because of its geographic focus, the festival has become a premiere gateway for Latin American films to enter into the US market, but also for American audiences to discover film talent coming from Latin America. The main focus of the film festival is to bridge cultural understanding, broaden horizons and encourage the development of artistic talent from both established and emerging Ibero-American filmmakers.

The Miami International Film Festival takes place in March for a period of ten days in various venues in Miami including Coral Gable Art Cinema, Colony Theater, Gusman Center for the Performing Arts, O Cinema, the Miami Beach Cinematheque and Tower Theater. The festival is becoming increasingly popular attracting over 70,000 attendees and more than 400 filmmakers, producers, talent and industry professionals. The festival showcases a wide array of international independent films mostly from Latin America and other Iberian countries.

Since beginning in 1983, the festival has shown thousands of films from dozens of countries. In 2012, the Miami International Film Festival showcased over 100 films from 35 countries such as Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia, Argentina and Chile. Among these were 7 World Premiere Features, 5 International Premieres, 4 World Premiere Shorts, 10 North American Premieres and 10 U.S Premieres. Some of the film categories which are present in the festival are; Cuba, Films for Youth, Florida Focus, Doc-You-Up, America the beautiful and From the Vault.

The Miami International Film Festival is known not only for its wide variety of film screenings, but also for its many competitions. Some of the main competition are; the Knight Foundation Ibero-American Competition and World Competition, the Knight Foundation Dox Competition, the University of Miami Shorts Competition, the Jordan Alexander Ressler Screenwriting Award, the Venemovies Audience Award for Best Feature Film and Best Short Film, the Florida Focus Competition Cineslam for college filmmakers in Miami and for high school filmmakers in collaboration with the Miami Coalition for the Homeless, finally the Lexus Pursuit of Perfection Award for those who have made significant artistic contributions to the community of filmmaking which is given during the festival's Closing Night Gala at the Historic Moore Building.

During the festival, there are also many workshops, panel discussions, Q&A Sessions and other events such as the REEL Education Seminar Series which teaches how to break into the film industry. Another recently added feature of the Miami International Film Festival is Festival Village, which allows beachgoers and tourists to get free access to some of the festival's best short films but also previews of other features every evening in South Beach.

There are many ways to get tickets to films during the Miami International Film Festival. Patrons can purchase tickets directly from the festival's website, or call 305-405-MIFF. They can also get tickets to all the festival's film screenings from the main box office at the Regal South Beach Cinemas on Lincoln Road, or they can buy tickets from the festival's other venues, but will only be able to get tickets for films being screened there.

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Miami International Film Festival